avian99 - yes I did efile and my refund is exactly as expected. I would also assume that if your IRA distribution was fully taxable then the gross distribution from that would also not be included in line 4a. The point being is that 4a is only used IF a distribution is not fully taxable for either an IRA or a Pension. So in your case your IRA is not included, and in my case my pension was not included. My IRA is not fully taxable due to some old contributions I made that were after tax. Check page 29 of the 1040 instructions on the IRS site. This confirms what I assumed earlier about IRA being fully taxable. So if someone enters 1099s with fully taxable IRA and pensions, then 4a would be totally blank! It's 4b that the IRS cares about.
