1099-R Box 14a won't let me file: "New York State withholdings can not be greater than or equal to gross distribution or state distribution." How to get around this?

[jacquealope]

Not sure what this means. My gross is about 12k from early IRA distributions, I withheld 950 for Fed and 150 for NY State, clearly 150 is less than 950... I remember getting this last year but after going thru the error review 100 times I somehow managed to push it through, this year I can't seem to figure it out.

[SteamTrain]

It's box 16 that must be higher than box 14.

The vast majority of 1099-R forms are issued with box 16 being empty...but NY insists that a number be in that box, that is IF box 14 has a value.   Sometimes it is backfilled when you answer the follow-up questions after the main form...but I'm not sure what follow-up questions are presented for NY residents.

Anyhow, many respondents indicate that the $$ amount in box 1 should be copied by you into box 16 for the software form to clear the error.  That's OK if box 1 is the same $$ amount as box 2a.  BUT, I usually point to box 2a, because box 2a "can" be lower than box 1 for certain situations.  But if box 2a is empty, then the federally -taxable amount of box 1 must be determined and used for box 16....many times that just ends up being the same value as box 1, but not always.