Thank you for your response. As you can see, this situation is a bit more complicated and subjective than it seems. In this thread, I see 3 different suggestions (#1 do nothing until 2020 tax return is filed, create a 1099-R in TurboTax in my 2019 filing, or report as "any other earned income" in my 2019 filing).
I'm confused, I'm just trying to pay exactly the tax that I owe (and certainly no more than that) and create as little headache as possible.
Maybe sharing my specifics will help. The background to this was that I had 2 employers (I changed jobs so I went from Firm X to Firm Y) in 2019 so i had 2 different 401k plans and over-contributed by $1k (instead of a max of $19k, i put in $20k) into my 401k in 2019. In January 2020 I realized the my mistake, so I got my 401k plan administrator to issue me an excess contribution check for the $1k (the check was for $1,100 because there was earned income on the $1k). I cashed the check in February 2020.
The issue that Dave brings up makes sense. TurboxTax's advice is basically saying make-up a "fake" 1099-R for 2019, but I will never get a 1099-R for 2019, actually I will get 2 1099-Rs in 2020 and I know this because I can already see them on my 401k plan's website. So i feel like the IRS will get confused by this (because I'd be creating forms that they wouldn't have a record of). I am leaning towards doing nothing for this in 2019 and waiting until 2020 when i have the 1099-Rs (like Dave suggested), or the other best option as I can see it is to put the deferral amount ($1k) as an "any other earned income" on my 2019 return and leave the $100 in earnings amount until my 2020 taxes are due.
I'm still confused as what's the best path forward. Any further thoughts/comments would be appreciated. Thanks everyone.
