topic Restricted Stock Units in Investors & landlords

Restricted Stock Units

sk8teres8 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 06:10:51 GMT

I am trying to avoid paying taxes twice on my employer sponsored RSU. The event was reported as income on my W2 which Turbotax captured, but then under the "investment income" module, Turbotax premier is walking me through the sale again. The W2 reports both of the events that occurred even though my actual "income" was only generated on the 2nd event listed below. Since it was recorded on my W2, do I have to go through the turbotax investment module?

2 events occurred:

1. broker sold a portion of the RSUs on 8/27/2021 to cover taxes

2. I sold my remaining shares of RSUs on 9/2/2021 and cashed out the remaining balance

Re: Restricted Stock Units

RaifH — Sun, 13 Feb 2022 20:15:10 GMT

Yes, you do have to go through the investment module for this sale even though the income and taxes have already been reported on your W-2. TurboTax will adjust the basis for these shares when they were vested. Your sale to cover taxes should have little to no gain since they were sold right away, but since you held on to the others for a few days, there may be an associated short-term capital gain or loss. To report these in TurboTax Online:

In the Federal > Income & Expenses > Investment Income section of your return, click Start/Revisit next to Stocks, Cryptocurrency, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Other (1099-B)
Answer Yes and then select stocks. Import or enter your transactions manually.
For the RSU transactions, make sure to select Yes to Do these sales include any employee stock?
Enter the transactions as they appear on the 1099-B with RSU selected as the type of investment.
If the basis reported on the 1099-B is not correct, you will be able to adjust it to match the supplemental information provided.

For more information on RSUs and how to report them, please see this TurboTax article.

Re: Restricted Stock Units

sk8teres8 — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 01:13:08 GMT

When reviewing the transaction details on my 1099B form, it does not track the taxes that were paid in the first event of selling 76 units. This question also transfers to TurboTax as when I entered these 2 transactions it did not indicate the first event as the tax payoff event and it appears to have tracked the entire sale of 217 units as taxable. When reviewing my statement for the month of the transaction, there are details confirming the amount of taxes paid by the first event. I should only pay the capital gains on the 2nd event if the value of the stock was greater than the original grant.

How do I know that I am not being taxed twice?

Do I include the tax details from the statement even if they aren't included on the 1099B form?

Re: Restricted Stock Units

RobertB4444 — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 02:33:25 GMT

That is why @RaifH said that you might have to adjust your basis in order for the RSUs to not be taxed twice. You need to adjust the amounts from the 1099-B to what you actually paid for the stock which should include the price of the stock plus what you were taxed for on your W2. If you had any other associated costs then you can add them as well.

Re: Restricted Stock Units

sk8teres8 — Wed, 09 Mar 2022 01:24:38 GMT

@RobertB4444 @RaifH thank you for your help with this. I was able to walk through these steps; however, the final step where Turbotax asks you to check if the stock plan amounts were included in Box 1 on the W2 does not apply for my situation. It is reported in box 14 as RSU for 2x less than the amount Turbotax computed. I am not sure what the issue is considering the correct amount of the RSU is reflected on the step before this. Why would Turbotax double the amount? Also, how does one use the Turbotax live function as i feel as though that may be an easier way to figure this out.

Re: Restricted Stock Units

RobertB4444 — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 20:44:39 GMT

Here is a link to finding a TurboTax expert.

However, that requires upgrading your product which may be an expense you don't want. In that case you can call an expert and ask questions over the phone.

Here is a link to the TurboTax Phone Number.

Re: Restricted Stock Units

sk8teres8 — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 23:25:42 GMT

I bought the desktop version, based on the link below i would have to by the online version of live to get help, is there anyway i can pay the difference to be upgraded to live without paying for another version of turbo tax?

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/choosing-a-product/help/how-do-i-get-turbotax-live/00/27305

i tried calling the turbotax help line and they were not able to assist to the degree that i need.

Re: Restricted Stock Units

RobertB4444 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 03:03:19 GMT

@sk8teres8 You can't get live help with the desktop version, only with the online version. And you can't upgrade to online from the desktop version.

You would have to see if you can return your desktop version and then start with the online version.