Form 3921 giving Maximum Value Error

[powellmark]

I am entering the information provided to me from a Form 3921. In box 5, my form has 222480. When I attempt to enter this value, I get an error that says "Maximum value is 99999.9999".

[matt_s_nelson]

there has to be a work around - any ideas?  I am trying to enter 2,551,577

[TomYoung]

I assume you are working in the "ISO Exercise and Hold".  The work around in in the answer below.

[matt_s_nelson]

Yes, That is correct but I would need to make 25 separate entries to cover the amount and I actually have multiple ISO options that were exercised.  Is that really the only way to get them entered?

[TomYoung · Accepted solution]

Simply break that amount into smaller pieces "as if" you had received multiple Form 3921's for the exercise of the ISO.

Tom Young

[slauer]

TurboTax allows you to enter an ISO exercise with a "blank" number of shares and does not give an error message.  It's not that I left the number of shares blank for the ISO exercise entry; I actually entered a number of shares of 225,000 and TurboTax allowed me to continue with no error message.  TurboTax did not alert me that the two grants I entered were actually entered with "blank" shares.  

It wasn't until I discovered that TurboTax was not accepting the number of shares that I went directly to the Form 3921 and tried to enter the number of shares there directly.  It was then, when I tried to enter the shares directly into the form that I was made aware that there was a maximum number of 5 digits.  

When it comes to the AMT calculation, this is a huge deal.  The sad part is that TurboTax allows you to enter no shares and the ISO exercise is not used in the AMT calculation.  With the IRS, ignorance is not bliss.  

I was obviously able to work around the 5 digit maximum once I knew that I had to.  Beware if you are entering ISO exercises with shares of more than 5 digits!!!

[chiz147]

This exact issue still exists in TurboTax 2018. Seems like the only workaround is to break the exercise transactions into multiple smaller amounts. Which means they won't match the Form 3921 the company submitted to the IRS. Hopefully this mismatch doesn't trigger an audit/review (even though the math gives the same result).

The error mentioned by slauer is still there too. You can enter the transaction even though the share # filed is blank. If you don't catch this manually it'll result in a potentially very expensive follow-up from the IRS

[TomYoung]

@chiz147

"Hopefully this mismatch doesn't trigger an audit/review (even though the math gives the same result)."

To allow you to sleep nights without worrying that the black-helmeted IRS agents will be breaking down your door early one morning, absolutely NO INFORMATION that you enter into your income tax return about Form 3921 or multiple Forms 3921 is included in your income tax return that you send to the IRS.

[chiz147]

Thanks @TomYoung, that's helpful to know