ESPP Data Entry Bug on Second Transaction

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 14, 2021
12 replies
25 views

I entered one ESPP transaction and all goes well. I start through the second entry and when I get to the point where it asks for the 3922 form to enter in the additional details it looks like it gets confused and shows the data I entered for the first transaction. Even when walking into the wizard the share count is wrong when it gets to the step where you enter the details it is pre-populated with the data from the first transaction which is incorrect. I updated with the info for the second transaction and it looked like it clobbered the record for the first transaction.

Please fix this bug ASAP as I have several transactions and this is very annoying.

teksplorer

Level 3

Hey. This is definitely a TT bug (and it really bothers me that TT shipped a product and hasn't yet fixed such a basic issue). Having similar issues (there is a thread discussing some work arounds, like recording each ESPP sale in a "separate" Brokerage account).

For me I found it works to switch between Step-by-Step view and Forms view part way through the process (I posted it here: https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/investments-and-rental-properties/discussion/re-espp-rsu-issues-on-turbo-tax-2020/01/1923945#M62154 ).

"Here is the what I found as a work around. I switch between the Step-by-Step view and the Forms view.
Initially populate the share sale data from 1099-B in Step-by-Step view.
When you get to the the Tell us about the ESPP sale screen, select the employer, click next. It brings you to the "OK, we just need a few more details" screen. Switch into the form view (from that point on don't use the Step-by-step interface for the sale). Manually fill out the Employee Stock Transaction Worksheet with data from your form 3922 for this particular transaction. You should scroll down a little bit and confirm you see the correct Compensation Income in that sheet once you fill out the info.

Switch back to Step-by-Step view. Click on some tab like "Personal Info" (so that you don't proceed through the Step-by-Step for the transaction. Then you can go again to the Federal Taxes/Stock Sales/brokerage screen, "Edit" the transaction you just entered, click through "Next/Done/Continue" (without changing any of the data), until you get to the screen where it says "Here are the ESPP purchase lots we have so far", and it should have the correct info associated with that sale. At least this convoluted process works for me.
Now repeat the process for the next ESPP sale."

jaredtsmithAuthor

Level 2

Thanks for the pointer on that; I ended up working around it by entering it as if it was a different brokerage account that worked. All the numbers calculated matched my W2 at the end so I'm assuming it all worked right.

One note for others I did not find any issues with RSU entry I was able to enter a bunch of RSU transactions under a single account with no issue so looks like this just impacts ESPP.

Autarch-of-Null

Level 2

I encountered this same problem. I ended up deleting all the entries and starting over but using the mode where you fill in all the numbers. When I was done, it was still showing too large of a capital gain - it tells me that it has adjusted my basis by the bargain element (which was included in my W2) but what it puts into schedule D is still *wrong*.

So, I'm seeing two bugs: Second pass through still shows info from the first sale and even if you get everything in properly (manually) it will tell you your basis was adjusted but it was not.

I think the best I can do - since basis was not reported - is to calculate this entirely myself and enter the corrected basis and ignore treating it as a sale of Employee Stock.

This has worked so well for years - I wonder why they broke it for 2020?

tbonafide

Level 2

Yep, I'm seeing this issue on my side as well. Please fix this TurboTax.

3064jean

Level 2

You are correct! I have the same issue this morning. I sent email to them.......

Toxeus

Level 2

I found the same bug. It's easy to reproduce. I've sent feedback to TT. Hopefully they will fix the issue ASAP.

schnauze

Level 2

Team, I ran into the same issue and finally figured out to ditch all of the individually downloaded ESPP transactions from my brokerage, and simply enter 1 TOTAL transaction (all total ESPP shares for the year). Inside of the step-by-step for this 1 transaction you will find a screen where you can enter individual "Lots" of ESPP sales, and use step-by-step for each Lot. This worked fine and I entered each individual transaction as a different lot. For some reason, TT has only allowed 1 table entry for all ESPP transactions.

teksplorer

Level 3

I don't know if this is allowed under IRS rules (not an accountant here or tax expert), because you are now combining multiple transactions into one on Form 8949. Since the transactions have different cost basis (which is getting adjusted) and different sale / acquire dates, I think they have to be individually listed on Form 8949.

tbg74

Level 2

I also ran into this problem and had to use one of the workarounds. I was curious if the latest program update (dated 2/17/2021) may have fixed this, and I tested it out on a backup of my file...but unfortauntely it looks like the bug is still there and it's still grabbing/populating the data from the first ESPP entry when working on the second, and ending up with a $0 cost bais for the second entry. 😞

esppecially_annoyed

Level 2

I had exactly the same issue.

TT asks a question that are both poorly worded for anyone who had more than one ESPP purchase period in the year.

I had two ESPP purchases and sales. When entering information for each sale separately, TT asked "Did you buy all this stock at the same time", and I answered "yes" because the stock in that sale was all purchased in one lot. But if you do that, the answers you give will apply to *all* stock sales, not just the sale that you're entering.

The new ESPP workflow is very misleading in a way that is likely to cause people to be double-taxed (or worse) for their ESPP ordinary income, and is worse than 2019 when you simply had to know how to calculate the adjusted cost basis yourself.

dslatcher

Level 2

Please please please fix this Turbo Tax. Can't believe you released a Premier product that does not work for one of the main reasons why I purchased it!

xarpila

Level 2

I've been tearing my hair out over multiple days on this. Not happy at all with the product.

dslatcher

Level 2

I was able to get my transactions in. I took a tip from one of the other users and created a new brokerage firm for each of my other transactions (I called them ETrade1 and ETrade2) and entered the info on my own. If you have had ESPP transactions in prior years, you might be familiar with where all the info comes from. Luckily I only had three transactions in total so this was not too bad. But still, it is pretty outrageous that TurboTax can let a bug like this exist. Every year I swear I'll never use TurboTax again, maybe next year I will switch finally. Good luck.

HappyCamper85

Level 2

Yes this exact thing was driving me nuts this afternoon! Does TurboTax take note from this forum, or does it need to be reported elsewhere? I can try the work around, but really we shouldn't have to jump through all those hoops!