A possible bug in Turbotax2020 (home & Business) on entering "second home sale"???

[tagteam]

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@LT21 wrote:

I asked before and I ask again here: are you an employee Intuit or a member of tech support team work for Intuit? I just want to know if your answers representing Turbotax/Intuit or not? 

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I am not an Intuit employee but just a member of a group of volunteers who help users of TurboTax on this board. Some of the information regarding functionality and program errors does, in fact, come from Intuit employees, however.

[tagteam]

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@LT21 wrote:

...please have this absolutely wrong TurboTax Help article removed from the official Turbotax/Intuit web site immediately (it shown it was updated one day ago by Turbotax).  

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Unfortunately, the only thing I can do is suggest that the TurboTax Help article be updated or removed and replaced. I can take no other remedial action on my own.

[LT21]

Hi Tagteam,

Thank you again for your reply and more screenshots. 

Following your last suggestion, the page you referring for entering a "second home" sale, to me, is for STOCK sale purpose (see picture below). When you fill boxes/pages for the sale in Turbotax, all questions asked are related to stock sales ONLY... Please let me know if this is the right page for reporting a "second home" sale. 

      

[tagteam]

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@LT21 wrote:

.....Please let me know if this is the right page for reporting a "second home" sale.       

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@LT21 Yes, that is the right screen for reporting a second home sale in your situation (no prior rental).

[amvivaldi]

I have the same issue as the OP re. the sale of an inherited second home that was never rented, or used for personal reasons.  As such, it should be considered as long-term capital gains per all the research I have garnered.  I have entered the data as suggested in this post in the 2020 version of TurboTax Deluxe.  However, I have encountered two issues:

1.  If I enter the acquisition date, it would flag it as a short-term capital gain since it was sold approx. 3 months after the inheritance while being unoccupied.  The online guidance is to enter the word "inherited" for the date acquired, as that would categorize as a long-term capital gain.  That generates an error!

2.  I have received a 1099-S for the sales proceeds, not a 1099-B.  There is no way to document that in the 2020 version of TurboTax Deluxe that I have found.  So do I select that I have received a 1099-B or not, which are my two choices.

Frankly, this deliberate omission for 2020 is a complete and utter disaster and disservice to the users. 

Any help from the community would be greatly appreciated.

[sjells]

Ran into the same problem in Premier 2020. Called support, couldn't solve. They are missing the listing for 1099S forms which includes Sale of Second Home. The screen you get looks like it is for stocks. Doesn't look correct for Sale of Second Home. To me this looks like a bug in the programming. If it isn't, then this is a very confusing way to handle this situation in their software. See photo below for 1099S screen you should get after saying no to 1099B. This is from a previous version of Turbotax.

[tagteam]

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@sjells wrote:

To me this looks like a bug in the programming. If it isn't, then this is a very confusing way to handle this situation in their software.

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The last sentence quoted above is accurate, in my opinion; it is not a bug.

[amvivaldi]

Agree.  If enough of us complain, maybe they'll do something about it.

Even though I was able to avoid the error by not choosing "Yes" for "Did you get a 1099-B or a brokerage statement for these sales?" (the 1099-S qualifies as such), doing so prevents me from entering the financial institution's name and account number.  So, I am at risk of having the 1099-S not associated with that sale, instead being interpreted as additional income and being audited for not reporting it.

Definitely a miss by Intuit!!!

[tagteam]

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@amvivaldi wrote:

Agree.  If enough of us complain, maybe they'll do something about it.

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I am sorry to say that eventuality would be extremely unlikely; it would take almost the entire user base.

[rienbouwman]

Well, I guess I will muddle through this year, and save a printout of this discussion in case I get audited by the IRS. Since there now no longer is a way to list list sales price and selling expenses separately, I will have to report a net sales price (after deducting my selling expenses). But then my reported sales price will no longer match the sales price reported to the IRS on form 1099-S. Not a good thing when the IRS starts verifying my reported sales price against the 1099-S submitted by the real estate broker.

I have enjoyed Turbotax for many years, but I will never buy it again. Time to check out H&R Block and TaxAct!

[Irene2805]

You can report the sale of a second home and list the sales expenses separately by using these steps:

1. Open or continue your return in TurboTax.
2. In the Search box, enter sold second home and select the Jump to link in the search results.
3. Answer Yes on the Did you sell any investments in 2020? screen.
4. Answer No on the “Did you get a 1099-B or a brokerage statement for these sales?” screen.
5. The next screen is “Tell us about this sale”. Mark the radio button next to I’ll enter one sale at a time
6. On the screen, Tell us about this sale, enter the total sales proceeds as well as the other information requested.  [See Screenshot #1, below.]
7. Continue to the screen, Select any less common adjustments that apply.  (In TurboTax Online: Let us know if any of these situations apply to this sale)
8. Mark the first box The reported sales price did not deduct all fees or selling expenses.  [Screenshot #2]  (In TurboTax Online: I paid sales expenses that aren't included in the sale proceeds reported on the form.) [Screenshot #3]
9. Enter the sales expenses not deducted from the sales price entered earlier.

SCREENSHOT #1

SCREENSHOT #2

@rienbouwman

[rienbouwman]

Thank you so much for this explanation!! This is exactly what I needed. You have restored my faith in Turbotax support!

[Irene2805]

You're very welcome!

@rienbouwman

[amvivaldi]

HI Irene,

I have already done so.  However, this still does not address the concern in my original post re. the inability to associate this second home sale with a 1099-S that I received.  The 1099-S is an IRS allowable form for reporting "Proceeds from a Real Estate Transaction".

So, there is a concern of being audited for unreported additional income (as reported in the 1099-S).  How do you propose doing so, given that by choosing "No" to the 1099-B, I am unable to modify the "No Financial Institution"  that that choice forces into the field that would have been correctly populated if a 1099-B was selected. 

I believe I can override that field in Forms mode and enter the institution's name in the Form 1099-B Worksheet that gets populated if one follows the steps you outlined and which I had already done.  Is that advisable, given that it provides needed information? Also, since a 1099-S will be submitted, should I be unchecking the "Transaction not reported to the IRS" box in that worksheet that appears to be the default when the choice of not having received a 1099-B is selected?  Please let the community know.  Thanks.

[LT21]

Hi Irene2805,

Thank you for your reply. 

I originally raised this issue. Even I believe what you explained may eventually solve my reporting a 2nd home sale in Turbotax this year, I still don't understand why Turbotax omitted (or deleted) that choice selection page in the software as it was in previous years.   

It wasted a lot of my time (and others) to find a correct answer/path to solve this problem. I posted many notes in this site and I called Turbotax tech support line twice and talked to them for hours (it was not a good experience to listen to long machine recorders and then wait long time on line for a real person). One thing I learned from my calls was there were NO new IRS regulations/requirements on this topic... (so why change???).

Even if the "way" in previous year and this year will finally fill the same IRS tax form, I still hope the Turbotax will do more user friendly changes not the other...