This final capital account tabulation is a great indicator of what a partner's taxable gain would be if the interest were sold. From a tax standpoint, a negative capital account is treated as a capital gain upon sale. Conversely, a positive capital account is treated as a capital loss if the interest is sold.
The partner with a deficit contributes enough assets to offset the deficit balance. The deficit balance is removed from the accounting records with only the remaining partners sharing in future gains and losses. The other partners file a legal suit against the partner with the deficit balance.
A DRO requires a partner to restore any negative balance (deficit) in their capital account upon the liquidation of the partnership. The DRO demonstrates the partner's willingness to assume the economic risk of loss in the partnership.
But if his capital account is negative, all additional partnership losses are disallowed. He will need to keep track of his disallowed losses because he can use them to offset future income (once his capital account is positive again).
If a partnership holds IRC 751(a) property at the time of the sale, the partner recognizes gain or loss from its share of IRC 751(a) assets. The ordinary gain or loss is subtracted from the total gain or loss. The result is the partner's capital gain or loss from the sale.
How to zero out partner capital accounts in a final year Go into the Input Return tab. From the left of the screen, select Balance Sheet, M-1, M-2 and choose Sch M-2 (Capital Account). Scroll down to the Distributions section. In the field Other decreases (-) (Ctrl+E), enter the appropriate amount.
In a final K-1 from a partnership LLC, the ending capital in Box L should ideally be zero, assuming all capital has been distributed and there are no outstanding obligations. However, if there is still a balance: It could indicate that not all distributions or payouts have been made.