There appears to be a bug with the .txf import in Turbo Tax Premier 2020. It is not importing the sales category (Box A,B,C,D,etc.) for any of the transactions). Help!

[maanavandrishi]

The sales category missing for all the transactions from the data after the .txf file has been successfully imported. Does this mean I have to enter the sales category for each transaction manually? I hope Turbo Tax is aware of this issue and working on a fix, hopefully before the April deadline??

[Old_CB]

I have the same problem with a direct import from Edward Jones on TT Deluxe.

[burn2l]

I have the same problem with direct import from Chase Investments and I suspect direct imports use the TXF format.  But it appears we can avoid the import and enter a summary of the total proceeds & cost for the short & long-term trades obtained from bank documents.

[burn2l]

TT support reports that they hope to have a fix in a couple of days.

[maanavandrishi]

So I tinkered around with it and fortunately 🤗 found a workaround to this problem. Instead of importing the .txf file from the Step by Step interview when it prompts for it in the Investment and Sales section, import the file from the File menu by selecting "Import-> From Accounting Software". Importing the file through this method will import all the sales categories too for each transaction.  Only the name of the broker won't be imported. Manually enter the enter broker's name in the corresponding Form 1099B Worksheet by going to "View->Forms". Be sure to enter the broker's name manually only by this method. Doing it through the Edit option of Investment and Sales in the Step by Step Interview will make the sales categories disappear again! 😮

My brokers are Interactive Brokers and TD Ameritrade and what I described above worked for both brokers, so I am pretty sure that it will work for other brokers and banks too as this issue appears to be a generic Turbo Tax .txf import bug (when done through the Step by Step Interview 🤔) instead of a broker's file specific issue. 

[Old_CB]

I have no "From Accounting Software" as a choice, just "From Financial institution" and this gives me the same problem. TT takes me to the same section as did the Step by Step with the login for the download and the Broker identified in the data. Every transaction has the same missing data. I hope this defect is fixed soon.

[Old_CB]

It is not fixed in update I installed today. Still missing "Sales Category" field.

[JeanneLO]

Please follow the instructions in this TurboTax FAQ to contact customer support for assistance:  What is the TurboTax phone number?

@Old_CB

[Old_CB]

After several hours on the phone with TT support, the defect is still there. I decided to follow the alternate path of manually entering only the Sales Summaries by Category rather than electronic import input and using the paper Sales Summary information from my broker. In my case, the summary by category was almost at the end after all the detailed sales data. I did not know until I talked with TT support and read some more that only the summaries are provided to the IRS and that, therefore, only the summary info is needed in TT. 

[maanavandrishi]

Thank you for that update. Very helpful. I will definitely focus on summary info entry for next year. Entering only sales summaries for large trade transaction definitely cuts down the size of the tax return and makes it easier for record keeping. Good to know that the IRS only cares for the sales summary info anyway, unless they decide to audit a specific transaction. In that case, only the data specific to that transaction can be sent to them later. 

This year, I was able to automatically important all the individual sales categories through the import method I described above. Perhaps the "Import - From Accounting Software" option in the File Menu is only available for the Turbo Tax Premier product.

[Old_CB]

Thanks for the reply. TT Support did not mention the "Accounting Software" option, so I believe your hypothesis on the Deluxe/Premier differences is a good one. I will remember this tip for next year.

[burn2l]

I upgraded to Premier in the vain hope of fixing the sales category problem, but I don't have an Import from Accounting Software option ... perhaps it's because I don't have such software!

[maanavandrishi]

Sounds like another Turbo Tax bug if you’re not seeing that option at all also in Turbo Tax Premier. 

I don’t have any accounting software either, but I still saw the “Import->From Accounting Software” option in the File Menu. Selecting “From Accounting Software” displays a list of Programs to import from,  one of them is “Other Financial Software (TXF File). Selecting this option prompts for the location of your institution’s .txf file that you want to import. I have attached image of what the File Menu option looks like.

[hawkedmd]

Take a look at your Schedule D directly. (Click forms and search for Schedule D.). All categories are filled in correctly. The very evident TurboTax bug appears only in that initial display. Dates do generate the appropriate categories on the Schedule D. Phew. 🙂

[hawkedmd]

(And, of course, the 1099B worksheet for details.)