I have errors on Form 1099-B Worksheet Morgan Stanley Capital Asset Sales worksheet

[Tryingtofile]

Just got off the phone with a very nice rep.  He said many people have reported the problem and that it is being worked on.  He said it is only with the Morgan Stanley 1099, and that the etrade one, which covers the year before the merger, is okay.  I asked him when the problem would be resolved, and he went to check.  When he returned, he said there was no time-frame, but that it would probably take between 7-10 days, then we will get an email letting us know a corrected form is available in our account.  He said we could delete the faulty form from turbotax and upload the new one.

[khennek]

Good question. It seems a lot of people are waiting for that same answer.

[Red Fox]

I am torn on this. Allowing the user to erase an "N" code is bad in the sense that Morgan Stanley will STILL be reporting to IRS that you are the nominee of a joint account and need to re-distribute gains to other co-owners. Simply taking the N code off your tax form will not help if the IRS comes calling...

In this case, we are pursuing the best and only solution... getting Etrade (MS) to update their data feed to remove the N code where it is not appropriate.

[Red Fox]

Thanks to all that called Etrade to complain. If you do call them after reading this, be sure and mention that it sure would be nice if they'd TEST their imports before they release them to thousands of us on a long holiday weekend - who were trying to spend time to FINISH our taxes, not bang our heads against the wall on Final Error Checking... This was all so very avoidable if they'd just done a little beta testing with some actual 1099 data. Or asked the most eager among us to do so for them.

[potatoes77]

Totally agree with this.  MS had us wait until Feb. 17 for last year's downloadable data so they could make sure it's right... well it wasn't, Now we're all paying the price for cost cutting and lack of basic Software Quality Assurance (SQA).

I feel a bit similarly about SQA at TT.  In the last couple years, TT has allowed me to enter incorrect or implausible data. Without warning or visibility, it then files a tax form with a penalty amount that I would have to pay if I didn't go through all the forms it is about to file and review them line by line.  I have not had this problem before using TT for more than two decades! 

Therefore, I believe if TT made the "N" field visible with a simple explanation of what it meant, and let us correct it, then we would not have this problem.  That is, most people would have recognized they were not nominees and click on, "no, I am not a nominee".  Other people, such as those having hundreds of transactions, would have additionally notified MS.  MS would have fixed their error, and re-uploaded the proper data (for everyone) to the IRS.  This would make everyone's 1040 consistent with MS's IRS upload.

Thus, for most people with only a few sales, the "N" correction process would have been relatively painless and confusion-free.  As it turned out though, many of us would simply have entered a "0" in the adjustments field from within the error check system just to get our taxes done!  This would have resulted in a 1040 inconsistent with new data MS transmitted to the IRS once they had fixed their bug.  Believe me, that's not the way you want to go...

In summary, I think requesting that TT be able to deal with imported data in a more visible and understandable way (instead of in Error Check) is a reasonable request.  After all, that's the reason why many of us buy TT every year... to simplify a stressful and unpleasant task.

Also, a big thanks to all who called MS to put this issue on the top of their list!

[Red Fox]

Excellent points, Potatoes.

Like you, I use TT for consistency and thoroughness. I always check the numbers and the calculations, and go line by line in every form just to make sure I understand what it has done and I agree with it. Never do I "assume" it's done the right thing. There is absolutely no way I could do all these worksheets and forms on my own, and be complete and consistent, but I'll be smacked if I'll just fly blind and let it work on its own!!

As for SQA, your points are all valid... at some point, you just can't account for someone who fat fingers data at the brokerage house... in this case, at least it was something easily spotted, understood, and ultimately corrected.

[joel501]

Has anyone received information from Morgan Stanley about a resolution to this issue?  If so, could you please post that solution to this group.   Thanks.

[fmeschia]

I contacted ETrade/MS late this morning (PST), they told me they're aware of the issue and that their technical team is investigating it. They also told me that the incorrect "N" code was NOT reported to the IRS (which is great!).

[thebigzeus]

Not reported as in we can leave it and enter a $0, or?

[fmeschia]

My interpretation is that you should NOT enter zero and leave "N", because in that way your return wouldn't match what the IRS has received. Either you remove the imported data and enter the trades manually (without the "N" code), or wait for MS to fix, and re-import. 

[TAS467]

Tues. Feb 20 @ 430p EST

Just spoke with Platinum Service Customer Support.

• They are aware of the problem
• No estimated time when it will be fixed

I expressed my disappointment in that response, the lack of the sense of urgency, and the seriousness of incorrect financial transaction data being supplied to the IRS if the same type of data feed is being used.

"We apologize for the inconvenience."

After all of this is addressed, will probably transfer my account to another brokerage. 

[TAS467]

Chat Support

Tues, Feb 20 @ 450pm

Are you aware of the MS Turbo Tax import issue where MS is sending incorrect transaction data in the download file?

"This is a known issue that our team is currently working to resolve which should be complete by the end of this week."

Was the incorrect data sent to the IRS?

"I am unfortunately unable to confirm if it was sent to the IRS, but if it was we will send updated information once our team has made the necessary updates."

Is Morgan Stanley going to send an email comms advising customers when this is fixed?

"you will be notified once this has been resolved. I do sincerely apologize that this is causing a delay in filing taxes. We will notify you once this has been resolvd."

[fmeschia]

Very interesting, thanks for posting the transcript. It doesn't fully match what they told me, regarding reporting to the IRS. Here is the verbatim quote from my chat with MS:

I can see that you are chatting in about the code N when you imported your tax form into TurboTax. This was not reported to the IRS. This is an identified issue when importing to TurboTax. Our technical team is currently investigating this and working to get it resolved.

[jhilario72]

I think the main thing is that the E*Trade Morgan Stanley 1099-B docs were only made available as of 02/15, so that is not much time. We are all finding the same bug now, because we all finally were able to import the forms into TT. Hopefully, TT can push an update quickly that will fix this. I am ready to transmit my returns and this is the only thing holding me up. 

[RickP56]

I have the same errors, can't figure out to fix it.