Carry over losses for doing taxes

[Krista Manna]

Because I purchased a property in 2020 and then sold in 2021, my 2020 taxes had a loss listed on them (both for the business and for my net income).  I'm trying to figure out where to list the loss carryover in Turbotax?  I have multiple businesses.  I first listed my loss that was listed on last years taxes for the flip business as a loss carryover in this year's flip business.  But now I've found a section that talks about net loss amounts.  Is that where I'm supposed to put it?  The business had a "loss" of 40K but the net loss for all my income in 2020 was 15K.  Which number do I use?  Without putting the loss in it makes it look like I made 40K more this year then I actually did on the flip. Without putting a loss in, the software was claiming I owed the same amount in taxes that I made on my flip so ... that's not right. I realize this might be an accountant question but they were all booked in my area until May so I'm muddling through doing it on my own one last year.  

[Greg Scott]

A couple of thoughts:

First, you don't really need a local CPA. Federal taxes are the hardest and most state taxes are a variant of Federal.  Find good CPA instead, regardless of where their office is.

Second, if your return is pretty complicated a good CPA will keep you out of trouble and find you more ways to save.  In your case, it may be money well spent.  Instead of trying to do your filing o your own, you may want to file an estimated return which would give you several months to find a CPA and have them finalize your return correctly.