Form 8949 data can't be entered

[marhill]

I have TurboTax Premier 2024, which is supposed to handle security sales. However, it won't let me enter the data from form 8949, and if I override the TurboTax form, it doesn't carry the information forward.

[Bsch4477]

When you enter investment sales or exchanges from Form 1099-B or 1099-S in TurboTax, we'll automatically fill out Form 8949 and transfer the info to Schedule D. You don't need to fill out the 8949 yourself.

[fanfare]

 You can't acess Form 8949 directly.

You must use the Investments-> 1099-B panel to enter the amounts from your broker documents.

The software will generate those forms and Schedule D

@marhill 

[rjs]

Entering investment sales in forms mode is very complicated and error-prone. You should enter your investment sales using the Step-by-Step interview. TurboTax will fill out all the necessary forms, including Form 8949 and Schedule D.

The investment sales section of the Step-by-Step interview is available now. Make sure that you have installed the most recent updates to the software.

Make sure that you remove any overrides that you made. As you have discovered, an override can prevent the automatic calculations in TurboTax from working correctly.

[marhill]

I am perfectly capable of entering the 8949 data myself. I just enter data directly into all the forms and would rather do my return manually than use the step-by-step process!! Entering the data directly into form 8949 has worked in past years, and my software says it is updated.

[rjs]

You cannot make entries directly on Form 8949 in TurboTax. That has been true for at least the last 8 years. I don't know what you did in past years. Sales have to be entered on a Capital Asset Sales Worksheet.

If you just want to fill out blank forms on your own, you can download blank forms from the IRS web site and fill them out manually.

[marhill]

Sorry, I had forgotten exactly how I entered them. I finally got that to work after creating a 1099-B. Too many steps to enter the data for year-end tax planning!!!

[fanfare]

if you want to estimate tax effect,

you can just aggregate all YTD gains and losses LT and ST, into one or two imaginary1099-Bs 

That's what I do and I know the exact 1040 Line 7 amount

@marhill