TurboTax TXF specification for stock trades
For those who are looking information on the TurboTax TXF tax exchange format, scroll down...
For years, I have downloaded my stock trade information from my trading institution, manipulated it into pairs of buys and sells, and transferred that information into TurboTax. Initially, I had copy-pasted the information into the TurboTax fields. That took hours. In later years, I developed Perl and AutoIT programs that automated the data entry. (It was satisfying to sit back and watch the cursor jump from field to field and click button after button, as if I were operating the mouse and keyboard. But then, this year, changes in TurboTax prevent my AutoIT program from finding the entry fields. Ugh. Would I have to enter the data manually again? Please, no. And I do not want to pay for and manually enter stock information into Quicken.
TurboTax had an option for importing stock information. I only had to have a file in TXF format (Tax Exchange Format or Tax Export Format). Surely, TurboTax/Intuit would have some description of that file format somewhere? Nope.
I found this description on a Russian site: http://www.softhelp.ru/fileformat/txf/txf.htm . Well, that page was difficult to read, so I connected online with a TurboTax/Intuit help agent and asked where I could learn about the TXF specification. After 45 minutes, the Intuit agent reported that she and her supervisor could not find any information. Wow. I gave them the link to the web page I'd found and thanked them for their time.
I gave the web page another look and started putting the pieces together. That page describes far more finance-related details than I needed; I just wanted to know about stocks. And it turns out that the format for stocks is straightforward.
With a little bit of programming, I manipulated my stock info into this new form, and TurboTax readily imported it.
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Here is the basic form of a TXF file for stock trades.
Lines of a TXF start with single letters or with ^ or $. Start your txf file (e.g. myStocks.txf) with lines that identify the version (V) of TXF spec (036), a name (A) for your solution, the date (D) of the "export" of information to the file, and the record-ending symbol "^":
V036
AMy stock data
D 12/31/2008
^
For each stock buy/sell, provide these four lines (the N321 informs TurboTax that it's a short term trade; use N323 for long term trades):
TD
N321
C1
L1
Follow those lines with the trade description (P), the sell and buy dates (D, D), the sell and buy amounts ($, $), and the record-ending symbol "^":
P100 shares of IBM
D4/3/2008
D2/1/2008
$4000.00
$3000.00
^
I recommend that you create two dummy records and try importing your txf file into TurboTax to confirm that it works. In my experimenting, I discovered that the buy and sell rows were backwards from what I thought the spec said.
Comments
John... TXF is an financial industry specification. It is not maintained by Intuit, although we do have its functionality embedded in TurboTax (but few customers use it). Here is the link for the full spec (my link may not reflect the most recent version):
http://turbotax.intuit.com/txf/TXF041.jsp
I'm not sure why you use TXF instead of just importing your transactions directly from your broker. We support about 120 financial institutions and the import process certainly is extremely easy, complete and accurate.
Anyway, I am glad you found a way to automate your stock transactions.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Bob, I'm impressed! It was only last night that I had chatted with the agents and subsequently blogged about my findings and here, 12 hours later, you--a VP with Intuit--have provided helpful information and insights. Thanks!
I'd sure like to know what the behind-the-scenes story is for how you learned about this issue...and this post!
John... We actually have regular updates on what drives contacts. Plus, we can review any cases that come into our contact center. And finally, I use Google Alerts. In this case, Google Alerts put me onto this thread.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Aha--the Alerts! I speculated that you or an underling might have such a watch in place and I knew Google would index the new blog post in short order. A wonderful system.
Hats off to you (and Intuit) for your speedy and generous customer service!
I still wonder how many other customers have would want to know the TXF format for simple stock trades. Would they wish, as I did, that there was a link in TurboTax to a short writeup about this? My post illustrates how short and simple it could be. Sure, slather it with all the legal disclaimers you need. I would have understood that any errors in my data entry and manipulation into proper TXF format was completely my responsibility.
Importing from the financial institution and avoiding my own programming sounds ideal. My reluctance is due to my knowing that one year's data will include "unpaired" stock trades--trades for which there is a buy but no sell, or a sell and no buy. I would (1) want TurboTax to record only the paired stocks and (2) want to know what was unpaired, for my own records, and I speculate that the import process plus TurboTax would not give me this #2 info. (That's my guess!) Year to year, I keep track of unpaired trades (long term trades) that I need to combine with this tax year's trades to see which are now paired and which old or new ones are now unpaired. I suppose that's one of the benefits of Quicken, managing all that, but I tried data entry in Quicken years ago and found that cumbersome and so I settled on what I found to be more efficient in my own solutions.
The financial institutions pair the buy/sell transactions when they report to the IRS (assuming they keep track of buy information). The file they prepare for import into TurboTax has the paired transactions so for the most part you don't need to do anything. At most, you may have to enter cost basis information if the brokerage does not track cost information. You are correct in that the import file does not include buy only transactions, just sell transactions.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Man, you're good. Nice to know the mechanism for pairing--to address my fear, uncertainty and doubt. Thanks for all of this info, pointing me in the right direction. And thanks for your TurboTax product. I am grateful that I have been able to do my own taxes for all of these years, thanks to your ever-improving product.
You are a champ! Belated thanks and kudos for the post.
I have held one stock since 1952 and it has experienced numerous splits, purchases, transfers between stock certificates and reinvestment plans plus a transfer into a new symbol.
Now I'm free to sell a hundred shares or so without the fear of entering 35 FIFO transactions.
akren
Akren... Glad this helped you. Maybe two people now use this functionality!
