How do I fully delete a sale of business property (so I can re-enter it correctly)?

[danielkbalzer]

I sold some improved farmland (ie bare land with depreciated drainage tile on it) in an installment sale. I guess I entered some wrong numbers in the Federal Review section because suddenly my tax due jumped way up as if it were not an installment sale. Probably best to just start over by deleting the sale completely and re-entering afresh. But how do I do that? Even if I delete all entries about the sale, it continues to show up in "Income" listing as Form 4797 and no amount of re-editing will make it go away.

[AmyC]

Before you start deleting, let's get into the drainage tile. You said they were depreciated. Depreciation is recaptured the first year of the sale, it is not part of the installment sale. The 4797 isn't going to clear and the income will remain for all depreciated items. The bare land is a capital gain and can be sold as installment sale. The gross profit ratio is calculated on the gain portion.

If you want to delete the 4797 and 6252 from forms, you can.

 Online: 

1. In the left-hand menu, click Tax Tools > Tools.
2. Select Delete a form.
3. Look for forms and worksheets related to issue
4. Additional help, see  How do I view and delete forms in TTO?

Desktop: switch to Forms mode and delete

[danielkbalzer]

Thanks!  Yes, I recaptured the depreciation when I was first entering the data (as additions to and then subtractions from the basis) and the tile was all fully depreciated at least 15 years ago.  Maybe I should've just reported the sale property as raw land and just entered the adjusted numbers, but TT seemed to indicate I need to describe it as a certain Section (1231, 1250, etc), so I figured I better include all that information.

What seems to have messed me up was in the Federal Review section, when TT was asking me for specific line entries that were never even covered in the Interview portion (this is a real and persistent problem with TT -- the Review really needs to include links taking you back into the interview so you have some context about what random blank line it's asking about).  Suddenly my tax was changing from an $8k refund to a $110k amount due -- as if it weren't even an installment sale anymore.  I have no idea how to troubleshoot that, so figured I should just re-enter the data fresh.

[AmyC]

From 8k to 110k - that sounds like it is missing cost basis or opted out of the installment sale. It has to be in the 4797 / 6252 connection.

1. Go to "Tax Tools" (left sidebar) > "Tools" > "Delete a Form."
   1. Delete in this specific order:
   2. Form 6252 (Installment Sale)
   3. Form 4797 (Sales of Business Property)
   4. Asset Entry Worksheet (specifically for the drainage tile/farmland)
   5. Any "Sale of Business Property" Worksheets.
2. Log out of your return and try one or more of the following:
   • Don't use Internet Explorer.
   • Clear cache and cookies,
   • Sign in using a different browser.
   • Sign in using a different device.
3. Log back into your return.
   • Enter the information again.

Good luck!