Schedule D Input-Form 1099B Worksheet

[Dontax44]

In years past when entering stock sales you were permitted to enter Various for both acquisition and sale dates as long as you then selected the proper Short Term or Long Term designation.

Now you can no longer use Various for sale dates. So, if you have many sales dates for the same stock that are all, for example, short term, you have to enter each and everyone separately instead of just the total proceeds and cost basis for that stock.

Why make it so difficult?

[dascpa]

Not true.  In the past you would leave both sale date and purchase date blank if you were entering totals only and attaching copies of broker listing of sales. If you read any of the zillion posts on this board most people are entering 12/31 for the sales date and Various for the purchase date.

[Dave Kropp · Accepted solution]

I just enter 12/31/20 as the sale date then select long term or short term.

[FrankK]

I agree with you (and prior versions) that you should be able to enter "various" as the sale date, enter the summary proceeds and summary cost, and just attach the PDF. Setting the sale date to 12/31/20 is technically incorrect unless the sale date was actually 12/31/20.  I don't know if the IRS is going to have a hissy fit if practitioners set the date to 12/31, but it is sure less of a time waster than entering 6 pages of stock transactions simply because (in my case) TP has $8 of disallowed wash sale losses that preclude me from entering "D" transactions in the summary line of the 1099-B worksheet.

I suppose another option is to leave it blank, run the error checking before e-filing to confirm that this is the only error, then disable error checking before e-filing.  Leaving it blank is no worse than setting an incorrect date, IMO.

[Dontax44]

Thanks for your suggestions.

Would really like to know if it was the IRS or Intuit that changed the sales date option.

Of course, it really doesn't have any affect on the tax liability and attaching the PDF the IRS should see that and pass on any adjustments.