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Level 2
June 6, 2019
Solved

I placed POST-tax dollars into a 403b and 457b, will I be penalized for this? I placed $18500 into each account, a total of $37000.

  • June 6, 2019
  • 4 replies
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Best answer by dmertz

Items reported with codes BB and EE in box 12 of your W-2 are Roth contributions to the 403(b) and 457(b), respectively, and do not reduce the amount that your employer reports in box 1 of your W-2.

Item reported with codes E and G in box 12 of your W-2 are elective deferrals to the 401(k) and 457(b), respectively, and are pre-tax, not post tax, because your employer excludes these amounts from the amount in box 1 of your W-2.

TurboTax presently has a bug that flags maximized 457(b) contributions combined with maximized contributions to another type of qualified retirement plan such as a 403(b) as excess contributions because they exceed $18,500 when, in fact, the permissible total is $37,000.  To e-file you'll need to wait for the TurboTax developers to fix this, otherwise you'll need to file by mail.  There might be a fix in the April 5 update.

4 replies

Level 15
June 6, 2019
How did you do that? A 403b, at least, should not legally accept extra payments.  Only payments made via payroll deduction.  

If your plan allows after tax deductions, that sounds like a Roth account.  There’s nothing wrong with that.  It means you pay tax on the money going in instead of when you take it out.  
Level 2
June 6, 2019
I was able to place $18500 post-tax dollars into a 403b and another $18500 post tax into a 457b. I thought that it would be okay because I was allowed to do it through my employer retirement set up but when I am filing my taxes on turbotax it says I will be penalized
Level 15
June 6, 2019
dmertzAnswer
Level 15
June 6, 2019

Items reported with codes BB and EE in box 12 of your W-2 are Roth contributions to the 403(b) and 457(b), respectively, and do not reduce the amount that your employer reports in box 1 of your W-2.

Item reported with codes E and G in box 12 of your W-2 are elective deferrals to the 401(k) and 457(b), respectively, and are pre-tax, not post tax, because your employer excludes these amounts from the amount in box 1 of your W-2.

TurboTax presently has a bug that flags maximized 457(b) contributions combined with maximized contributions to another type of qualified retirement plan such as a 403(b) as excess contributions because they exceed $18,500 when, in fact, the permissible total is $37,000.  To e-file you'll need to wait for the TurboTax developers to fix this, otherwise you'll need to file by mail.  There might be a fix in the April 5 update.

Level 2
June 6, 2019
The bug has not yet been fixed, at least not on the Mac version. TurboTax, what do we do, demand our money back for TurboTax and the state e-file charge? This is ridiculous. Nine days until the deadline and nothing.