On my return last year I stated that my husband had retired early, he did not. Do I have to ammend my return?

[VolvoGirl]

How or where did you state that?  For what?  That doesn't go on your tax return.   Were you entering a 1099R and said he retired to avoid the 10% Early Withdrawal Penalty for a 401K distribution?

[b1uedauby]

My husband did retire and I did was not trying to avoid any such penalty. When you are in the military you can retire after 20 years, not considered an early retirement. My question was, do I have to do an ammendment for my mistake? Yes it was a 1099r form, which has to be submitted to the IRS.

[DanielV01]

It depends, but likely it will not be necessary to amend.  We can't see your return from last year, so you'll need to verify certain details.  Here's what I understand your question to be:  you believe that you stated that your husband retired early.  That in itself does not trigger any penalties.  There would be two cases where taxes would be affected:

1. You didn't include the form in your initial return at all (the Form 1099-R); or
2. You received an early distribution penalty that should not have applied.  

The first situation is easy enough:  you either did or you did not include the form.  If you did not include it, you definitely need to amend the return.  The other situation occurs if his Form 1099-R has a code in Box 7 of "1".  That code number refers to an early retirement distribution subject to penalties for which no specific penalty exception is known to apply.  If the 1099-R does not have a code of "1" in Box 7, and you reported the form on your return, I don't see why you would need to amend last year's return.  But feel free to comment if this doesn't address your question.