I'm the OP and found my answer while running TurboTax in early 2019 for my 2018 taxes. I had profited a little over $6000 in "regulated futures" in 2018. About 25 years ago I had lost about $40,000 over ~6 or 7 years of my impetuous but otherwise lucrative youth. The IRS allows $3,000 of the accumulated loss to be deducted each year from income, even if there is no regulated futures activity. I've been doing it for years.
2018 was the first year in a long time that I tried futures again and I made a few bucks. The 1099-B from my broker has only 3 lines: 8, 10 & 11. The TurboTax form asks for the name of your broker, line 8 "a description of the account," and line 11, which is the total of realized & unrealized profits as of Dec 31. (No mention of line 10, unrealized profits.) I entered:
for "Broker Name" - I put the name of the broker
8 Account Description - I put "Regulated Futures," not the amount in the box (? is the "8" an error?)
11 Total Profit - I entered the amount
(there is also a "11 Total Loss" box)
I clicked "continue" and my "amount owed" at the top did not change. I clicked "done" then returned to the "Wages and Income" page. The amount of "Capital Loss Carryover"
in the "Investment Income" section had been decreased by the amount of my futures gain, and apparently not added to income.
So TurboTax automatically deducts futures profits from income if you have a Capital Loss Carryover from the prior year. Just enter your Box 11 in the "11 Total Profit" box.
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