Retirement tax questions

Hi all,

I've been on the phone with TurboTax customer support two separate times, each time for over an hour. Each call was quickly forwarded on to their "second line" support specialists and this is what I've discovered. I hope it helps!

This issue stems from entries marked in the "State" boxes of your W2s and/or other income forms, such as 1099-Rs, which were the sticking point for me (specifically boxes 15 and 16 of a particular 1099-R). So first of all, go check all your income you entered in the Federal section, especially all the State boxes entered at the end of each form. A common offender for some was having non-numerical characters in the state ID box in box 15 of your W2 or 1099. The first box 15 field should identify the state from box 15 and the second box 15 field should only contain *numerical* characters for the state ID (no hyphens!).

If this doesn't work for you, you're in the same boat as me. This ultimately leaves you with many options, none of them great:

1. Leave TurboTax and go with some other company for tax year 2024.

2. Wait and hope TurboTax fixes this issue. (I believe this to be highly unlikely for 2024)

3. Just file your return with the M1QPEN form included. *I would only suggest this under certain circumstances which I will cover below!*

4. Opt to print your MN tax return instead of efiling it. Then before mailing it, remove the M1QPEN form. This is something I thought of but wouldn't recommend in most cases because it probably invalidates your 100% accurate calculation guarantee, so I would really not recommend this unless you know what you're doing. 

5. Contact your employer(s)/financial institution(s) that issued you the problematic W2/1099-R/other form(s) and ask them to correct it by removing/updating/adding information from/to the state specific boxes. Wait to file until you receive the corrected form. This might do nothing though, because the income statement you have that is causing the problem could be correct and TurboTax's program just isn't working quite right. 

This is the link to the 100% accurate calculation guarantee that I refer to in this post: 

Link to post 

Some people on this forum are suggesting deleting the tax form. I did not list this as an option because TurboTax will not let you do it! Error messages will appear when you try to file. This is part of TurboTax's 100% accurate calculation guarantee. You might also be thinking "well maybe I can just modify my information until the M1QPEN form is not requested." I would also not recommend this because it would absolutely invalidate the 100% accurate calculation guarantee! If you really want to pursue filing without an M1QPEN, I would point you to options 4&5 above. 

What I ended up doing was option 3. What I was told over the phone was that the 100% Accurate Calculation Guarantee would cover any expense (fees and/or interest) of mine due to inaccurate tax paperwork. Because the 1099-R provided to me was entered as I received it, I am covered by the guarantee. Also, the customer service representative showed me the Tax Tools menu, specifically the link to see my Tax Summary. After selecting that, I am able to see lots of important information and most importantly the amount of taxes I am paying due to M1QPEN. Once we verified that I was paying $0 in additional taxes due to M1QPEN and that I would qualify for the guarantee. It was recommended that I simply efile my taxes because I entered the information correctly and the TurboTax program was at fault. It was especially important that I confirmed my tax liability was exactly as it would be if the M1QPEN form was not filed. This would be the option I recommend to all of you, assuming you are in the same tax liability situation as I was. 

Also, do not take this as official tax or legal advice! I'm just a random person from the internet who does his own taxes. The information the customer service representative told me and that I am writing here could be inaccurate. Do your own research!