Should I put my military pension amount block 16 of my 1099-R for NY State?

[dflarson13]

My 1099-R from Defense Accounting has nothing in block 16, State Distribution, because it isn't taxable in NYS, but turbotax says you cant eFile if your State tax withholding  (in my case $2400) is greater than Block 16

[macuser_22]

If there is no dollar amount in box 14 then all boxes 14-16 must be BLANK.

If there IS an amount in box 14:

NOTE: prior to 2020 the state tax was in boxes 12-14, 2020 renumbered those boxes to 14-16.

Box 16 is not usually required because it has been an 1099-R industrial standard for many years that if there is only one state in box 14 & 15 then the box 1 amount does not need to be allocated between two states - the entire box 1 amount is understood to be the state distribution so box 16 is just left blank.

But recently, there are at least two states (one being NY) that will reject 1099-R's with a state tax and a blank box 16 so it is okay to enter the box 1 amount into box 16 to satisfy the states requirement.