Hello MargaretL I am assisting my mother in law on her taxes and through a divorce decree she has been getting half of her ex's OPM retirement since 1992 and has always paid taxes on the gross distribution amount which I'm not sure was correct. Her ex passed away in 2018 and she received a CSF 1099R for tax year 2019 with a taxable amount of Unknown. I'm a little confused when using the Simplified Worksheet Method because it asks if this was the first year she received this. Is the death benefit the same as the annuity she was receiving for the last 28 years for calculation purposes on the Simplified Method?