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
Bob,
Couldn't find a better way to reach you so I figured I'd try this! I have tried various Internet searches on the subject of TXF specs but you seem to be "the guy" who knows about this stuff.
The TXF041 link above links to a spec that's a few years old. Have their been any updates?
In particular I'm wondering if there's a way to include data for TSJ code and/or Brokerage House.
I am actually a ProSeries user, not TT and I just imported a file with hundreds of stock trades and had to manually add the TSJ indicator and Brokerage House to each line (trying to tie into 1099-B totals from multiple accounts.) Still better than manually entering hundreds of Sch D trades so I'm not complaining, just hoping for a little extra functionality to keep up with the software improvements from recent years. I think it was with the 2007 tax software that Intuit added fields for Num Shares and Brokerage House.
Thanks!
Bob, is there undocumented support in the TXF file for Form 6781?
For active traders when you trade index options or futures they are called 1256 contracts and they go on Form 6781, not on Schedule D.
There should be a generic format of the year:form:line instead of using tokens, then anyone could expand the file in the future easily.
If I export a TXF from TT Online is it a complete file, or are items omitted like the Form 6781? I.E., can I do that, analyze the file and see how it handled the 6781?
Rick, there is a separate TXF spec for ProSeries which includes a lot more stuff needed for business returns:
http://www.proseries.com/support/ty05/faqs/pdfs/TXFSpecificationBiz041.html
All... I am virtually certain that the TXF spec does not support Form 6781 or at least it is not supported by TurboTax. If you want all the functionality that it seems you guys want, review the OFX specifications. This is what we and most financial institutions support today.
By the way, although the IRS wants an itemized accounting of all transactions, in practice I still see most attaching their Excel worksheets to the return with summary information reported on the tax forms.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
========= THAT'S ALL FOLKS =========
Isn't it wonderful that Bob jumped in and helped out like this?
I know that more of you want to post questions for Bob (you found this blog because you're searching for answers to your TXF questions), but this isn't a tax forum and I don't want to do that to Bob :)
John
========= NO MORE COMMENTS =======
John, Thank you so much for going through this effort. I can't use the institute created TXF files. Have 30 trust fund stocks that were sold and have to be divided equally among 7 beneficiaries. Trust fund stock enter the stock on their own tax forms as if they had sold it themselves. I was afraid they would all throw rocks at me if each had to hand enter all that information. Now I can create and send them a TXF. You don't know how happy you made me!!! - Jerry
Excellent! Thanks for the good word, Jerry
Hey Grumpy OldMan -- Thanks for the feedback. The TXF specification is an industry or open specification, not an Intuit/TurboTax specific one. As long as you follow the specification, TurboTax will import from that TXF file. As far as I know, the TXF specification hasn't changed in probably a decade. Search online for "TXF specification" and you'll find plenty of hits. By the way, we support hundreds of brokerages using a different open specification (OFX), but the brokerage has to provide the OFX functionality to their customers for us to import. The latter open specification is far, far better than the very old TXF one.
I hope this info helps.
Bob Meighan, VP TurboTax
Grumpy OldMan -- TurboTax supports direct import of your brokerage transactions from Fidelity (and has for over 10 years). If it is not working for you, I suggest you double check your Fidelity login credentials (from within the stock transaction section in TurboTax). We do not show any issues with import. By the way, I am not aware of any way to import an OFX file independently of the TurboTax / brokerage connection.
Bob Meighan, VP TurboTax
Another suggestion - You do NOT need to enter each stock transaction individually within TurboTax (if you skip the import functionality). You can enter two transactions each summarizing the short and long term gains. You then separately submit to the IRS a worksheet or statement showing all transactions. The procedure for doing this is described in the TurboTax interview for stock transactions.
Bob Meighan, VP, TurboTax
Tunafizzle -- Thanks for contributing to this post.
Ever since the IRS introduced Form 8949 and the requirement for cost basis reporting/reconciliation, Schedule D (capital gain/loss) has gotten ridiculously complicated. The frustration you're experiencing in entering your transactions is the direct result of the IRS' insistence on more information and reconciliation to the information your broker reports to the IRS.
Unfortunately, there is no easy, fast way to enter lots of transactions if you're not using the TurboTax Import feature. Manual entry will be a slog. If there is any consolation, it is that if you have lots of transactions you can summarize them into groups of short term gains, short term losses, long term gains and long term losses (there are potentially more grouping depending on whether cost basis is reported to the IRS). You'd then report those summarized numbers on Schedule D and include the detailed Excel (or whatever) worksheets as an attachment to the return. This supplemental report can be mailed to the IRS separately if you efile the return. (The specifics of doing this are described in the interview section of TurboTax for capital gains/losses. Added complexity comes into play when your cost basis does not agree with what the IRS has.
It is highly unlikely we will change manual entry in this area since something like 90%+ of all financial institutions support our auto Import feature. I don't know much about the virtual currency reporting requirements, but this may put you in the small group of unsupported financial institutions.
I hope this information helps.
Bob Meighan, VP TurboTax
Keep in mind that the TXF specification does not support all fields required by TurboTax. Nevertheless, here's a link to TXF V.42 (which is now almost 7 years old):
https://intuit.box.com/s/nrmdvt49936cogw7s0gzslbb9r4x04gs
Hope this helps.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax
v42 is the latest version that I know of. I'm not sure who currently supports the TXF specification. It's so old that I doubt anyone formally supports this industry specification.
Bob Meighan
VP, TurboTax