Miscellaneous Investment Expenses

[Opus 17]

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@jeffecohen wrote:

I think you should start with a clean reinstall on your own system. Sometimes if the program gets into a bad state, the routine update procedure will perpetuate the bad state rather than fixing it.  (This was due to Registry problems in Win 7, I don't know if Win 10 still has the Registry, although I imagine they do.)

[jeffecohen]

@Opus 17

You may well be right about re-installing, but unless something unexpectedly bad pops up when I download the brokerage 1099s, I'm gonna wait until after I file. Too many past TT installation problems make me hesitant to chance it. It's easy enough to do entries directly into the forms, and I'm pretty confident the rest of the program is working as it should be. And, who knows? Maybe they'll find the bug and fix it.

[sanfordius]

If investment expenses are not permissible at the Federal level, then this string makes no sense. In my Turbotax Deluxe, there is no way of entering investment expenses, precisely because they are not allowed!

[sanfordius]

You are mistaken sir. Turbotax does not offer this option.

[sanfordius]

see this article

https://www.thebalance.com/tax-deduction-for-financial-advisor-fees-2388664

[DaveF1006]

It should be in your program because you can deduct investment expenses up to the amount of your interest income and it will be an itemized deduction reported on line 9 of your Schedule A. These are allowed.

1. Go to federal>deductions and credits
2. Retirement and Investments>Investment Interest Expense

[ Edited 03/25/22| 06:48 PM PST]

@sanfordius

 

[Opus 17]

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@sanfordius wrote:

You are mistaken sir. Turbotax does not offer this option.

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Only investment interest is deductible (interest on loans used to acquire investments), and only up to the amount of income realized by the investments.   Other investment expenses (research, transaction fees, etc.) are not deductible.

The investment interest deduction is right here...

[jeffecohen]

@sanfordius 

I'm not in any way a tax specialist, but I believe there may be certain circumstances under which these deductions can be taken. But even if not, they are still allowed in some states. TT does not provide an entry vehicle for these items in the state programs bc they are designed to flow through from the Fed return, as are other types of data. This particular issue is almost certainly a program glitch bc, apparently, most users DO see the entry form exactly where it has been in many previous years. In fact, I was able to use it in an earlier version of the 2021 program because I made some entries that I can no longer access unless I go to the forms. For some unexplained reason, the OP and I do not have access now. I chose to enter the data directly onto NYS 196 because it was simply easier than reinstalling TT, but entry should be, and from what I can tell from this thread, still is available to other users via the Fed interview.

[Opus 17]

@jeffecohen 

EVERYTHING you are talking about is already included in Turbotax, see the screenshots below.  You may need to click "show more" or "let me choose what to work on" to see all the options. 

Investment Interest (interest paid on loans used to buy investments) is a federal itemized deduction.  It survived tax reform.  Interest expenses have ALWAYS been separate from other investment expenses because they have to be tracked separately on form 4952, and you can only deduct interest against income.  For example, you borrow $10,000 to buy stock.  You pay $500 interest the first year, but the stock only pays $200 of dividends.  You can deduct $200 this year, and carry the other $300 forward.  Next year you pay another $500 in interest, and you sell the stock for a $1000 capital gain.  You can deduct the $500 current interest plus the $300 interest carried forward.

The investment interest deduction is located here...

All other investment expenses are miscellaneous itemized deductions subject to the 2% rule.  This deduction was eliminated at the federal level for 2018-2025, but some states still allow this deduction.   You can still enter these expenses in Turbotax.  They won't be reported on your federal return but will flow to your state return if you state allows it.  Here is where to find it in the program...

Remember that Investment Interest must always be reported separately from other investment expenses, even before the TCJA.

[sanfordius]

You are correct about But the thread was originally about investment expenses, such as advice from investment expenses. The issue of investment interest is much narrower and probably of little interest to the majority of Turbotax users. It's also the first mention that the Federal law changed, even if some states did not. It would be helpful to know which states still permit 2% deductions

[jeffecohen]

@Opus 17 

Perhaps you intended to reply to someone else, I'm not sure. The issue I'm describing is that the entry screen for other deductible investment expenses (your last pic, with the red arrow pointing to it) is not accessible in my installation of  TT. You and I had, several weeks ago, established that this was a glitch and you advised reinstalling TT (see our previous exchange further up-thread). As far as investment interest, that's not the subject of this thread nor have I brought it up.

As far as I'm concerned, this is all moot. I used a workaround (entry directly into NYS 196), and my returns are filed. The OP has not chimed in, so I assume they have found an alternative solution as well.

[Smoreman]

I have the same problem in Windows 2022 version.  I was able to post the misc. investment expenses by going to the Forms entry mode.  Click on Forms on Top right, Select Schedule A, then scroll down to Other Itemized Deductions, and click on the Quick Zoom.   Once there, you'll find a variety of misc. deductions you can enter, and any previous deductions entered should already be populated, so be careful not to enter them twice.

[twodgoulds]

turbo Tax 2022 tax year advises to put other investement expenses into "Other deductions" for use with our State taxes, but I don't see a place to add them as I am walked through the Federal form.  Will the place show on the State (Michigan) form?

[jeffecohen]

I had this problem with TT 2021, and have the same with 2022. During the interview, I was asked if I wanted to carry over info from 2021 to 2022 (to which I replied "yes"), but after that, there's no place to do the entry/edit in the interview. For whatever reason, for some of us that particular dialog is missing (see upthread for where it should be). I had to do manual entry into the state form (NY196 in my case). 

[1WhySoSerious1]

I'm new to this forum, and I stumbled upon this thread while hunting for similar information. I just wanted to say thanks for sharing your experience and insights on how to enter miscellaneous investment expenses in Turbo Tax Premier 2021. It's great to know that even though investment expenses are generally not deductible, some states still allow the deduction.
By the way, I found some helpful information on investment management that might be of interest to you. It's not an ad or anything, but it's a service that my financial advisor recommended to me, and I've found it really helpful. You can check it out at [removed]
Again, thanks for sharing your experience, and I hope the GUI problem gets fixed soon so that everyone can claim their deductions without any confusion.