Should I send in a copy of my form 8949 with form 8453 to the IRS, or should I send an original copy of form 8949? I have E-filed my taxes.

[amp388]

I have E-filed my taxes through TurboTax, and have been told to mail in my Form 8949 with Form 8453 to the IRS, but it doesn't say anywhere whether I need to send in a copy of my 8949 or the original. Which one do I use?

[IreneS · Accepted solution]

It's OK to send in copies of form 8453, form 8949 and the brokerage statements.

TurboTaxAnthony provides excellent guidance:

The answer below is going to assume that you choose to use the summary transaction method of reporting your 1099B transactions instead of entering individual sales.

Yes, you will need to physically mail the Form 8949 along with Form 8453 and your summary statements from your broker.  You need to do this when you choose the summary transaction method, which is why TurboTax is prompted you with this information.  

What type of statements you need to include depends on what information is included on your 1099B. If you have transactions (other than sales of collectibles) for which: 

1. You received a Form 1099-B (or substitute statement) that shows basis was reported to the IRS and doesn't show any adjustments in box 1f or 1g, 
2. The Ordinary box in box 2 isn’t checked, and 
3. You don't need to make any adjustments to the basis or type of gain or loss reported on Form 1099-B (or substitute statement), or to your gain or loss.

Then, you don't have to include the supporting details of each transaction and you can just include the summary statements.  If the above doesn't apply, then you will need to send both the summary statement from your broker and the individual transaction detail statements (1099B).  If you are unsure, then you should send both the summary and the full 1099Bs.

E-filed returns – Within three days after the IRS has accepted your return, mail the Form 8949 generated by TurboTax, a copy of the summary statements provided by your broker, and the Form 8453 generated by TurboTax, to the following address:

Internal Revenue Service
Attn: Shipping and Receiving, 0254
Receipt and Control Branch
Austin, TX 73344-0254

Click this link for a copy of Form 8453:  Form 8453

[Edited | 3/13/2020 |  1:00pm PDT]

[erikmjohansen]

Turbotax really ought to warn people about this big inconvenience when selecting summary option.  It also didn't really make it well known to me after E-filing either.  I just happened to print out physical copies and saw form 8453 and wondered what it was all about. At the bottom it has tiny hard to read print stating to mail the form to IRS.  What a pain.

[davidmiller8686]

I'm confused, I field my taxes through TT deluxe, standard deduction, for whatever reason I wasn't able to efile and had to pay upfront. My federal and state were both filed through TT so I only had to mail in 7 forms,witch I did and it shows my federal was filed on February 2nd 2018.I didn't see anything on the forms I printed out and mails where I had to fill in any questions or numbers just my signature and date so I signed and dated the forms and mailed them for federal, I finished my state last week,cause I was so confused on the 3rd step of filling cause it said I couldn't efile my federal because some forms couldn't be exiled and I had to check not ready to file on state cause that's the only way I could get my federal done, I went back into my TT account several times trying to finish state,finally I seen where it said I had to change having pay my state debuted off my card to pay by check then I was able to finish filing my state.so now it shows both federal and state filed and ready to mail.I mailed the federal forms off February 9th.I received a letter in the mail today from state of Alabama department of revenue stating tax period, individual income tax 12/31/2016 it says a review of my Alabama income tax return for 2016 indicates that additional information is needed,it says when reviewing your account, 2016 w2 information from my employer was not present in our system, absent from receiving this info ,your only option is to submit a copy of the 2016 w2 you received and a copy of your last pay stub for 2016,after receiving this info we will evaluate whether we will allow the withholdings reported on your return. Submit the info along with a copy of this letter by march 16,2018.I filed federal and state through TT 2016 also and it was efile, so I'm confused why they don't have that information and why I'm just now getting notice of it.so I need to know if I can send a copy of that w2 from my TT forms I printed off for my own records if I can't find my original w2,and also I don't have a pay stub cause I got paid in cash/check so I need to no what to do about that cause I don't want my federal return to be put in hold or not get at all because of my w2 somehow didn't get received by the state of Alabama when I efile it just like I do every year and I have never ran into this issue. I played TT $120.00 for 2016 filing cause I played the $44 for the audit protection.please help me understand this mess,and let me no 100% that its OK if I send a copy of my w2 that I downloaded from my TT account and send them that form if I can't find my original copy.

[MASachs]

Totally agree. My TT filing didn't even include Form 8949.

[jerrya1]

do I send original 1099 on all sale or just one that did not repot cost basis

[jerrya1]

form 8453 do I send all 1099b statement or just 1099b that de not show cost

[GiseleD]

I don't know if you summarized all of your sales or not, so the safest thing to do is send the entire 1099-B. That way, the IRS has everything they need.  

@jerrya1

[bhargavgajji]

if I had to work with paper filing I would rather enter all the transactions my self. Turbotax didn't warn me regarding this before efiling. 

Can I re-file the taxes with actual transactions to avoid sending these forms? 

[JeanneLO]

@bhargavgajji

No, you won't be able to send the forms electronically if you have already e-filed. You will need to mail them in.

[pitkinsa]

What should I do if I filed my state taxes by mail without the 1099B attached to the 8949? Do I need to amend the state filing in some way? CA normally requires the entire federal report attached as part of the filing, and I did not include the 1099B attachments where they were needed.

[gloriah5200]

The Forms 8453 and 8949 are federal forms, not CA state forms.

Since the actual Forms 8453, 8949 and 1099-B were not part of the actual federal return filed, but instead were supporting documentation sent to IRS after the federal return was accepted, you should not mail it to the CA FTB unless they request them at a later date.

[noviceattax]

This is extremely bad. Turbo tax should prompt about it while filling the e-return. I could have easily provided step wise information and not choosen the summary option. This is a crap design. Why didn't it prompt us?

[Canyonguy]

Totally agree!  TurboTax doesn’t bother to notify the user of the 8453/8949 requirement until AFTER the user has e-filed their taxes.  By then, it’s too late.  TurboTax Premier is supposed to handle investment activity competently.  However, instead of explaining the consequences of entering summary totals in Schedule D, it just let’s you do it and doesn’t bother to tell you that, if you do, you will have to mail paper documents to the IRS.  That is a sick joke and defeats the entire purpose of e-filing.  This is a Design 101 sh&*storm which should have been caught by a first-year developer.  TurboTax should compensate everyone adversely affected by reimbursing users for the time, expense and unnecessary aggravation of e-filing our tax returns only to be told after-the-fact that, oops, now you have to mail in a bunch of paper documents — which could have been avoided with a half-decent explanation in the Schedule D data-entry section.  TURBOTAX SHOULD BE EMBARRASSED AND ASHAMED BY THIS RIDICULOUS, BASIC OVERSIGHT ON THE PART OF THEIR PROGRAMMERS!!!!!  TurboTax owes a huge apology to every user who was adversely affected by their shoddy “interview” process for Schedule D — and needs to fire the development team responsible for it!

[Canyonguy]

The more I think about this, the more infuriating it is.  TURBOTAX OWES USERS AN EXPLANATION AND A HUGE APOLOGY!  And here’s a crazy thought for the suggestion box:  how about letting real users test your software before you release the bug-riddled, badly explained software you provide year after year?  Is it too much to expect for TurboTax to include minimally competent explanations to users who rely on this software?  Tax returns are absurdly complicated and TurboTax is supposed to make them comprehensible to normal human beings.  If they release a version called “Premier,” it should function at a premier level — not at the garbage level this thread clearly shows it to be.