Installment Sale entered in Depreciation Screen Prints on Form 4797 and Form 6252 in Lacerte

An installment sale showing on both Form 4797 and Form 6252 could be caused by multiple things:

1. If the asset was sold this tax year, make sure that the date sold has been entered under the General Disposition Information on Screen 22, Depreciation for the asset.
2. Form 4797 instructions state to use Form 6252, Installment Sale Income, to report the sale of property under the installment method. Non-installment and non-like kind exchange asset sales appear on the Form 4797.

If the sale is showing on both Form 4797 and Form 6252, then you will need to verify the input of the sale in Screen 22, Depreciation. This may be the result of a bulk sale entered with both Section 1250 and 1245 property linked together with current year Principal payments (-1 = none, triggers 6252) entered in the Form 6252 subsection of the Sale of Asset (4797/6252) section.

A critical diagnostic should generate stating:

Depreciable asset has a depreciation recapture method (1245, 1250, etc.) that differs from the main asset of the bulk sale in which it is included. For the depreciation recapture to be correctly reported on Form 4797, this asset should be input as a separate sale. (ref. #2000274)

Separate bulk sales will need to be entered for Section 1250 property and Section 1245 property.  The two should not be grouped together. The type of property is typically determined by the depreciation method used. An override is available in Screen 22, Depreciation, in the field, Blank = 1245, 1 = 1250, 2 = 1252, 3 = 1254, 4 = 1255 [O], in the Sale of Asset (4797/6252) section.