topic capital gains in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

capital gains

dixiefla — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 14:14:15 GMT

When I entered long term capital gains and short term capital gains into Schedule D (and/or the worksheet) Turbotax combined them--it added the two numbers--and put this total into my 1040 as taxable income. Long term capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than short term, so why did it combine them so that the long term gains are being taxed at the same higher rate as short term gains?

Re: capital gains

LaShaunA3 — Sun, 29 Mar 2026 14:19:04 GMT

Even though ‌capital gains appear combined on the 1040, the lower tax rate for long-term gains is still applied behind the scenes from the worksheet you completed.

Schedule D combines the totals to arrive at total taxable income on Form 1040, but then applies a separate capital gains tax calculation worksheet that taxes long-term gains at lower rates. You can switch to FORMs view and open the worksheet to verify the rates.