ESPP/RSU issues on Turbo Tax 2020

[ryan-p-abraham]

I spent two hours on the phone with first level customer help  and then a second level CPA last weekend and filed an official case number with Turbo Tax.

The CPA called me back today and they think have addressed the issue with the 2/4 updates released today.  The tax forms changed this years,  the Employee stocks (RSU, ESPP ISO ...etc) are on a new form which they had bugs in.

I down loaded the update and it seems to work for the ESPP issue I  was having .  I have not tried my RSU's yet

Also as a secondary  Note , on the initial screen where you enter the initial sales information and it errors out if you leave things like COST BASIS and type of sale (long term, short term) out . If you look below  after you get the RED RECTANGLES around the missing information and there is a little check box that you can select that says " ALLOW me to continue with incomplete information" If you check that now with the 2/4 update,  it does fill in the correct cost basis and long and short term sale information later on

[torchill]

Yes, it works if you ONLY have ONE ESPP.  When I have two, it is using the same 3922 data for BOTH ESPP sales.  So the cost data gets all messed up for one of them.

[annieland]

Oh God, it's even worse than that.  I duplicated my file and had to delete everything to get the first sale to work right.  But we made two sales from ONE purchase lot.  The first sale I entered went through, and then adding the other sale for the remainder of the shares and it's busted again.  It doesn't do the "not employer stock thing" the first time around, but for some reason added another employer to the list, based on the description of the ESPP stock.  Bizarre.

They're addressing this, but it clearly needs more fixes until it's functional.

And yes, the second ESPP purchase lot and sale 6 months later doesn't work either.  Continues to reference the number of shares from the first of the 3 sales, auto populates the 3922 info from the first sale, and gives $0.00 errors in the end.  Basically, still broken.

[ryan-p-abraham]

ughhhhhh I got my hopes up .... I haven't tried my second ESPP sale yet,  I will later tonight . I expect I'll be reporting back the same frustrations as the previous two posts ... But will let you know

[torchill]

I got it to work.  for my ESPP, the issue I am now having is on my OLD OLD SPP...

Trick to "get around" but not sure if it will create an issue later... I created a Brokerage account per ESPP.

So i have two E-trade accounts one for each ESPP.  Since I don't have to put in an account number (optional), it works to get the data in and DOESN'T overwrite the first ESPP 3922 data.  

as for the long term SPP stuff.  That isn't working yet as it is putting my nomral income into the W2 question.  so I have three sales (1 SPP, 2 ESPP) and only the ESPP are in my W2 (and only would be if shorter than two years!!!)  So the ordinary income from 1SPP is being incorrectly dumped into my W2 as ALL three sales or none (i.e. yes or NO only).  I can't change the amount in my W2 to make sure the SPP ordinary income is reflected correctly!!! UGhHH

[annieland]

I should try out the two brokerage workaround with my 2 sales from one purchase lot.  That should be interesting.  Ridiculous to have to do workarounds.  Imagine all the poor taxpayers who aren't as obviously tax savvy as the rest of us :).

[ryan-p-abraham]

So the different Brokerage work around seems to work for both my ESPP. The RSU calculation seem to be coming out correct so far on the worksheets  . But the worksheets don't seem to be transferring those capital gains totals to Form 8949 like the ESPP ones do  which is leaving out a big capital gain for me ... 

There are still plenty of bugs open on this I am afraid ...

[Owens204]

I'm curious what calculations and forms do you prepare in regards to your RSU?  I thought RSU was straight forward and you just picked it up as ordinary income when you're given the shares?  In which case it could even be included in your W-2.

[annieland]

The vest and release is on the W-2, but you could hold the stock for a minute or for 5 years.  At the time of sale there will be a capital gain or loss that needs to be reported, based on the change between the release and the sale(s).

