Turbotax state missing carryover of long term capital loss from prior year

[DRWurtz]

My 2022 Massachusetts State return shows in line 23. Massachusetts available long-term losses for carryover an amount of approximately $9k.  TT 2023 advises in the prior losses dialogue that if you transferred information from a prior return, "we already transferred it to this year's return".  However these available long term losses from my 2022 MA state return are not showing up in my current (2023) return line 8. Carryover losses from prior years - this line indicates $0.  My long term carryover losses are showing up correctly in my federal return; they are just missing from my state return.  Is this a bug in the program or is there a rule that is not being explained?  Do I need to enter this loss information manually, and if so why is it not carried over automatically like the program indicates?  Where can I see where prior year data being carried over is confirmed?

[DRWurtz]

After waiting 5 days with no response to my post (I understand this is a busy time of year), I decided to create a Diagnostic copy (sanitized) of my 2023 return to send to Intuit and call the support line [phone number removed].  I was connected to a live agent within 20 minutes, during which I was asked to share my TT interview screen with them.  Upon review their response was that if the data did not get transferred automatically from last year's return, I should simply enter the amount in manually, which I did.  

While was glad to get a clear response and direction, the solution was somewhat less than reassuring in the integrity of the program, but it allowed me to complete my return with the correct data.

I'm using TT Deluxe Desktop version.  Note that this help was available without paying anything extra (eg without TT Live).

It does not yet seem to be a known issue, but eventually my post should be reviewed by Intuit.  In the meantime, I recommend that all TurboTax users check their state long term loss carryover from prior years to see if anything is missing.  I went back 10 years and found no other long term (or short term) carryover losses that would have been eligible for carryover.

If an investigator at Intuit is looking for my 2023 diagnostic return, the token is 1216354.  However confirmation and resolution of this issue may require access to additional data in my 2022 tax return that show the missing available carryover amount.

[AnnetteB6]

Thank you for providing your 2023 token number.  You are correct, to take a closer look at this situation more fully, a copy of your 2022 token number would be very helpful if you are willing to provide it.  

As a reminder, the following is the method to use to generate the token number from a CD/downloaded version of TurboTax:

• Select Online at the top of the screen.
• Select Send Tax File to Agent.
• Click OK.
• Post the token number here.

@DRWurtz 

[DRWurtz]

Hello @AnnetteB6

Thank you for looking into this.  I have sent my 2022 sanitized TurboTax file over.   The token number is 1218618.

I'll look forward to seeing what you think about this.

Dana

[AnnetteB6]

Thank you for sharing your 2022 and 2023 token files.  Here is what I did.

I opened the 2022 file to see that there was indeed a long-term carryover loss for your state available on the tax forms.  

Then I opened the 2023 file and went through the Massachusetts return to see the messaging on the screen telling you that if you used TurboTax in the prior year that your losses would be automatically included.  I checked the actual tax forms to see that nothing had been entered for a carryover long-term loss.  At this point I'm thinking that there must be an issue to report.  

The next step I took was to use your 2022 tax file and start a new 2023 return from that file.  I made no entries in the return except to start the Massachusetts return.  Then, checking the forms that were created by starting the return, I could see that the long-term loss carryover had been entered.  I also clicked the Data Source for that field and it showed it had been transferred from the 2022 file. (See the screenshot below.)

I cannot say what could have caused the value to not transfer correctly in your return, but it appears that the mechanism within the program to do so seems to be working.  It is good that you discovered this and you were able to enter the amount manually, which is always an option.  

@DRWurtz 

[DanaRW]

@AnnetteB6 thank you for your thorough review.  Based on what you demonstrated it appears that TT did correctly transfer the prior year's long term capital gains losses into a new sample 2023 return.  I can't comment why it did not work for me when I initially began my tax work in mid February, but I'm thinking it may have been a bug that has since been resolved by periodic updates.  Because my transfer occurred several weeks ago (as opposed the the transfer you did just today), that may have been before the bug was fixed.  In any case this confirms the value in checking the prior return for correctly transferred data.

Is there a way to see what data has been transferred from the previous tax return?  I cannot find how to access that data in the menus. 

I appreciate your diligence.

[AnnetteB6]

I am not aware of any method to see exactly what data has been transferred from a prior year return.  Seems like that would be a good idea, but I don't think the capability is there to do it easily.  

To reproduce the information I shared with you, I opened the new return with the data transferred from the 2022 file and went directly to Forms Mode.  There was nothing there for the state return.  So, then I added the state and did not answer any questions to start going through it.  I went back to Forms Mode and could see which forms were already there.  It included the MA Schedule D where I could see the data that was transferred.

@DanaRW 

[DanaRW]

Ok thanks, @AnnetteB6 

Understood there's no way to see specially what data was transferred from the prior year's return vs what was entered or imported.   I do know you can see what data was imported and I agree it would be a good idea to be able to see that too. 

Your process looks good to confirm that the data is being brought over from the prior return now, so I see no reason to replicate that.  While it remains a mystery why it did not happen the first time, I have the data there now and am ready to move on and file my taxes.

Thank you again for the confirmation and assistance, which lends credibility to the TurboTax product integrity and support process.

Dana

Thank you again for following up so quickly.

[MarkSH26]

I have the same problem. I wonder if the data was not transferred because when I first started Turbotax, I had not yet loaded the MA tax part. The transfer from the previous year was done without the MA tax part in place. When I later added the MA tax part the transfer was not repeated.

    Is there a way to get the transfer from last year's MA taxes to happen now?

[aarmidillo]

I'm running into the same issue. Capital loss carryover is not being transferred for MA from 2022 return after importing Federal from last year, although TT says it was supposed to be. I was also looking for a way to force the transfer without luck.  Makes you question what else isn't getting transferred for the state. 

[AmyC]

The program does like things done in a particular order. If you started before transferring, that could have confused the program. If the program sees a carryover loss in the federal, but not the state, it will ask in the state. You can populate the correct information. See the screen, Tell Us About Any Prior Year Carryover Losses.

View your forms to be sure your transactions are correctly captured.

• In desktop, switch to Forms Mode. 
• For online:
  1. On the left side, select  Tax Tools
  2. Select Print center
  3. Select Print, save or preview this year's return
  4. If you have not paid, select pay now.

@MarkSH26 @aarmidillo 

[DanaRW]

@AmyC I would like to respond to your comment, "The program does like things done in a particular order. If you started before transferring, that could have confused the program."

I have been using TurboTax for many years, probably 30 years.  I agree with your first statement, you can indeed confuse TT if you do things out of order - I have learned this the hard way in the past so resist any deviation from the interview process, until I have at least gone though every relevant question once. 

However, with regards to your second statement, I accepted the offer to transfer the previous years data when the program asked me to, very early in the interview process.  Everything came over except for the prior year's long term capital losses for the state taxes.  I did not deviate from the interview process, but TT left this data out for some reason.  I attribute the omission to a bug that subsequently got fixed (because another agent couldn't replicate the issue).  However I was able to enter the missing data manually and proceed.

[aarmidillo]

I agree with @DanaRW. I transferred the return from last year at the very beginning too but the MA capital loss carryover did not make it. I also manually entered it to get around it. I'm glad to hear it was fixed but I won't be able to confirm this myself until next year. 

[cbmoore]

Same problem here with Massachusetts state tax not including capital loss carry forwards from 2022.  I've fixed it by entering the numbers but TT should know that this is a real problem.

[your9mare]

Same bug for CA State not including prior capital loss carryover from 2022. I had to enter manually, too