1099-B Wash Sale Less than $1 error

[usurp-lefthand-religion]

I'm getting an error during smart check stating that "Accrued market discount should not bet 0."  The value listed on my 1099-B is $0.37 and entered correctly into turbotax, but keeps giving me the error.  Any help would be appreciated.

[Mike9241 · Accepted solution]

the easiest solution is to round to whole dollars which is what TT does when reporting on forms 8949 and schedule D. i realize this is only practical when there are only a few trades that need fixing. 

[usurp-lefthand-religion]

That worked to fix the error.  Thanks for your input!

[lfri]

Nevermind, I figured it out....

[fgleason]

Unable to change the Disallowed wash sale amt.  Actual value is $0.01. Entry box shows "0.".  Unable to make any changes. 

[jleasure]

@Mike9241 

My wash sales were .11, .11, and .18, which obviously rounded to 0. 

I read somewhere that manually entering the sales in question works. It did not. However...it DID work when I manually entered  them and made the wash sale blank. 

Can anyone advise me if this is going to raise issues once the IRS receives this? I already paid for TurboTax and really don't want to mail this in. Is leaving those 3 numbers blank really going to cause issues?

[KathrynG3]

It is unlikely to cause an issue due to the lack of tax impact. 

When you say it did not work, I am assuming you mean there was still an error after entering the stock transaction details until you left the wash sale area blank.

I tested the wash sale adjustment process in both TurboTax Online and TurboTax CD/Download and was able to enter amounts less than $1.

@fgleason

[fgleason]

The message says: Accrued market discount should not be 0. Enter amount disallowed under wash sale rules, or leave blank if entire loss is disallowed. 

The purchase and sale price are greater than $, the loss is $0.01.  The Disallowed wash sale amt entry box shows 0. and is highlighted in blue.  Nothing I do will change the value in the box. I have multiple errors like this.  Continuing past all of them just gets Smart Check to start again. Unable to get past this problem.

[AnnetteB6]

The error messaging you are seeing with regard to the wash sale entries is a result of automatic rounding of the number imported from your broker or typed in by you.  If the wash sale adjustment is $0.49 or less, then it is automatically rounded to zero.  This type of rounding is allowed by the IRS.  Unfortunately, zero is not a valid value for this field -- thus the error message.

To resolve the issue, you can edit each individual transaction (although not from the screen in the review process) and delete the amount entered in the wash sale adjustment if it is $0.49 or less.  This will clear the error message.  

To do this, you will need to revisit the input section for the Form 1099-B transactions.  Use the following steps:

• On the top row of the TurboTax online screen, click on Search (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax locate the search box in the upper right corner)
• This opens a box where you can type in “1099-B” and click the magnifying glass (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax, click Find)
• The search results will give you an option to “Jump to 1099-B”
• Click on the blue “Jump to 1099-B” link
• Click Edit beside the institution name
• Click Edit beside each transaction that contains a wash sale adjustment amount of $0.49 or less
• Delete the wash sale adjustment amount and click Done

If you have too many transactions that would require editing, you can consider deleting your imported information and entering a summary of the different categories of transactions reported on your Form 1099-B (short-term covered, short-term not covered, long-term covered, long-term not covered).  This would require you to mail a copy (not the original) of your Form 1099-B from your brokerage to the IRS within three days of filing your return.  The Form 1099-B would be attached to Form 8453, which will print with your return.  

@fgleason

[fgleason]

Hi,  I believe I successfully followed the instructions. I have Desktop Mac version so things are a little different.   I can change the Sales Price/Proceeds and Cost Basis.  Adjustment Amount can not be changed and in the upper right above the form it says 'Calculated' when I select that field.  Also in Part III  on the line for wash sale loss the entry box is yellow, the value of '0.' is red and the entry can not be changed. The status at the top says 'Error' and at the bottom I see the same message about wash sale rule I see when Smart Check runs.

[noel55222]

Is this going to be fixed?

[AnnetteB6]

The issue with rounding the wash sale amount to zero when it is $0.49 or less is currently being investigated and addressed by the appropriate team.  There is no known time frame for this available for me to share.  

In the meantime, see the information below for two possible workarounds -- editing each individual transaction affected, or entering a summary of your transactions and possibly submitting Form 8453 and your documentation to the IRS.

The error messaging you are seeing with regard to the wash sale entries is a result of automatic rounding of the number imported from your broker or typed in by you.  If the wash sale adjustment is $0.49 or less, then it is automatically rounded to zero.  This type of rounding is allowed by the IRS.  Unfortunately, zero is not a valid value for this field -- thus the error message.

To resolve the issue, you can edit each individual transaction (although not from the screen in the review process) and delete the amount entered in the wash sale adjustment if it is $0.49 or less.  This will clear the error message.  

To do this, you will need to revisit the input section for the Form 1099-B transactions.  Use the following steps:

• On the top row of the TurboTax online screen, click on Search (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax locate the search box in the upper right corner)
• This opens a box where you can type in “1099-B” and click the magnifying glass (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax, click Find)
• The search results will give you an option to “Jump to 1099-B”
• Click on the blue “Jump to 1099-B” link
• Click Edit beside the institution name
• Click Edit beside each transaction that contains a wash sale adjustment amount of $0.49 or less
• Delete the wash sale adjustment amount and click Done

If you have too many transactions that would require editing, you can consider deleting your imported information and entering a summary of the different categories of transactions reported on your Form 1099-B (short-term covered, short-term not covered, long-term covered, long-term not covered).  This may require you to mail a copy (not the original) of your Form 1099-B from your brokerage to the IRS within three days of filing your return.  The Form 1099-B would be attached to Form 8453, which will print with your return.  

@noel55222

[fgleason]

It is good to know it is being investigated.  Continuing to give instructions to edit a field that can not be edited is unhelpful.

[WendyN2]

Yes, I agree. This field, as you know, cannot be edited so an immediate "fix" would be manual entry and gosh for some that is a lot of time-consuming data entry. The hope across most all tax software companies and brokerage firms is that this issue will be resolved by mid-March (corp. tax filing date 15th). I do hope so for so many!

[vecheverri10]

This is absolutely absurd and the only issue holding up my filing...I've been with Turbo Tax for years but they are really slacking on a lot of these "small issues". I spent 2 hours talking to them in regards to uploading my Crypto transactions... which was also giving me an area due to the lack of updates on Turbo Tax's end. Modernize with the time's guys!