Retirement tax questions

Social Security income is not taxable in Illinois – see http://www.revenue.state.il.us/Individuals/pension.htm - so TurboTax automatically removed it from Illinois income.

But note that retirement income in general is not taxable in Illinois. You are allowed to deduct most retirement income you reported on your federal return with the exception of deferred compensation and disability payments from non-governmental plans, including non-qualified annuity distributions and third party sick pay.

This means that you need to go through the Illinois interview to see if the other annuity payment is not taxable either.

In the interview, you will see a screen entitled "Social Security Income Deduction". Your Social Security amount from the federal return should already be here. If so, don't change anything.

The next screen is "Pension Distributions". Note the comment: "Illinois allows a deduction for pension distributions received from a government retirement plan (such as State Employees Retirement System, State Universities Retirement System, Teachers Retirement System, Illinois Municipal Retirement System), a qualified employee benefit plan including 401(k) and 403(b), or a state or local government deferred compensation plan (457)."

If your annuity was reported on a 1099-R as not an IRA and if you indicated in the 1099-R interview that this was a qualified plan, then the amount from your annuity will probably already be here. If so, do not change anything.

But if the amount is not there, you may want to call your annuity plan administrator to see if this plan qualifies for exclusion under Illinois law. If so, you can add it to the box in the Pension Distributions" screen.