ESPP Sales Causing Federal Refund Amount to Change on Load

[BaconPancakes88]

Greetings!

I'm writing to report some inconsistencies I am seeing with the Federal Refund amount. It looks like this has to do with ESPP stock sales and both qualifying and disqualifying disposition types.

On my W2, Box 14 I have:
$XXXX.XX ESPP DD
$YYYY.YY ESPP QD

This income is NOT included in my box 1 wages.

After freshly entering all my ESPP sales (as well as all my other info), my federal return shows as $774.

When I save and re-open my return (Turbotax 2023 version 023.000.0428), my Federal Refund drops to $136.

Now, if I just run through and simply confirm all the various screens and prompts for each my 4 ESPP sales, allowing TurboTax to walk me through adjusting my cost basis, my Federal refund amount jumps after reviewing each lot, taking my Federal Refund all they way up to $1,548. The question at the end of the section confirming my dispositions and W2 income inclusion now no longer includes my ESPP DD, only my RSUs.

If I delete all my ESPP sales and re-enter them, my refund changes to that original $774 amount and the question at the end of the section confirming my disposition now includes my ESPP sales and the amount exactly matches my ESPP DD.

I'm not sure what is happening but I honestly don't know which number to trust as I can get 3 different amounts depending on what actions I take by loading a saved return vs. reviewing the ESPP sales vs. deleting + freshly entering my ESPP sales.

I'm thinking the $768 is actually the correct number since it looks to properly account for the ESPP DD and count that towards my ordinary income, but this feels buggy and frankly quite concerning.

Anybody else experiencing this?

[CatinaT1]

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[BaconPancakes88]

I've updated to the very latest version as of this evening and the bug where simply reviewing and clicking through the existing ESPP sales and having it increase my refund amount (seems to make the total disappear from my total disposition amount) still exists.

After some manual calculations it seems my refund amount is closer to the lower number I mentioned but my manual calculations still show a difference of ~$300 more.

[AlexT17]

I see something similar, now in 2024. I've not participated in ESPP in years, so I'm less familiar with the cost basis adjustment process and what manual calculations to attempt (to find the correct number).

Before filing my 2024 return, I'd noticed that my amount due decreased when I adjusted my ESPP cost basis per the TT guided steps. This made sense, as I was trying to avoid the double taxation of the 15% discount taxed as ordinary income and the artificially low cost basis shown on the 1099-B (adjusted with Form 3922). However, when I filed, the amount due returned to the original, higher number (equal to before I did the basis adjustment).

Just tonight, with TT on the phone, I went through an amended return, following the same cost basis adjustment. We went through filing with TT showing that I was owed a refund (equal to an amount matching the cost basis adjustments). However, once again upon submitting I see the PDF shows I'm owed $0.00 (matching the behavior from when I initially filed).

Anyone else tracked this down? In my case, it was a disqualifying disposition ... and I need to look at whether this relates to the fluctuating numbers throughout the TT filing process.