topic Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon." in Retirement tax questions

Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

mc1959 — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 21:48:58 GMT

I tried both the downloaded version of TurboTax Premium 2020, and the on line version. Got the same message on both. It's awful difficult to do year end planning when the bulk of my income can not be reported.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

VolvoGirl — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 21:58:37 GMT

I believe you can enter the 1099R info in the Desktop program using the Forms Mode.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

xmasbaby0 — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 22:52:21 GMT

The IRS is drafting new 1099R forms. Then the software has to be programmed for them, and the IRS has to test and approve of the software. It is a complex process because of the all the CARES changes. It could even be a couple of months. Meanwhile if you are trying to plan, if you have desktop for 2019 use the what if feature--but it will not have that CARES stuff.

Click on the REVIEW tab to see what it is and when it is estimated to be ready (when operational) ...

IRS Forms Availability Table for TurboTax Individual (Personal) Tax Products

State Forms Availability Table for TurboTax Individual (Personal) Tax Products

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

SteamTrain — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 23:11:09 GMT

It can be a similar issue every year...the new tax software is in such a rudimentary state, that it's not really useful for year-end planning.

BUT...for Anyone who uses the Desktop software every year

What is almost always usable for year-end planning is the prior year's desktop software (2019 desktop in this case). IF you used the desktop software for 2019 , you could either:

1) create a separate test copy predicting what you might be doing for 2020..but as-if it was 2019 income, or

2) making a second copy of your actual 2019 tax return (with a new name), and then changing the values to mimic what you expect to be the case for 2020.......or....

...3) some folks use their actual 2019 tax return, then switch to Forms Mode and open the "What-If" Worksheet, transfer the 2019 values into a 2020 column, and then change the individual values up-down to mimic what you expect for 2020, or what you might think of doing before year end....and see what happens with taxes due, or refund.

Of course, none of that will take any potential or past stimulus payments into account, but it would be pretty close to what you need for planning purposes.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

georgeestes9 — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 22:16:43 GMT

Either get the doggone retirement section working, or I'm headed to H & R Block to get my taxes done

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

macuser_22 — Sun, 13 Dec 2020 22:24:26 GMT

Nobody has the retirement forms yet - not even professional software because the IRS has not even finish the forms yet - they are still in the draft state at the IRS. The electronic version cannot be installed until the IRS releases the electronic specifications (schema) and that usually takes about 2 months after the paper version is released. I am guessing, not before February 2021.

Tax season will not start until Jan 27 even for simple returns that do not need the new forms.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

HarryO — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 14:27:04 GMT

For a level CHAMP that's a poor answer. Many people try to do year end tax planning. This year we will have to load a 2019 version and dummy it up with 2020 planing info.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

xmasbaby0 — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 15:05:15 GMT

@HarryO You may not like the answer---but the original question asked was WHEN the retirement section would be ready. We are volunteers--not TurboTax employees or IRS employees. Several people responded to the question with the best information we have at this time. We have no control over the IRS or the timing of the forms they are drafting.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

Terry Thompson — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 05:38:06 GMT

I was able to enter rough numbers for existing year 2020, 1099-R incomes by switching from the standard entry method to "view forms" method and going old school forms only. Using the easy standard method, I was also unable to add any NEW 1099-R accounts. I did not try going to the "view forms" and adding a new 1099-R account that way.

Also, I get a similar message about the Mortgage interest and Property taxes section not being ready yet.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

macuser_22 — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 05:43:24 GMT

@Terry Thompson wrote:

Also, I get a similar message about the Mortgage interest and Property taxes section not being ready yet.

That is correct. The Schedule A (to report mortgage interest) form instructions is still in the draft state at the IRS. The estimated date for that for is Jan 21, but that is subject to change.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

Terry Thompson — Wed, 23 Dec 2020 16:11:28 GMT

The TurboTax update for 12/23/2020 just installed the needed updates for entering 1099-R's and also the mortgage interest and property tax section. Bye bye, that's all I needed.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

fanfare — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 23:59:03 GMT

hold on now! I thought they were still in draft form !!

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

macuser_22 — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 06:03:49 GMT

Parts of it dealing with the CARES act is in the draft state at the IRS.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

SteamTrain — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 12:07:37 GMT

....and...anyone entering their 1099-R forms early, they may have to revisit each and every one after TTX implements the final CARES act stuff.

Might even be safer to completely delete every early-entered 1099-R form. One year, some carried-over blank 1099-R forms had to be deleted in late January before their entry worked properly.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

lstone19 — Fri, 25 Dec 2020 21:22:58 GMT

When doing an early for year end tax planning analysis, if a particular form is not available, I generally just enter the amount as miscellaneous income. That won't work for SS but it will be good enough for almost all other retirement income (pension, IRA, 401k, etc.) provided you know the taxable amount of each.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

nogimmees — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 17:29:18 GMT

I just downloaded the update and it now includes the RMD calculations. Unfortunately I don't believe its calculating correctly. Although I returned my RMD back into my IRA account which should make it non-taxable, TurboTax is still calculating tax on the Gross RMD amount. Is this Gross amount be causing more of my SSA income to become taxable although the RMD is treated as non-taxable?

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

nogimmees — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 17:36:05 GMT

The new CARES tax changes are now available during the update. However my Taxes owed has changed significantly when using TurboTax deluxe although I rolled over my RMD distribution back into my IRA. This rollover should not be taxable. However, I owe more taxes when doing this rather than not including any RMD distribution in 2020. Is this a problem in TurboTax as the IRS says the RMD is not taxed when returned to the original IRA account?

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

SteamTrain — Thu, 31 Dec 2020 18:01:45 GMT

@nogimmees

The apparent solution to that is to go thru the questions again, but you need to indicate the distribution was NOT an RMD.

Yeah, it's not immediately obvious, but since required RMDs were terminated for IRA (and most if not all 401k) withdrawals this year, you are not supposed to call them an RMD.

Perhaps sometime later this season, the software will be rewritten to better delineate when and when not to use the selection as being an RMD...but for now it isn't in there. .....or perhaps they may eventually include some more questions after selecting that the distribution was an RMD, that will clarify and post the $$ properly, but for now, they are not in there.

There are still 109R-R distribution forms that will be issued that are required RMDs, and not subject to the CARES legislation (mostly standard pensions and probably most annuitized distributions that are paid-out automatically) .

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

MissMCJ — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 22:41:25 GMT

I use the Desktop version of TurboTax. Then I use the to do my year end planning for the next year. The forms will all be there. If you try to do year end planning in the online or current desktop, you will run into the issue that forms are often not there until mid January or later.

I did my year end planning for 2020 in the 2019 Desktop version.

Re: Does anyone know when the retirement section of federal returns will be ready in Turbotax? I just get the message "The retirement income section will be ready soon."

xmasbaby0 — Fri, 01 Jan 2021 22:58:24 GMT

The IRS is drafting new 1099R forms. Then the software has to be programmed for them, and the IRS has to test and approve of the software. It is a complex process because of the all the CARES changes. It could even be a couple of months—sometime in January or even February. Meanwhile if you are trying to plan, if you have 2019 desktop (CD/download software) for 2019 use the what if feature- in Forms mode-but it will not have that CARES stuff.

You can also try using the Taxcaster tool:

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/

There are a number of 2020 forms that are still being revised by the IRS. Click on the REVIEW tab to see what form(s) you are waiting for and when it is estimated to be ready (when operational ….and dates are subject to change) ...

IRS Forms Availability Table for TurboTax Individual (Personal) Tax Products

State Forms Availability Table for TurboTax Individual (Personal) Tax Products