The 1099 should list the years that the lump sum covers.
Answer Yes to the question about getting a lump sum and follow the onscreen instructions. Your SSA-1099 lump-sum section breaks down the payments into what amount was received for each preceding year. You can only enter one year at a time; when finished, click Add Another Lump Sum if you need to enter benefits received for a different tax year.
While your lump sum may include benefit payments for more than one year, you do not have to file an amended tax return for any prior year. You might need to pay taxes on a small portion of your lump-sum payment. However, you might be able to avoid these taxes by apportioning prior year benefits to those previous years’ income (still without filing any amended returns).
After you enter your lump-sum Social Security payment information, TurboTax will automatically figure what if any taxes you owe due to the lump-sum payment.
Follow along with these steps. Of course, your numbers and years may be different than the description below.
- After you enter your 2018 SSA-1099 information, we'll ask if you received a lump-sum Social Security payment. Answer Yes and follow the onscreen instructions.
- Your SSA-1099 lump-sum section breaks down the payments into what amount was received for each preceding year. You can only enter one year at a time. Start with 201x. (earliest year)
- On the next screen, Enter your 201x lump-sum payments received in 2018 and Continue
- When finished with 201x, click Add Another Lump Sum if you need to enter benefits received for a different tax year (201y)
- Now simply do the same thing that you just did for 201x, but use the relevant numbers for the next year (e.g.201y).
