Foreign Employer Work Pension

Forum|Forum|6 months ago
March 13, 2026
4 replies
219 views

How to PROPERLY report a foreign employer work pension and be able to file ELECTRONICALLY?

I don't want to create a substitue 1099-R with a mock TIN, nor declare it as other income, which does not treat the income as retirement and doesn't transfer properly to the state form.

From the information I'm gleaning left and right, I understand that TT is unable to properly deal with this type of income. Is this correct? Because apparently, a competitor deals with this smoothly and without having to use any kind of bypass etc.

TurboTax Premier Online

pk_

Level 15

@rphdenis , yes there had been some posts on the subject. Can you tell me what kind of pension ( private, govt. service based or Social Security equivalent , annuity etc. ) and also from which country ( some tax treaties controls which country ( ies ) can tax the pension income.

I will circle back once I hear from you --yes ?

rphdenisAuthor

Level 2

Thank you for your response.

This is a pension from an employer. Not social security, annuity etc. I know the difference.

It is from Canada. Not tax exempt but special treatment for state.

And no, I don’t want to use the discontinued IRS form 8891 and I don’t want to paper file either.

What I would like, is for TT to fix this like other softwares apparently have.

Thanks again!

pk_

Level 15

@rphdenis , I am sorry if I have offended you. Please be assured that I had no intention of questioning your knowledge and/or familiarity with the taxation of foreign pension. Please consider forgiving my trespass.

In the meantime , I have simulated on TurboTax windows version of Home & Business --- the scenario

1. US person aged 65, filing as single and no dependents, US tax home

2. No US source income

3. Receiving private pension from France --- pension of US$50,000 from a French entity, with no US address.

4. Distribution amount 50,000, taxable amount 50,000, "Taxable amount Not Determined " box NOT CHECKED

5. The distribution used "normal distribution -- code 7 ", "IRA/SEP/SIMPLE" Box NOT CHECKED

6. While filling out the 1099-R entry box, used a EIN ( for the distributor ) of 23-1000000 , just to keep the system happy. Used Foreign Address for the distributor. I agree here that TurboTax should allow for a "nil" EIN like 00-0000000 when foreign address for the distributor is selected or some means of disabling the error flag when "nil" or NO EIN is selected ( there needs to be a way to flag missed EIN entry for domestic case vs. none/nil for foreign case ).

7. The follow-on screen did allow for entering details for 8938 entries ( foreign trust/pension account ) and also check for FBAR requirements.

I don't know if this the way other tax software handles the situation, but for my specific simulation, it worked well -- just a bit roundabout way. Just note that pensions, whether domestic or foreign , still need boxes 5a ( Gross distribution ) and 5b ( taxable amount ) to be filled --- the whole process still needs to use the same process / treatment for both domestic and foreign sourced pension.

Thus other than a bit of issue with EIN handling and addressing issue, my simulation worked fine.

Is there more I can do for you ?