Level 2

Solved

Do TurboTax “Rounded” 1099-B input entries need to be manually “corrected” to be consistent with 1099-B reported to IRS?

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 3, 2019
145 replies
482 views

In TurboTax my 1099-B input entries for individual stock sales are "rounded" (up or down) giving inconsistent totals when "totaled" for all 1099-B sales (Different from 1099-B totals reported to IRS). Is this a concern? Should (can?) I correct manually in forms? Will IRS flag difference?

TurboTax Premier Windows

Best answer by ChristinaR

Rest assured, this rounding difference will not unnecessarily flag your return. In fact, the IRS absolutely allows it to make figures easier to deal with and lessen the chance for arithmetic errors, as long as all amounts are rounded consistently (which the program does for you).

Per IRS instructions: "You may round off cents to whole dollars. If you do round to whole dollars, you must round all amounts. To round off amounts to the nearest whole dollar, drop amounts under 50 cents and increase amounts from 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar. For example, $1.39 becomes $1 and $2.50 becomes $3. If you have to add two or more amounts to figure the amount to enter on a line, include cents when adding and only round off the total."

In Forms mode, I tested whether an override was possible on Form 8949 to include cents in the total. Unfortunately, the program will default back to a whole dollar to be transferred to the Schedule D, so you will not be successful in attempting to manually change the amounts. But again, this rounding will not cause any undue problems for the IRS, in and of itself.

C

ChristinaRAnswer

Level 4

Rest assured, this rounding difference will not unnecessarily flag your return. In fact, the IRS absolutely allows it to make figures easier to deal with and lessen the chance for arithmetic errors, as long as all amounts are rounded consistently (which the program does for you).

Per IRS instructions: "You may round off cents to whole dollars. If you do round to whole dollars, you must round all amounts. To round off amounts to the nearest whole dollar, drop amounts under 50 cents and increase amounts from 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar. For example, $1.39 becomes $1 and $2.50 becomes $3. If you have to add two or more amounts to figure the amount to enter on a line, include cents when adding and only round off the total."

In Forms mode, I tested whether an override was possible on Form 8949 to include cents in the total. Unfortunately, the program will default back to a whole dollar to be transferred to the Schedule D, so you will not be successful in attempting to manually change the amounts. But again, this rounding will not cause any undue problems for the IRS, in and of itself.

D

DIYchick2021

Level 2

Turbo Tax erroneously rounded several of my amounts uploaded from the 1099B. An example, one amount was $774.02 and the Turbo Tax rounded to $775, this does not coincide with your explanation of rounding.

D

DianeW777

Level 15

I can understand rounding at the final summary level. But I have never seen rounding at each transaction level. I have been importing 1099 -B for the last 7 years, but never had this issue except for this year.

It's not unusual for individuals to enter each transaction and round each one. The IRS provides guidance on rounding. There's no need for concern about your return due to rounding.

Rounding Off to Whole Dollars

You can round off cents to whole dollars on your return and schedules. If you do round to whole dollars, you must round all amounts. To round, drop amounts under 50 cents and increase amounts from 50 to 99 cents to the next dollar. For example, $1.39 becomes $1 and $2.50 becomes $3.

If you have to add two or more amounts to figure the amount to enter on a line, include cents when adding the amounts and round off only the total.

If you are entering amounts that include cents, make sure to include the decimal point.

**Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post. **Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"

S

Scooby19

Level 3

The program doesn't do it automatically throughout. It hangs up in forms section of 1099 for Capital Gains. It's OK for W-2 entry. Needs to be addressed. Last year it hung on form 2210 by cumulative rounding and was off by 1 dollar on fourth quarter entry.

fanfare

Level 15

In years past, I would always make my proceeds on 8949 match the proceeds on my 1099-B.

If that meant fiddling with a couple of transactions, plus or minus a dollar or 50 cents, so be it.

BUT NOW --

As an active investor, be aware that your category Box A sales without adjustments do not require Form 8949, so there is no reason to import or key in those transactions.
Instead use the "enter a summary" option to put your numbers on Schedule D Line 1a.
--
If you have wash sales, it gets more complicated since those adjusted transactions have to be itemized on Form 8949 and the summary totals adjusted accordingly.

