Capital Gains on Schedule D and Form 8949 Questions

[syoung123]

Hello, we inherited a brokerage account in late 2019.  In 2020, the brokerage firm sold some stocks that resulted in close to 90 transactions.  The 1099B (subsitute form that lists individual sale transaction lines?  It does not look like the 1099B form that I found on the IRS web site) from the brokerage firm, Merrill Edge, showed these transactions in two categories with these headings - "short term capital gains and losses, 1099-B line 2, box 6 net proceeds, covered transactions, cost basis reported to IRS, form 8949, part I, (A)"; and "long term capital gains and losses, 1099-B line 2, box 6 net proceeds, covered transactions, cost basis reported to IRS, form 8949, part II, (D)".  The 1099-B shows line item amounts under the columns - proceeds (1d), cost basis (1e), and "gain or loss"  There are no adjustments under column (1f) and (1g), these columns show zero dollars.  The Schedule D instructions appear to say if the categories are box (A) and (D), and there are no adjustments, that I can just put the short term gain/loss totals as one line on Schedule D line (1a) for short term gains/losses, and long term gain/loss totals as one line on Schedule D line (8a) for long term capital gains/losses.  And I do not need to fill out Form 8949.  Is it correct?  And if I don't need to fill out Form 8949, do I need to attach a copy of the 1099B from the brokerage firm with the tax return for mailing?  I am using TurboTax to do the return, but I am goint to print the return to mail.  I ask a couple of local CPA firms, and they told me I would still to fill out Form 8949.  Please advise.  Thank you.

[Bsch4477]

Use Form 8949 to reconcile amounts that were reported to you and the IRS on Form 1099-B or 1099-S (or substitute statement) with the amounts you report on your return. The subtotals from this form will then be  carried over to Schedule D (Form 1040), where gain or loss will be calculated in aggregate.  You can use the summary of the sale categories since they are covered shares. 

TurboTax will do this for you automatically. E-filing is preferable to mail since all the required forms will be sent to the IRS and your return will be processed much faster. 

[syoung123]

Hello, for entering 1099B in the income section, TurboTax has 2 options "I'll enter one sale at a time" and "I'll enter a summary for each sale category".  When I chose the "enter a summary", TurboTax says to enter total proceeds, total cost basis, and choose a sale category (in this case, I chose A for short term covered transactions with cost basis reported to IRS, and D for long term covered transactions).  TT then completed the entries and moved to the next topic, and a Form 8949 is not generated, since TT seems to indicate form 8949 is not needed if I enter a summary of category/box (A) and (D) capital gains with no adjustments.  The (A) and (D) summary gains/losses are then shown on line 1a and line 8a on schedule D, respectively.

According the some of the sources that say form 8949 needs to be filled out to support schedule D (and the summary of A and D sales would be entered on line (1b) and (8b) on schedule D), I chose "enter one sale at a time" on the TT 1099B entry screen to try to generate a form 8949.  In trying to enter a one line summary for all the box (A) short term covered transactions, I entered the brokerage name, such as "American fund", in the description box (1a), and when I tried to type "various" in the acquisition date box  (1b) and date of sale (1c) box (I was told by a CPA to use "various" for the acquisition and sale dates when entering one line summary on form 8949), as soon as I typed a letter "v" in each box, TT  automatically filled each box with "various".  However, after I typed in the data and tried to continue to the next screen,  TT highlighted the box (1c) "date of sale or exchange" in red with a message "please fill in or correct the highlighted info below".  So TT does not accept "various" in the "date of sale" box.  And I cannot just put in one summary total line for all the box (A) transactions and one summary line for all the box (D) transactions on form 8949 generated by TT.  I have 90 line sales transactions and prefer not to enter them individually on form 8949.  And I want to file a paper return.  Please advise.  Thank you.