Hello - Morgan Stanley sold stocks that my husband and I had held for many years in 2016. The paperwork I have from the states I need report on form 8949 Part II with Box E Checked. I don't see a place to do that and want to be taxed at the lowest rate possible for the long held stocks.
I am using Turbo Tax Premire.
Please help!
First, you'll click on the Federal Taxes tab, then Wages & Income, then scroll down to Investment Income and select Stocks, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Other. The form you received from Morgan Stanley is a 1099-B, so TurboTax will ask if you have that form to enter.
TurboTax will ask you to enter your financial institution, and then you'll be at the screen to input your stock sales. At the top of the page it'll say Tell us about your 1099-B. Beneath that heading, you'll check the box saying I'll enter one sale at a time.
Since the long-term capital gains rate (the "lower" rate you mentioned) depends on stocks being held for longer than a year (like yours), it's the acquisition date & sale date that will determine that. If you know when you acquired the stock, enter that date. If you're not sure of the acquisition date, you can enter the word "various."
You'll also need to know the "cost basis" for each of these stocks, which means the purchase price. If you're unsure, you can use one of the financial web sites (i.e. Yahoo Finance) to check the closing price on a specific date in the past.
If you don't know the acquisition date, you'll have to arrive at a reasonable estimate, because that's the only way you can figure a cost basis. If you leave the basis box blank, it's like entering zero and the entire sale proceeds will be taxed.
Once you've done that, you'll see a box below the cost basis called Sale Category. Click on it and you'll get a dropdown menu where you'll select Box E - Long term noncovered. That will put a check mark in Box E on the 8949 for these sales.