I retired from civil service (FERS) at the end of July 2019. Earlier this year I received a Form CSA 1099-R.
I am trying to find the correct place in TurboTax (TT) to enter the information from my 1099-R and report my 2019 FERS pension retirement payments from 8/1 to 12/31. Please note that my pension has nothing to do with retirement account distributions from Roth or Traditional TSP; I have not tapped my TSP yet. Also, my question has nothing to do with social security either since I am not 62. Again, I am specifically referring to the monthly checks (pension) that I received in 2019 just for being retired.
It appears to me that TT “thinks” that my 1099-R is is reporting distributions to me from a retirement account. I say this because of the nature of the subsequent questions that TT asks, which I stopped answering.
Here is where I did: I went to Federal Taxes > Wages & Income > Retirement Plans & Social Security. In this section, there are three topics. I chose the first on the list, “IRA, 401k, Pension Plan Withdrawals (1099-R).” Out of the listed choices, I don’t know what else to choose to report my pension but when I proceed to entering a 1099-R, I see four choices of 1099-Rs. I selected “CSA 1099-R, Civil Service Annuity” because this is what’s printed on my 1099-R form. On the next page in TT, I enter all information that appears on my 1099-R. Next page, TT asks if this came from employment as a safety officer, to which I select no. Then, TT asks, “what did you do with the money?” The two answer choices are: 1) “moved the money to another retirement account” and 2) “did something else(cashed it out).” I chose Answer 1, just to see what TT asks next, and the two new questions asked are: did you roll it over into an IRA or other retirement account OR did you convert it into a ROTH IRA? I’m thinking, neither. So I went back to choose Answer 2, and now it asks, “Was this a Disaster Qualified Distribution”? Below this question shows a small excerpt explaining what this means in reference to IRAs. At this point, I stopped running down this rabbit hole because it seems like TT thinks I am reporting distributions from an IRA, and this isn't what I am trying to do. I then went to the Forms mode, and this is when I see the title of the form that I’ve been working on (in Step-by-Step mode): “Distributions from Pension, IRAs, etc.” Huh? First, this is not at all what I am trying to do. Second, I’ve heard of IRA Distributions, and Pensions, but not “Pension Distributions.” —Where do I report my retirement pension payments?
Thanks in advance.
