Employer Stock Worksheet: Line 25. Column (b) should be entered

[TaxGuy9]

So I'm running into an issue with getting my RSU sale added. (This is on TurboTax Desktop)

I had 1 RSU vesting on a date. The single share was sold to cover taxes. This was reported to my W2 as income and taxed.

When I go to enter this sale into Turbotax and I'm asked to fill out the Vesting/Release info, I put 1 share vested and 1 share sold. 

But this is giving me an error with 'smart check'. When I look at the form, I can see that sale is not being entered into line 27 of the Employee Stock Transaction Worksheet. 

How do I fix this?

[DavidD66 · Accepted solution]

Since this was an RSU, and the value was reported on your W-2, I recommend you report it without going through the Employer Stock Worksheet questions.  You may want to delete your current entry and reenter.

If you received a stock award (e.g. Resricted Stock, or RSUs), tax is assessed on the value of the stock on the day the stock vests/ is delivered.  That amount is ordinary income, and is included in Wages on Box of your W-2 for that year.  Your cost basis is also the value of the stock on the day it vests or is delivered.  The problem is, brokers don't have (or don't report) that information.  If you know the amount that was added to your income, that is your actual cost basis.  In order to keep from paying tax on the stock award twice, you have to correct your cost basis.  To do so, go to that 1099-B transaction, and on the page with the Description, Date Acquired, Date of Sale, Sales Price, and Adjusted Cost or Other Basis, click on "I'll enter additional info on my own".  On the next page, enter the "Corrected cost basis".  That's it for you RSU.

[TaxGuy9]

Thanks! This seems right based on how my returns were in the previous years where the broker actually reported the cost basis in a similar scenario!

[romanm07]

RSU are reported on w2 only for that particular year, if you sell some later you need to use this part, yet this section in turbotax is broken and buggy. It keep asking for line 25 b, also if you select long term and then date acquired 'various' if will default to short term and you can end up paying wrongly lot more

[aje_li]

I encountered the same issue when reporting my RSU. However, I did not see "I'll enter additional info on my own" on the page with the Description, Date Acquired, Date of Sale, Sales Price, and Adjusted Cost or Other Basis. My version is turbotax Premier. 

[romanm07]

I figured it out for my case.

What I found out is that my company's RSU management company distributes 1099-B with cost basis NOT reported to IRS, as a result you have to go through the pain and figure out all the cost basis one by one, how many rsu you got, how many you sold for how much and also don't forget that cost basis for you was likey not 0 ( despite turbotax suggesting - often 0) , as it is typically already in your paycheck and taxed. After you do this it will calculate correctly and tt will no longer complain.

[aje_li]

I have done the same for all sales including 1 share vested & +1 shares vested. I have no issue when reporting +1 shares vested sales, but I got error when reporting only 1 share vested sale. It seems that I can still e-file by ignoring the error, but I just would like to make sure I am not doing anything incorrectly.

[dafofanoff]

I am getting this same error today with TT Premiere desktop version.

Example of 10 shares of RSU entered step by step:

1. Each set of shares are listed on 1099-B on separate sales line items:
   1. 4 Shares sold by company for taxes - one line item.
   2. 6 Shares sold by me
2. Imported the 1099-B and edited these sales as follows:
   1. 4 Shares, for Cost Basis entered the adjusted cost basis from sell confirmations doc from financial vendor.
   2. Entered 4 for the amount of shares sold for taxes. (ie. all of these 4 were sold for taxes).
   3. 6 Shares, same adjusted cost basis update.
   4. Entered 0 for the amount of shares sold for taxes (ie. none of these 6 were sold for taxes).
3. After completing entries, W2 calculation check equals what is on my W2 for "RSU Ordinary Income" addition.

So, either I am entering the shares sold for taxes incorrectly, or there is a program bug. It is only showing this error for the shares sold for taxes line items. Any insights would be much appreciated.

[RobertB4444]

Are you entering these sales into the employer stock worksheet or just entering them as regular stock sales?  Because you're doing the math correctly so you should follow @DavidD66's advice and enter them as regular stock sales.

[onemoment]

I have entered the adjusted costs for the RSU. The Turbox tax smartcheck still want me to enter line 25, column b for all the lines... looks like a program bug.

Just want to make sure I can still file the return with this smart check error or if anything I can do to fix it.

[abp0822]

I was stumped by the same issue. When I opened the Forms section in TurboTax to see exactly what line 25 column (b) was, it made me think I should be entering the awarded shares amount reflected in my broker's "employee stock plan release confirmation". Hope that I am doing this right - I went ahead and plugged in the awarded shares for each time stocks vested in 2021. 

[nginther]

This 10000% a bug in TurboTax. 

In my scenario, I had 21 RSU shares vested. 11 shares were reported on my 1099-B as being sold to cover taxes. This means I have 10 shares remaining. I've quadruple checked the values entered and TurboTax is claiming I have 1 share unaccounted for. I'm not sure what TT has messed up, but I'm appalled that the "accepted" answer is to essentially remove the information or ignore the error. 

Turbo Tax....FIX YOUR **bleep** or give me my money back!!!!!

[Anonymous]

I absolutely agree here. I am running into the same issue after checking everything 3 times. It is a bug they must solve or give us a refund. I am calling support right now.

(I am using TT Premier 2021 desktop Windows) 

[Anonymous]

Update: After more than 120 min on the phone with support, they were unable to provide me with a solution and left me hanging on the phone line. I called back trying to reach a manager only to be forwarded to a tax expert with a wait time of 50 + min.
The support specialist told me the only thing he could do was to give me a 20% discount for the online version to which I responded that it was unacceptable. I paid for the full desktop version only to encounter a bug and now they want me to pay for the online version?

This is my first time dealing with such dishonest customer support. TurboTax should be ashamed of this. This is my last tax season using this platform!

[GeorgeM777]

One option would be to report this sale as a simple sale of "plain-vanilla" stock, stock that's no different than a stock you bought through your broker (as long as you know or can determine your correct cost basis which it appears that you do).  You will have to delete what you have entered; however, the overriding objective is to create an accurate tax return.  If you can do that by entering this information as a basic stock transaction, then that might resolve the error.

In connection with entering the RSU information, answer NO to 'is this employee stock ' which will avoid having to enter vesting info, stock sold for taxes, etc.  Moreover, the value of the RSUs has already been included on your W-2 and reported to the IRS by your employer. 

@Anonymous

@nginther