First, pension and annuities are taxed the same way. This often leads to taxpayer confusion when TurboTax says one thing but the taxpayer thinks they have the other - pensions are taxed like annuities and vice-versa.
Second, when TurboTax asks about the questions about the pension/annuity, this is because TurboTax is looking to find if you had "basis" in the retirement plan so you should not pay tax on part of the distribution.
Basis in a pension/annuity are after-tax contributions that were made to the pension/annuity; these contributions are not taxed again when they are distributed according to a schedule determined by an actuarial table.
If there is an amount in box 2a on your 1099-R and you tell TurboTax that this was the taxable amount in the previous year, then you won't be asked these questions. Alternatively, if you had no basis in the pension/annuity, answer zero when you are asked about basis (also called "contributions") in the pension/annuity.
In both cases, TurboTax will use the full amount of the distribution as taxable at the federal level, and as for New Jersey, I presume that the a screen (or more than one) that asks you about the dates so that the correct NJ tax can be calculated.
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