I contributed to a private fund railroad job insurance fund. I received 12k in benefits. When filing do I subtract the contributed total from paid benefit?

 

Retirement tax questions

Is this a Private Unemployment Fund?  Did you receive a Form 1099-MISC for the benefits received?  If so, which box on the form was used for the amount paid?

Retirement tax questions

Private Fund, Box 3

Retirement tax questions

Before entering the Form 1099-MISC you need to contact the payer of the Fund to verify that the compensation you received and shown in box 3 did not already have your contributions deducted from that amount.

See IRS Publication 525 Taxable and Nontaxable Income, page 27 - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p525.pdf#page=27

Private unemployment fund. Unemployment benefit payments from a private (nonunion) fund to which you voluntarily contribute are taxable only if the amounts you receive are more than your total payments into the fund. Report the taxable amount on Form 1040, line 21.

To report the benefits received using TurboTax, less your contributions to the fund -

Enter miscellaneous income in the Find/Search box located in the upper right of the program screen.  Click on Jump to miscellaneous income.

Enter the data into the program Form 1099-MISC.  In box 3 enter the amount received less your contributions if not already deducted from the amount reported.  Continue when finished.

On the screen Describe the reason for this 1099-MISC enter the reason you received the income, such as Private Unemployment Fund Compensation and continue

On the screen Does one of these uncommon situations apply? click on None of these apply and continue

On the screen Did the Private Unemployment Fund Compensation involve work that's like (your name) main job? select No and continue

On the screen How often did (your name) get income for Private Unemployment Fund Compensation? select 2016 and continue

On the screen Did the Private Unemployment Fund Compensation involve an intent to earn money? select No and continue

On the screen Do you have another 1099-MISC? select No (if you do not) and continue

That will complete the entry of the compensation received from the Form 1099-MISC.  On your Form 1040 Line 21 will be an entry of Other Income from box 3 of 1099-Misc 

ReRail1998
Returning Member

Retirement tax questions

What if the amount you collected from the Private Unemployment Fund is less than total paid into the fund.  i.e. had collected $5000 and paid into the $5250; following your instruction I am assuming you put in $0 for box 3 even though my 1099-misc show's $5K?  When you put in zero it does not give you the option from your instruction "Describe the reason for this 1099K" on?  Is this the proper way to input this, I am assuming if you put a different amount in box three than is showing on the 1099K-Misc it's got to be a red flag...  Please advise