TIAA Annuity

[Hanrui]

I have an annuity with TIAA. It is a contracted annuity. I receive payments every month. Is this considered a "periodic payment"? Why is such a question asked by TurboTax? Also, I recall that TurboTax only uses the term "pension." For reporting, is an annuity and a pension the same thing? 

[Critter-3]

Yes it is periodic and all of the payments are an RMD.  For income tax purposes the "pension" and "annuity" are interchangeable when entering a 1099-R form. 

[Hanrui]

In the past, I assumed that TurboTax regarded an annuity as an RMD. However, I regard that as a classification glitch/error by TurboTax. My annuity is not an RMD. From an RMD account, you can withdraw more than the required minimum. You can not do that with a contracted annuity.  However, all the forms are 1099-R.

[Critter-3 · Accepted solution]

An annuity can have an RMD requirement ( they are not RMD accounts ... that is not a real thing)   and the payments you get once the contract is annuitized are the same thing as an RMD for any other retirement account ... so in the program simply answer that they are RMD's to get past that screen.  Don't get hung up on the wording.