Section 179 Carryovers Help Please!!!

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
July 10, 2020
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I’ve been doing my taxes all day and I am about to file my federal return but turbotax wont let me until I fix a mistake. I’m unbelievably frustrated right now. The problem is section 179 carryovers line 24. The error says "The total section 179 carryover shown here does not match the sum of the section 179 carryover shown on each individual activity". Can someone please explain to me in plain english how I come up with the correct number? It won’t even allow me to change the number that’s either in the box at the top, or in the actual forms below. Any insight is extremely appreciated!!!!

TurboTax Self Employed Online

Anonymous

the only thing i can come up with is that you have multiple activities where you took section 179. there is a 4562 worksheet for each activity and one for the total. you must go into each separate activity's 4562 and on line 12B of the smart worksheet select how much of the total allowable 179 you are taking for each activity.

by the way, if you don't want 179 carryovers, you prefer to deduct as much in possible in the current year, you can delete the 179 deduction and instead select bonus depreciation. it is not limited to business income like 179 is. just enter 0 for 179 and bonus should compute automatically.

benoblestAuthor

Thanks a bunch for the reply. You could be right as there might be multiple areas where I took section 179. So I need to go through each 4562 worksheet and add together the total for the number on line 12B? Ive already tried entering 0 and it won’t accept it. Just keeps saying there’s an error I need to fix and brings me back to the same problem. Thanks again for the help!

Anonymous

there will be noting on 12B that's an entry you have to make to allocate the allowable 179 deduction. only activities with a profit can be allocated the allowable 179 deduction and the amount allocated can't exceed the net profit before the 179 deduction.

Keith Peterman

Can anyone tell me how to correct Section 179 carryovers so they add up to the total shown on Line 24.

vwjuls

This exact same problem happened to me while doing my 2022 tax return. I own a sole proprietorship and use the online version. Turbotax told me that the number "0" was populated from my 2021 tax return, Form 4562, line 13. They were correct as I looked up my old form and the number on that line was "0". At first I didn't understand why. I had bought a vehicle in 2021 for the business and only took about half of the allowable 179 deduction and had imagined that I would be able to take the other half on my 2022 taxes (these amounts were all within the allowed for my tax situation). Well, I didn't want to go back and amend my 2021 return, so I went back to Section 179, and changed the amount to zero, so that it would match the 0 on 2021 4562. (Please note that I had to keep the Section 179 box checked and go to next and type zero in the box and save-the program would not let me just uncheck the Section 179 box and check the None apply box.) Since I changed it to zero, it seems that now the deduction will be spread out over coming years, as it would have normally been. It's not really a problem for me that I didn't get a larger deduction in 2022. It's just not what I imagined would happen.

I'm struggling to understand what about my 2021 return generated the zero on 4562 line 13. Maybe someone could answer that. The only thing I found in my 2021 return that might explain it, is that Turbotax generated a form called "Special Depreciation Allowance Elections under IRC Section 168(k)(7). It seems that somehow I had chosen to Elect Out of Qualified Economic Stimulus property. Maybe that has something to do with it, but I'm not certain. Maybe I checked a box because I didn't understand exactly what the box was...I should have looked for advice on that...too late now.

I'm glad I only spent about 3 hours trying to figure this out. I really feel for anybody, as this process was very frustrating. TurboTax could have certainly given better advice, other than "your 2021 return must be wrong".

Mike9241

if you were allowed say $10,000 of 179 but elected to take only $5,000. you CANNOT take the balance in the future. a 179 carryover only occurs when you elect to take more in 179 then the net business income before the 179 deduction.

if you selected to take the full $10K as per the previous example and you net business income before the 179 deduction was $8K your allowed $8K in 179 for the year reducing business income to zero. the remainder is carried over to the next year again subject to the net business income limitation.

Billmtfl

The answer for this year is 1000. The total amount allowed to be deducted this year.