Question

Cost basis missing; further down on 1099-B from Schwab, long-term sales is doubled & cost basis listed. I don't know what to put in Turbotax as the numbers don't add up.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 1, 2019
3 replies
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Trying to complete my mom's taxes. She took a "distribution?" from Schwab account ... received proceeds, some of which say to check Box E, some another box. The Box E amount is confusing and I don't know how to input. First, 1E says "Missing" then further down (after Security Subtotal), "Total Long-Term Sales Price of Stocks, Bonds, etc." more than doubles the amount above (from 2500 to 5500). On that lower line, a 1E "Cost or Other Basis" is listed (2404.75). Then, realized Gain (or Loss) is listed as 595.25.

I don't know what to do (enter 2500 or 5500 as sales)? Either way, the totals in TurboTax don't match Schwab.

TurboTax Premier Online

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TomYoung

Employee

Your description of what you're seeing is confusing and hard to follow, though it's clear that you're looking at a 1099-B.

Here's a suggestion: DELETE everything you have entered with respect to the Schwab 1099-B and instead "import" the 1099-B into your mother's income tax return.  Schwab seems to be pretty darn good in coding the imported TXF file properly and that should at least get the "proceeds" portions of the 1099-B properly sorted out and lodged into the correct spots along with basis numbers that ARE being reported by Schwab.

I do believe you're going to have to come up with some basis numbers as a "Category E" sale means "basis not reported."  If finding the correct basis figures seems impossible then the first thing to try is to enter a basis of $0, which TurboTax will accept.  If mom's in the lower two tax brackets then Long Term Capital Gains are taxed at 0% and in that case entering $0 as the basis is fine; going to the effort to try and come up with a "correct" basis figure will give you no "tax benefit."

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solveig40Author

Thank you - this is very helpful!

fanfare

Employee

for each category (in this case, E) there is a grand sub-total of proceeds in that category on your statement

it sounds like two transactions, one with a basis identified and one without.

You must supply missing basis from your mother's own records.
the subtotal of proceeds on form 8949 part II should match your Schwab subtotal of proceeds.