Brokerage companies report information on stock and option trades on Form 1099-B for U.S. tax filing. Copying data by hand for dozens of stock or option trades is tedious and error-prone. TurboTax (and maybe other tax preparation software) supports the TXF format for importing data from Form 1099-B. Unfortunately, neither Charles Schwab nor TD Ameritrade provide a TXF file. They only provide a PDF file containing Form 1099-B.
TD Ameritrade reports may not work anymore because I don't have a current sample. For Charles Schwab, a minor change in column boundaries was required for "VARIOUS" dates.
There were minor layout changes in the PDF files. For TD Ameritrade, that required searching for spaces to get column boundaries. Also, scripts have been updated for Python 3. That requires specifying UTF-8 encoding for pdftotext.
The format of the PDF files again changed slightly from the previous year.
Charles Schwab now provides a CSV file but it doesn't refer to stocks by symbol, my preferred way of reporting capital gains. The format of the PDF files changed slightly from the previous year. Brokerage companies now report Box 6 of Form 1099-B (net proceeds) but that doesn't seem to make a difference for TXF files. The TXF spec was last updated in 2011 so that there are no changes for creating TXF.
First, the PDF file has to be converted to text using pdftotext (part of the poppler-utils package in Ubuntu or Fedora). On a Mac, you can install it with HomeBrew:
brew cask install pdftotext
If you use a different application, you have to verify that the columns specified in process-schwab-2018.py are still correct.
pdftotext -enc UTF-8 -layout 1099-b.pdf 1099-b.txt
Next, the python script for the respective brokerage company parses the text file into comma-separated values. Option symbols are normalized. Negative counts indicate short sales.
python3 process-schwab-2020.py 1099-b.txt > 1099-b.csv
python3 process-ameritrade-2018.py 1099-b.txt > 1099-b.csv
The CSV file can be edited with a text editor or Microsoft Excel to make changes such as replacing a CUSID with a symbol after a merger, adding a cost basis not provided by the brokerage company, or changing Form 8949 Box B to Box E from short-term to long-term.
The python script converts CSV to TXF:
python3 create-txf-2018.py 1099-b.csv > 1099-b.txf
If you have multiple accounts, you may combine the .csv files by sorting them before creating the .txf file from the combined file.
sort account1.csv account2.csv account3.csv > combined.csv
Import the .txf file into TurboTax via "File > Import > From TXF Files". You should see this:
These Documents Are Now Ready for Import:
- 1099-B (number of transactions)
The result does not look correct in in EasyView. You can verify it like this: "View > Go to Forms". Open Form 8949. Review the transactions. Note that Line 1 in both Part I and II is scrollable if you have more than six transactions. Also, there are multiple copies of the form if more than one of A, B, C or D, E, F is checked. While in Forms View, you can also update the transactions, for example, if the brokerage company did not report the cost (Box B or E), or if you have to complete columns (f) and (g).
If you don't like what you see, you can remove the imported data via "File > Remove Imported Data". If you overrode any values, you should undo that before removing the imported data because the override will affect the next import. Also, overrides remain by position in the form so that it is best to undo all overrides before removing any of several imported TXF files.
Wash sales are not tested because I don't have any examples for it. However, when attempting a different adjustment, the result was correct for a wash sale (just not for the intended adjustment).
TurboTax ignores the sign of the adjustment in the TXF file and always puts "W" in Box (f) if an adjustment is present. For other types of adjustments, e.g., "B", one has to override the values in Form 8949 in Forms View, including the new value in Box (h).