tried what Turbotax expert advised and failed

[ebtz]

MarilynG1 suggested I try to amend my 2023 return & re-enter my 1099-R info to see if  numbers changed in order to see if Turbotax made a mistake in not including my pension income as taxable. I tried to do this 2 different ways. In the first, I never got to a place where the original & amended versions were compared. I just kept being asked to submit the same info over &over. The second time, I was asked many questions so i thought this would work.Then I got to a page that asked questions like "product cost" etc as if I was amending my 401k rather than my pension, so I got stuck. I case it matters, my 2a is blank ad 2b is checked.  Any more suggestions?

[MarilynG1]

It sounds like you didn't go through the Amendment Process correctly.  Here's info and a video on How to Amend a Tax Return.  Be sure to make a copy of your originally filed return first.

TurboTax does not compare your original/amended returns.  When you Amend, you are add or subtracting info that was not on the original return.  Form 1040X will display in Column B the amount of change to a particular line (in your case, Line 1, Income and Deductions) and Column C shows the corrected amount.  You then add an explanation of what you changed, and why (for example, 'correct 1099-R entry').  

If your 1099-R has Box 2a (Taxable Amount) blank, but Box 2b has 'Taxable Amount is not Determined' do you also have an amount in Box 5?    The Code in Box 7 is important, too.  Be sure to pay close attention to the follow-up questions after your entry. 

Generally, pension income is taxable income, however:

• If no after-tax contributions were made to the pension plan before distribution, the entire amount is generally included in taxable income.
• However, in cases where after-tax contributions were made to an annuity or pension, only a portion of the distribution will usually be taxed.

Here's more info on Pension Income and a detailed article on Form 1099-R.

@ebtz 

Here's more info on 

[ebtz]

I read all the links you provided and tried to do an amendment again and failed.  I think the problem may be that I did my 2023 return on my desktop computer which I don't have access to for now.  I gather that my amendment needs to be done on a 2023 version. Am working on my laptop and can't figure out how to pull up my original 2023 version there. The many times I've tried to do an amendment, I don't get asked any questions except for providing the reason for the amendment and I get asked that very same same question over and over and can't proceed further. Maybe its because I'm not working from my original return??  I clicked on a 2023 button my my Turbotax site but maybe that does not give me access. Who knows? Any ideas?  BTW in case it matters, the important code you mentioned for box 7 on the 1099-R shows a 7 on my 2023 1099-R and the box 5 is blank.

[RobertB4444]

If you are trying to amend your 2023 return in TurboTax you'll need to be able to open it first.  If you used the desktop software on your desktop and didn't delete it maybe it is still there?  If that is the case then I would wait until you have access to it so that you can do this correctly the first time instead of having to amend the same return a second time if there is a problem.

Code 7 in box 7 is for a normal distribution.  So it seems likely that your retirement income was taxable if there was an amount in box 2a.  

@ebtz