I am looking at Deluxe vs Premier. What does "Additional Help" mean re investment income. I do have stocks with dividends and a few I have sold this year.

[jake1snickers]

I am a long time user of Turbotax, and I know last year you moves some things out of Deluxe Edition.  I noted on the Premier edition it says "addional help" for investment income.  My investments are simple...some dividends and a few stock sales.  Does Deluxe handle those or am I now only able to use Premier Edition.  What exactly does "additional help" really mean...that only Premier Edition will even handle a stock sale, or that it is simpler in Premier Edition ?  

[PatriciaV · Accepted solution]

TurboTax Deluxe for desktop includes all tax forms and schedules. The additional help comes from expanded interviews and/or blue links with specific information. If you are familiar with the income and deductions you have to enter on your return, you should do well with the Deluxe version.

[44619herman]

I have been using turbo tax deluxe (with State and federal) for over 15 years. I had a single family rental property that I had owned since 1983. I used the deluxe edition to complete Schedule E and complete any necessary depreciation forms for the last 30 some years.  Last January 2021, I sold the rental house. I do not have any other rental investments. In order to complete the quarterly estimated federal and state tax payments, I had used 2020 Turbo tax deluxe and filled out a "What if" tax form to estimate my 2021 taxes and to pay the estimated quarterly payments to the federal and state gov.. My question is as follows: Would I benefit from purchasing the 2021 Turbo Premier Edition due to the sale of my rental house?  Or should I continue using the Deluxe edition?  I have no complicated investments. Everything (as far as financial investments, ie stocks, interest, etc) download from my financial advisor's company.  I appreciate your assistance. 

[Critter-3]

Stay with the Deluxe downloaded version ... ALL the downloaded versions can handle ALL tax situations.   To sell off the rental simply follow the interview in the rental section to sell off the all  assets. 

[Carl]

Would I benefit from purchasing the 2021 Turbo Premier Edition due to the sale of my rental house?

It's just not possible to give a definitive yes or no answer. But if you've been using TTX to report your rental income/expenses/depreciation the last 30 years, I see no reason why you would need more help just to report the sale of that property. If you did need any help, it would probably be "clarification" you needed, as opposed to "help". Below is the guidance for reporting the sale of residential rental real estate, and I'm happy to provide any clarification you may need as you work through the program to report the sale.

Reporting the Sale of Rental Property

If you qualify for the "lived in 2 of last 5 years" capital gains exclusion, then when prompted you WILL indicate that this sale DOES INCLUDE the sale of your main home. For AD MIL personnel who don't qualify because of PCS orders, select this option anyway, because you "MIGHT" qualify for at last a partial exclusion.

Start working through Rental & Royalty Income (SCH E) "AS IF" you did not sell the property. One of the screens near the start will have a selection on it for "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in  2021". Select it. After you select the "I sold or otherwise disposed of this property in 2021" you continue working it through "as if" you still own it. When you come to the summary screen you will enter all of your rental income and expenses, even if it's zero. Then you MUST work through the "Sale of Property/Depreciation" section. You must work through each individual asset one at a time to report its disposition (in your case, all your rental assets were sold).

Understand that if more than the property itself is listed in your assets list, then you need to allocate your sales price across all of your assets.  You will only allocate the structure sales price; you will NOT allocate the land sales price, since the land is not a depreciable asset.  Then if you sold this rental at a gain, you must show a gain on all assets, even if that gain is $1 on some assets. Likewise, if you sold at a loss then you must show a loss on all assets, even if that loss is $1 on some assets.

Basically, when working through an asset you select the option for "I stopped using this asset in 2021" and go from there. Note that you MUST do this for EACH AND EVERY asset listed.

When you finish working through everything listed in the assets section, if you ever at any time you owned this rental you claimed vehicle expenses, then you must also work through the vehicle section and show the disposition of the vehicle. Most likely, your vehicle disposition will be "removed for personal use", as I seriously doubt you sold your vehicle as a part of this rental sale.