Enter the wash sales on Form 8949, then use the subtotal results on the bottom of that form to know how much to subtract. Be sure to NOT check the adjustments box in the summary window.
--
Alternatively, if entry of Wash Sales is too tedious,
summarize and check the box for adjustments and enter the disallowed amount.
This summary will go on Schedule D Line 1b.
You will be making the mail-in election.

P

Patbbb

Level 2

Using T/Tax Deluxe disc for 2020, I'm very disappointed with bugs in the software, which my searches show existed 2 years back. First- imported 1099 data from one of my investor a/c's did not include all info on my printed forms and had to be manually inserted. Second- one transaction included a wash sale with an amount under $0.49 which the program rounded down to 0. But, "Smart Checking" the return would not accept that even when I overrode the figure, as instructed nor let me passed that point to e-file. While waiting on telephone hold for help, I increased the Wash sale amount to $1.00 and the program then proceeded and accepted the return.

The Help agent could not explain that for me and I hope it doesn't flag the return. Further, all efforts to generate a Five Year Tax History Report (as in past years) were fruitless, despite the Help agent confirming she could see that info in my historical account. The only form I could get was a Two-Year Comparison. Plus, I'm still waiting for the instructions how to get the 5 year history and receipt of the survey to rate the Help Desk.

The above difficulties cost me hours of wasted time to file a relatively simple 1040 return. Accordingly, for 2021 I'll be looking at programs other than Turbotax, which are also less expensive.

M

MaxTax00

Level 5

You are completely correct Pat.

M

mjrengaw

Level 5

Anybody know how we get these rounding threads marked as “unsolved” instead of “solved”. They sure don’t seem “solved” to me.

G

gp10237

Level 2

Previous quote from "Employee Tax Expert" says from IRS, "If you have to add two or more amounts to figure the amount to enter on a line, include cents when adding the amounts and round off only the total."

That rounding applies to Schedule D, where taxes are calculated. The transactions to support Schedule D are shown on Form 8949. The values Form 8949 should include the cents, and the sums should be rounded as they are transferred to Schedule D.

That is the only way to get the 1099-B values to match the Schedule D values. My brokerage firm does NOT round individual stock transaction values as they are entered into the 1099-B form, and I question if the IRS would allow them to do that.

Please fix the TurboTax software so that the Form 8949 matches the 1099-B forms. They have matched for the past 10 years, and the current year's software is BROKEN.

M

MaxTax00

Level 5

Same here. My forms perfectly matched for a decade between Broker 1099B and TurboTax produced return. This year they are off. TurboTax needs to fix this immediately. If you have 1,000 transactions then you can get a variance in the hundreds of dollars and the IRS will not be cool with that.

S

sophieluu1606

Level 3

I think we need to make a new thread since these "Tax Experts" seem to not check any threads marked "Solved". Seems like more people are aware of this issue now that 1099-B are available from all brokers. Interested to see how TurboTax handles this.

B

bredman

Level 3

As of 3/2/2021 in TurboTax Premier I see the correct amounts to the cents in the lowest level detailed entries imported from my brokerage firm compared with those in the corresponding written Form 8949. However, I have seen several rounding errors (rounding down when it should be rounded up and vice versa) in the next level up in TurboTax. This has caused nearly a $5 discrepancy in the summary values reported in TurboTax versus the summary values reported on the written 1099-B for my account.

Intuit needs to fix this issue in TurboTax immediately. Responses directing one on how to clear out all the entries and enter the information manually are not at all helpful when one has hundreds of transactions to report. I paid about $90 for TurboTax Premier so that the software would handle the data import and calculations correctly, especially since TurboTax advertises its "100% Accurate Calculations Guarantee."

C

chuck6625

Level 3

This is a bug TT needs to fix it. Entering the transactions manually does not fix the issue. The rounding occurs at the individual transaction in 8949. For people who have a lot of transactions, this issue causes a big variance.

This issue did not exist in 2019 and years before.

Very disappointed.

T

trungson

Level 3

I just ran into this issue today (Mar 5) and with many transactions rounding off individual transactions instead of JUST the total will definitely mess things up. I only had around 600 transactions in 2020 but 2021 likely a lot more.

With no commission, retail investors are likely to trade more frequent and thus generate more transactions. TurboTax needs to figure out a way to handle more transactions faster and more accurately.