My wife is a teacher and has a Teacher Retirement account through a Teacher's Retirement Associaton, are we able to write of her contributions for the year as her employer didn't not include these on her W2?

[KenH1]

No, you cannot deduct employer contributions to a retirement account. 

Employee contributions, when they exist, are already accounted for via a reduced taxable income amount in box 1.

[r76dsb]

Louisiana exempts retired teachers from income tax.  Do you not know this?  So, Why was my retired wife's income submitted as taxable income?

[xmasbaby0]

Take a closer look at your wife's W-2 and see if her retirement is shown in either box 12 or box 14.  If you entered her W-2 exactly as it appeared, you have already entered the teachers retirement amount.

Teachers and Social Security

There are 15 states (AK, CA, CO, CT, IL, LA, MA, ME, MO, NV, OH, TX) in which teachers do not pay in to Social Security, so you will not see Social Security withheld on the teacher’s W-2.  Instead, teachers in those states pay in to a Teacher’s Retirement System, which will show up elsewhere on the W-2 often in box 12 or box 14.

There are three states which have varying degrees of participation in SS for teachers, depending on school districts—GA, KY, and RI.

Why Does Social Security Leave Out Teachers in These 15 States?

Some state government employees, including teachers, don't pay Social Security payroll taxes and aren't entitled to retirement benefits from Social Security. The history of this practice dates all the way back to Social Security's formation, when the law was intended to cover only private employees. At the time, it wasn't clear whether the federal government could force states to pay payroll taxes. Only in the 1950s did the rules change, allowing states to have the ability to join Social Security.

The majority of states elected to enroll their government workers in Social Security. At that point, those workers started paying payroll taxes, and they earned their retirement benefits in the same way as any other worker.

However, not every state participated. Now teachers in 12 states -- Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, and Texas -- don't have coverage arrangements with Social Security. In addition, three other states -- Georgia, Kentucky, and Rhode Island -- have varying degrees of coverage that differ by school district.

[xmasbaby0]

"So, Why was my retired wife's income submitted as taxable income?"

You do not say where you are seeing your wife's income shown as taxable income.  If she is now retired and she is receiving her teacher's retirement pension, that pension is taxable income on her federal return--as would Social Security be taxable.  The pension income would be on a 1099R that you enter into your federal return.  Information flows from the federal return to the state return, so when the income flows to your LA return, the software will use all of your state's tax laws to treat it as taxable or not taxable for the state of LA.

[SteamTrain]

....and here's a picture of the follow-up page...after the main 1099-R form, where you had to select the proper "source" of that particular 1099-R form.

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