[torchill]

Owen, I think you are saying vesting day (i.e. when the shares show up in your account) note technially when you are given RSUs (1 year or more before they vest), in most cases the cost basis is zero, so there is no W2 impact until it Vests.  and then the vest day price (average of high and low for the day) defines the amount in your W2 (or what should be in W2).  And that price defines the cost basis Shares left * vest day price = cost basis.  So when you sell the stock the investment income can easily be determine from that.  Really the What is in the W2 is a really just a check to make sure everything is working correctly.  On my paycheck (not on W2 specifically) i see the amount of income gained by RSU separately, so I can use my last paycheck to validate that the numbers are close.

[MP39]

I seem to be having the same issue. But I have 5 line items to worry about. 

[torchill]

Here is what I got, and based off this they closed the case... I thought that was they way i did it; however, not sure...

email from TT:

We had spoke some yesterday  in regards to your ESPP and how the software was not allowing you to enter two of the forms.  I also realize you had some other issues that we were not able to touch on and I apologize for that.

I did follow up on the software and the update and walked through entering two separate forms 3922.  What I found was that the key to not having the second one add itself to the first was you have to finish the first one all the way through till it asks the question "would you like to enter another one?"

I am enclosing some links that may help to further answer your questions.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/entering-importing/help/where-do-i-enter-form-3922/00/26375

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/taxes/discussion/how-to-handle-case-where-only-some-of-espp-sale-o...

[HemangLavana]

I am seeing the same issue - data from one ESPP gets messed up with  the other, so I am  not able to input it correctly. If I update the numbers for the 2nd one it messes up the numbers for the first one as well. I am on Mac TT and I am stuck on  this issue.

[teksplorer]

Oh my, I am so glad I stumbled upon this thread.  I have been pulling my hair out for the last two days trying to figure out how TT can be screwing up ESPP worksheets so bad.  I have multiple ESPP sales (for shares of the same employer), and am hitting the same issues where 3922 data from a previous sale is populating the new sale, or the screen changes  to say "shares from Not employer stock" when trying to do the Step-by-Step process of entering 3922 data.

It seems that the Step-by-Step view has a wrong reference in one screen, that creates a new worksheet for part of the questionnaire, but then doesn't actually connect the data with the actual sale.

Here is the what I found as a work around.  I switch between the Step-by-Step view and the Forms view.
Initially populate the share sale data from 1099-B in Step-by-Step view.  
When you get to the the Tell us about the ESPP sale screen, select the employer, click next.  It brings you to the "OK, we just need a few more details" screen.  Switch into the form view (from that point on don't use the Step-by-step interface for the sale).  Manually fill out the Employee Stock Transaction Worksheet with data from your form 3922 for this particular transaction.   You should scroll down a little bit and confirm you see the correct Compensation Income in that sheet once you fill out the info. 

Switch back to Step-by-Step view.  Click on some tab like "Personal Info" (so that you don't proceed through the Step-by-Step for the transaction.   Then you can go again to the Federal Taxes/Stock Sales/brokerage screen, "Edit" the transaction you just entered, click through "Next/Done/Continue" (without changing any of the data), until you get to the screen where it says "Here are the ESPP purchase lots we have so far", and it should have the correct info associated with that sale.  At least this convoluted process works for me. 
Now repeat the process for the next ESPP sale.

I can't believe Intuit shipped TT with such a big issue, and has yet to address it.

[ryan-p-abraham]

I called Turbo tax last night again as the issues clearly here are not resolved.  For my case number the "claimed" they have fixed the ESPP issues ..... I clearly told them that they did not  and there there are many many others still seeing problems . I am also seeing RSU issues not rolling up the capital gain correctly it fills out the work sheet but fails to transfer the total to form 8949 .... so its saving me a boat load of money in taxes ... .but I will surely will get audited 

This time they said a manager would call me back in 48 hours ... I am not holding my breath .

If they don't resolve this soon ... I am going to file .... save the boat load of money and get their audit protecting since they guarantee 100% accurate returns ...  I have done my part calling twice , if they don't want to fix it .... they can pay the IRS later when I get audited ...

This is ridiculous.  The ESPP and RSU feature is the ONLY reason I buy this software and this year it is nothing but a headache and a waste of time