1099-B RSU - Allocating RSU Shares for Multiple Sales

[alek]

I need help understanding how I am supposed to allocate RSU Shares for multiple sales when populating the "Enter Vesting (Or Release Information)" - Specifically - TOTAL SHARES VESTED/RELEASED & SHARES WITHHELD (TRADED) TO PAY TAXES

On 2/22/2022 16 shares vested and 8 weres sold to cover

On my 1099-B I have 3 separate transactions:

• 7sh Sold on 2/13/22 (Order Type - RS STC)
• 1sh Sold on 2/23/2022 (Order Type - RS STC)
• 8sh Sold on 2/28/2022 (Sell Restricted Stock)

What is the right way to break this up so that I complete the Enter Vesting (Or Release Information) section correctly for all 3 transactions?

[DavidD66]

RSUs are pretty straight forward; therefore, I recommend you enter your transactions without indicating you are reporting the sale of company stock.  Indicating that is company stock has no impact on what's reported to the IRS.  It only affects what screens and questions you get in the TurboTax interview.  When RSUs vest (the stock is delivered) the entire amount is ordinary income.  That amount is added to Box 1 of your W-2.  Your employer must collect income and payroll taxes, or sell shares to pay them.  Since you are taxed on the entire amount, your basis is the amount that is added to your W-2 which you are taxed on.  If you retain any of the units/stock, any gains on the sale will be short term if you hold the stock one year or less, and long term if you hold it more than one year.

You will have three transactions.  The cost basis (per share) and acquisition date will be the same for all three transactions, and they will all be short term.  You cost basis is the total amount included in income.  The cost basis per share is that amount divided by 16.  The proceeds and sales dates will be whatever is reported on the 1099-B.  Whether the shares were sold to cover stock or not has no impact on your gain or loss on the sales.

[alek]

This doesn't make sense because the gains and losses do not add up correctly

[GeorgeM777]

As a follow-up to @DavidD66, are you entering your transactions as a regular stock trade?  In other words, you can avoid the screens relating to RSUs, vesting, sell to cover, etc. and just treat each sale as you would the sale of publicly traded stock.  Thus, at the screen, Was this a sale of employee stock?, you can select No, this is not employee stock, and avoid all of the RSU related screens. 

Your purchase date (i.e., vesting date) is the same for all three sale transactions, and your per share basis for each sale is also the same.  Because your sales occurred on three different dates, your per share sale price may be different, and because you sold a different number of shares on the dates in question, your sales proceeds will vary depending on the number of shares sold.   After entering this information, you will know whether you had a gain or loss.  It appears any gain or loss will be short-term.

The first two transactions you mentioned in your post--the sale of the seven shares, followed by the sale of the 1 share--are those the eight shares that were sold to cover?  If so, then it is likely you will have no gain/loss upon their sale because they were probably sold at the same price as the vesting price. Thus, if you know the vesting price per share, you should be able to determine whether there was a gain or loss from their sale.  In most cases, there is usually no gain/loss, but after you enter your information, you can confirm whether a gain or loss was realized.  Additionally, the compensation represented by the RSUs has already been included on your W-2, so there is no need to enter any wage compensation information in connection with your RSUs vesting.

@alek