Federal Government retirement

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There are a series of questions that TTx is asking regarding my federal government retirement:

- what did you do with the money from Office of Personnel Management?

- any periodic payments?

- payment start year?

- describe the taxable amount?

- tell us the taxable amount method

is anyone familiar with TTx as it relates to Federal Government retirement?

BillM223

Level 15

"what did you do with the money from Office of Personnel Management?" - this is asking, did you take this a personal income or did you roll it over to another retirement account? Most people, of course, use their pensions for personal use.

The following questions are trying to calculate how much of your OPM pension is taxable. If you made any after-tax contributions to your OPM pension while you were working, then when these amounts are returned to you, they are not added to your taxable income.

I take it that box 2a on your CSA-1099-R (taxable amount) is blank? This means that the OPM, for whatever reason, doesn't know if you made after-tax contributions to your OPM pension.

If there is an entry in box 2a, then before the questions you showed us above, there should have been a question in TurboTax asking if the amount in box 2a was the taxable amount last year. If so, then answer "yes" and you won't see the other questions.

"any periodic payments?" - this (and the following questions) are trying to establish whether or not you made after-tax contributions to your pension - when these are returned as periodic payment, they are not taxable (but they are spread out over your actuarial life). You got your OPM payment monthly or biweekly, right?

"payment start year?" This is part of the Simplified Method of calculating how much of your periodic distributions were non-taxable.

If you never made any after-tax contributions to your OPM pension, then your distribution is 100% taxable. Enter the date you started (if it is not exact, not a problem in this case), and enter 0 (zero) for your cost or basis.

However, if you have a nonzero value in box 9b, come back and tell us, because this could be an indication that the OPM thinks that you made after-tax contributions after all.

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gjgogolAuthor

Level 5

have a nonzero value in box 9b

BillM223

Level 15

On the CSA-1099-R, box 9b is reporting the amount of after-tax contributions that you still have left in your plan (i.e., has not been "recovered" by you yet).

Just to confirm, box 2a (Taxable amount) is blank? Odd, if they are tracking your contributions, they could have calculated the taxable amount of the distribution for you.

Well, when you are making the entries for the Simplified Method, if you know the original start date and plan cost, then enter them for the Simplified Method, and enter the difference between the original plan cost and the value in 9b for the tax-free amount previously recovered.

Make sense?

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