I HAVE THREE W-2S. I FILLED OUT SCREEN 30, I SELECTED 2106 ON THE FORM BOX ON SCREEN 30, BUT NONE OF THE THREE W-2S SHOWS UP AS AN ACTIVITY TO SELECT IN THE ACTIVITY NAME OR NUMBER BOX. I SUSPECT THIS IS WHY 2106 WILL NOT FILL, BUT CANNOT FIGURE OUT WHY I HAVE NO RECOGNIZED ACTIVITIES.
what do you mean by fill
should be screen 30 second box click 2106
then scroll down and enter amounts paid
the w2's do not need to show as an activity
It would appear that if the client does not qualify to itemize, the 2106 is not filled in (this appears contrary to most Lacerte forms' protocol). However, the Schedule A contains the unreimbursed employee business numbers, even though Schedule A is dimmed, indicating it is not being used for the filed return.
To me, it would be helpful if the 2106 or 2106 be filled in by Lacerte and left dimmed, indicating not being used by the filed version of the return.
But those of us shaking our heads wondering why 2106 won't fill, need to instead look at Schedule E.
TYPOS ON PREVIOUS RESPONSE
2106 OR 2106-EZ
UNREIMBURSED EXPENSES APPEAR ON SCHEDULE A, NOT E.
OOPS.
If you can't stand these items being dimmed, maybe you can temporarily throw in a ridiculously high figure in Schedule A just so you can "see" what the 2106 will look like. (Example: throw in one million dollars of contributions, and make the name of it "test only.")
You'll then be able to print the 2106's, see how they should look -- just to verify that they were inputted right -- and then back out the phony million on Schedule A.
Then if you don't get a Sch A you can tell your client with confidence that you tried to get the deduction for unreimbursed business expense, but it wasn't enough, even when added to other itemized deductions, to make itemizing worthwhile. You can also add a special line item to the bill for trying to itemize and/or trying to do the 2106's, even though they don't come out in actuality.
There may be some states, by the way, where what you input in the 2106 field, helps at the state level even if you don't itemize at the Federal level. (It's not exactly that way with the PA Schedule UE, but sometimes you can ask Lacerte to pull numbers from the 2106 onto the UE.)
