TurboTax Early Rounding Issues creating LARGE variances between TurboTax Produced Return and Brokerage 1099-B Data

[vulpinepuppy]

I 100% agree with the others, I cannot file my taxes as is because of the variance.  Turbotax is causing me to pay more in taxes because it is rounding every transaction instead of a the form line level.   This issue needs to be fixed ASAP otherwise myself and others will not be able to file our taxes correctly, or worse, others will file incorrectly given the large variances caused by rounding.

[MaxTax00]

Glad to see more people posting. This rounding at the transaction level will come as a shock particularly to longtime TurboTax customers since it was not done this way in the past. We were so used to hitting one button and having everything perfectly match. TurboTax was a great product last year and no reason it can't be again this year if they fix this unnecessary rounding issue.

[Geoffl10]

Adding my voice as another who is affected by this. It needs to be fixed. Imagine rounding up 500 separate transactions for a potential $250 error in excess. I could be paying more tax than necessary in that situation. 

TT, please elevate priority for a fix and update. Thank you.

[Angelo5]

I too am having this problem. I am a day trader with hundreds of transactions. The rounding of each individual stock/option sale is resulting in over a thousand dollar variance between the total profit/loss shown on my 1099B and the number TurboTax is saying it is.

[MaxTax00]

I don't see how TurboTax can in good faith offer a product that is causing people to potentially have a higher tax bill because their software is doing rounding at the individual transaction level that is definitely not required by the IRS.

[sophieluu1606]

To be honest hand typing each transaction into Turbotax would not fix it since the software would round the number and calculate profit/loss afterward for each transaction again anyway. So only suggested solution so far is to just put in the summary then mail the 1099-B in manually, but that doesn't work for us who have transaction with wash sale/adjustment that need reported individually.

Waiting to see if any Tutbotax expert can escalate this to the engineering team.

[MaxTax00]

My guess is the number of complaints on this issue will probably double each week as we move closer to April 15th. I suggest thumbing up the first post in this thread as I believe whatever ranking mechanism they use to display posts is influenced by that.

[vulpinepuppy]

To put it into a number perspective.

Say you have 1,000 transactions of different stock sales (which are wash sales which means you must list out the sales instead of summarizing).

Every stock sold for 10.50 and the basis was 5.45, thus the 1099-B showed a net capital gain (assume short term) of $5,050.

Under the current turbotax calculation, every stock proceed would be rounded up to $11 and the basis would be rounded down to $5.  Turbotax would then force the calculation as a net gain of $6,000.

Paying tax on an extra $950 in this scenario is not the maximum refund guaranteed that most would expect from turbotax....

[Critter-3]

First the rounding has been the same for the 30 years I have been in the business and the difference is usually less than $10 total which will not usually effect anything.   

However if you have hundreds of sales then using the summary entry option and mailing in a copy of the broker statement for the uncovered sales is the way to go.  

How do I enter a large number of stock transactions in TurboTax Online?

TurboTax Online is equipped to handle around 500 individual transactions (give or take) per brokerage account before performance starts to deteriorate.

If you need to enter a bunch of stock transactions with a total sales volume of less than $10,000,000 (ten million), you can enter a summary for each sales category. Instructions follow.

Another alternative is to switch to the TurboTax CD/Download software which handles around 2,000 individual transactions per brokerage.

How to enter a summary in lieu of individual transactions

Your brokerage statements should include a summary of your transactions, grouped by sales category, for example "Box A short-term covered" or "Box D long-term covered". You'll enter the summary info instead of each individual transaction.

1. Open your return in TurboTax Online (if it's not already open) and search for stock sales in the upper-right corner.
2. Click or tap the "Jump to" link in the search results.
3. Answer Yes to both Did you sell any investments? and Did you get a 1099-B?
   • If you land on Here's the investment sales info we have so far, select Add More Sales. Then answer Yes to Did you get a 1099-B?
4. On the Choose Your Bank or Brokerage import screen, select I'll type it in myself.
5. Select or enter your brokerage on the next screen and continue.
6. On the following screen (Tell us about...) select the second option, I'll enter a summary.
7. On the same screen, enter the total proceeds (sales) and cost basis, along with the sales category. Refer to your 1099-B for the amounts and category. When finished, select Done.
8. Follow the onscreen instructions to enter additional sales or to view a summary.

When you are done entering all your sales transactions, you'll eventually come to the Here's the investment sales info we have so far screen. Here you can edit, delete, or enter more sales.

Related Information:

• How do I switch from TurboTax Online to the TurboTax software?

[MaxTax00]

@Critter-3 

Sorry, but the rounding is not the same in TurboTax as it was last year and I have the TurboTax Produced returns from both years to prove it. Last year, Column H was not rounded on Form 8949 and this year it is being rounded.

[Rerun48]

Agreed, the rounding is not the same as in past years.  It's not just column H but every entry for investments, at least.  I haven't audited the rest of my return for the rounding, but I will.  I noticed the issue because I have a small amount wash sale with Proceeds at 3.75 and Basis at 3.88 so a loss of -0.13.  But the program rounded each to $4 resulting in the loss amount being "0"and an error in my wash sale form because the rule is you can't insert a "0".    When I did an override to take the zero out - it's an error.  When I do an override on the Proceeds and Basis amounts, they are automatically rounded.  While this isn't large or earthshattering, it's annoying and, frankly, if the result of any rounding is to reduce a refund or increase a tax even by $1, it's wrong and violates TT's promises.  TT needs to fix this immediately.

[MaxTax00]

While I do think we will eventually get a satisfactory response as the complaints become overwhelming regarding this issue,  I suggest leaving feedback wherever possible with TurboTax even if it means calling and talking to an Agent that probably can offer no help.   And if that does not work, there are enough Intuit/TurboTax accounts on social media that we can complain to.

[vulpinepuppy]

@Critter-3 

Thanks for trying to offer a work-around, however there are several issues with your suggestion.

1. As multiple others have stated, the rounding in the 2020 TT software on form 8949 is different from prior years. Looking at least year alone, on my 2019 return, which was filed with TT, there is no rounding at the individual transaction level on form 8949.  This change in 2020 is what is causing the issues.

2. Several users, including myself, have wash sales which cannot be summarized so the option of doing that is not applicable and TT has to fix the 2020 software for us to file correctly.  Even if summarizing works for others, it defeats the purpose of using tax software which should be able to handle these types of transactions and puts  more onus on the individual to print out forms, pay for postage/supplies, etc. We should never have to be forced into this situation when the software should be capable of processing the info correctly.

3. While the difference can be negligible for some with minimal transactions or even dollar amounts, others can have quite a large difference depending on the amount of transactions and how the rounding works.  If you look above to one of my prior posts in this thread giving a hypothetical 1,000 different transactions which are all rounded, that creates a much much larger tax burden than what it should be (in that hypothetical scenario an additional tax would be owed on $950).  For myself, one of my brokerages is less than 1,000 transactions, but the rounding issue is still large enough that here I am posting about it seeking help so I don't have to file an inaccurate tax return (i.e. my reported transactions do not match the 1099-B which was reported to the IRS), and also fork over additional money to the IRS than needed  because TT software has changed from prior years as a detriment to TT users.

[mjrengaw]

Rounding in TT has absolutely not been the same for “30 years”. TT did not round imported investments at the transaction level any year prior to this. It needs to be fixed!

[mjrengaw]

It doesn’t seem like we are getting any answers here so I opened my own thread. Feel free to add to mine or add your own. Perhaps we will eventually get some attention paid to this very significant issue.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/investments-and-rental-properties/discussion/when-will-rounding-of...