forms available for import - TT delay

[rbrookefox]

Fidelity told me my tax forms were available on the 13th of January. TurboTax tells me they're not available until January 31st.

[rjs]

You're talking about two different kinds of forms. The forms that Fidelity says are ready are the 1099-series forms that Fidelity sends to you showing your investment income. TurboTax is talking about the various forms and schedules that are part of your tax return, that you send to the IRS.

When you prepare your tax return, you enter the information into TurboTax from the 1099-series forms that Fidelity sends you. Then TurboTax uses that information to fill out the forms that are included in your tax return.

[rbrookefox]

Well, no, I don't think so. To clarify, when I go to import the documents from Fidelity, TurboTax tells me they're not ready until January 31st; Fidelity said they were ready on January 13th. TurboTax itself is fully updated.

[rbrookefox]

As it turns out, the language Fidelity uses is misleading. The Jan. 13 email reads “Your tax forms are online and ready…. (but then…) Your tax form is ready—access it anytime. You can also see a list of all the forms you can expect and exactly when they'll be available this tax season.” Logging into my account and navigating to the tax form area reveals that 5 of 8 forms are ready and that 3 are in progress.

[rbrookefox]

The above-described error seems to apply to other brokerage sites with tax forms available for import through TurboTax.  I received an email advising me that my tax forms were ready from this non-Fidelity brokerage firm, but when attempting the import TurboTax told me the 1099-DIV would not be ready until January 29th. 

After logging into my financial account and navigating to the tax form area, the form is ready for downloading:

  "  View Tax Forms

    Tax year 2021: 1099-Div

    Date Form Produced: 2022-01-14

    Each Form 1099-DIV (Dividends and Distributions) listed above also includes a FORM 1099-B (Proceeds          from Broker & Barter Exchange Transactions) if applicable. Each form is IRS-approved and can be       downloaded and printed, and used in the preparation of your income tax return."

[rjs · Accepted solution]

The tax forms that you see, and can download, when you log into your brokerage account are not what TurboTax imports. The brokerage or financial institution has to create a special data file specifically for importing by TurboTax. I guess it takes them a little longer to create that file, after they have created the forms that you see in your account.

The tax forms that you see online are designed to be read by humans. They are images, usually PDFs, of the IRS forms. It's very hard, if not impossible, for computers to read those and extract the data. The special file for importing is in a digital format that's designed to be read by a computer.

[rbrookefox]

Thank you for that. I think you pretty much nailed it. I would only offer that the PDF files that Fidelity offers its clients first are not the native data format either, and that the data files they produce for TurboTax I imagine are in fact closer to the data formats that are the native formats of the data at Fidelity (csv or whatever).

[UserTMG]

1/31/22 tried to import Fidelity 1099-R. TT gives message that no forms are available for 2020 (NOT 2021). guessing that TT at least hasn't correctly updated their error message, and/or haven't "turned on" the feed from Fidelity. It may also be that Fidelity hasn't actually made the feed available quite yet. either way TT needs to fix the error message.