Under the Federal Taxable Pension and Annuities section of the State form they ask if my retirement distribution is an excludable distribution for Massachusetts?
The TaxBook page MA-3 reports the following pensions are exempt from Massachusetts tax:
Under the Federal tax return, you will see the screen Massachusetts Special Handling About this 1099-R which outlines pension distributions which qualify for special treatment.
In the Massachusetts tax return, you will see the screen Pensions and Annuities Summary. Click Edit to the right of each pension distribution to review taxability.
1. Included screen shots are too small to read.
2. suggested method to lookup MA taxability is not a page to give me information, but a page to ASK me to answer the qusation.
3. my fTT ederal tax return never mentions MA taxability of retirement income.
So please explain in more detail how do I determine what retirement income is MA taxable.
Essentially Massachusetts doesn't tax government pensions. From any federal or state agency. It also doesn't tax social security. If your pension is from a government entity there will be a box to check when you're entering your Massachusetts tax return that will remove it from taxable income for the state.