Unsuccessful Import of Merrill Lynch tax documents

[asadpoure]

I tried to import tax documents from Merrill Lynch. I kept receiving "This import was unsuccessful". I checked my credentials and everything seems fine.

[tmutkoski]

Can somebody at Turbo Tax help me with this?  Both my Merrill and Etrade documents are not down loading.

[tcohn01]

Today is February 23, 2019, and I am unsuccessful at importing ANY Merrill Lynch tax documents at all, user ID and password are correct, but NOTHING is importing! Why? Anyone else having this ML problem?????

[barflyphoto]

My 1099 from Merrill Lynch was put on Merrill's site today 2/26/19, but Turbo Tax won't import it.  Called Merrill and they said they can't do anything to help.  I have a 60 page consolidated statement.  I Dread having to manually enter everything.  I have a CD of Turbo Tax Premier for the 2018 tax year.  Any thoughts?

[barflyphoto]

Update:  I spoke with people at Merrill Lynch again and the rep said that his boss said that it will take two to three business days AFTER Merrill posts the consolidated 1099 before it can be exported to Turbo Tax.  I'll check back into this thread next week with the results.

[seefus23]

If you have more than 500 ML trades/transactions for the year, TurboTax ONLINE cannot handle the import. You have to use TurboTax DESKTOP version

[barflyphoto]

I am using the 2018 CD which I loaded into my desktop.

[bbugaski]

I print the Merrill Lynch summary pages, generally page 3-4 of the entire 40 page tax statement, and that contains all of the information you need for interest, dividends, misc., etc.  Seems to be the easiest way I have found so far!  Have any of you tried inputting manually this way?

I see no reason to import everything from Merrill Lynch when it can really be this simple.

This is the way I have been doing it for the past few years and have never run up against an issue with the IRS.  I do not list all of the trades individually, that would be nuts.

[barflyphoto]

UPDATE:  Three days after Merrill posted the Consolidated 1099 I was able to download the info.  I use the CD version of TurboTax Premier.

[markdanderson68]

Merrill Edge upload not working for me, using CD. Also, cannot do manually bc of 8 digit limitation. Supposedly Intuit ProSeries software will do more than 8 digits. Checking there next.

[Spino · Accepted solution]

To put it another way, your financial institution is telling you that they and Intuit (TurboTax, Mint) have not solved this problem together, since both are involved to make it work. Since other people have the same problem, there is nothing you can do to fix it.
The simple alternative is to enter the 1099 information yourself in TurboTax rather than importing it. This works more reliably, and since you have online access to your account, you are likely able to get the 1099-R information or form online. Of course you may want to work harder at it if you have dozens of stock sales to list!
Also note that some brokerages are just now putting up the documents. Schwab, for instance, says they'll have them up by tomorrow, although mine are already up. I didn't import them because I filled out the forms weeks ago. I'll just compare the actual form to my numbers to be sure everything matches, which will not require an import.

[boonton32boy]

Import from Merrill Lynch "is unsuccessful".
 Merrill states their system is OK. I can't find a person at TurboTax to speak with.

[seefus23]

Now I'm gonna tell you the brutal, hard truth. If you had over 500 transactions for the year at Merrill Edge (as many did due to free trade promos) your 1099-R probably isnt gonna download into Turbotax ONLINE. It will, however, import into Turbotax DESKTOP version, which you can purchase separately (one version is for windows, one is for Mac) and download into your computer instead of purchasing a CD. Problems COULD arise, however, when trying to carry forward gains or losses from 2016 online version to 2017 desktop version.

[bbugaski]

I, too, cannot import anything from Merrill Lynch.  Am I also crazy to think that the 40 page tax documents that Merrill Lynch sends are ridiculous and incredibly confusing for the average tax filer to understand?  A simple one or two page summary would be sufficient!

[markdanderson68]

Merrill upload is still a fail as of today 03/13/19 - they SUCK!