topic Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R in Retirement tax questions

Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R

dcunningham1 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 08:11:18 GMT

I entered my 2021 Survivor Annuity Benefits and the summary screen is showing IRA, 401(k), Pension Plan Withdrawals and on the PA return it is showing at Retirement income and asks me to identify what type of retirement payments I am receiving. It also asks me to upload the 1099-R since it is retirement income.

This is my first time using Turbotax. I have not had this issue with other tax software. Wondering how I can fix this error so it shows correct as pension payment for a death benefit as opposed to a retirement pay out.

Re: Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R

JohnW152 — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 15:21:55 GMT

How the distribution will be identified is based on the code that the payer entered in Box 7 of your Form 1099-R.

According to the Specific Instructions for Form 1099-R in the 2022 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498, a payer is supposed to:

Use Code 7 in box 7 for reporting military pensions or survivor benefit annuities. Use Code 4 for reporting death benefits paid to a survivor beneficiary on a separate Form 1099-R.

The specific instruction for Code 4 is to “Use Code 4 regardless of the age of the participant to indicate payment to a decedent's beneficiary, including an estate or trust.”

Now, if you’ll see the Instructions for Recipient on the back of Form 1099-R, Code 4 of line 7 represents a death benefit, while Code 7 reflects a normal distribution. This is a source of confusion.

What Code(s) are you seeing on the relevant Form 1099-R?

Re: Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R

dcunningham1 — Sun, 13 Mar 2022 16:22:36 GMT

The code that is showing in my box 7 is 4-Death Benefit. I This is the code that I input on the CFS1099-R Annuity section in TurboTax.

Re: Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R

DMarkM1 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 13:52:59 GMT

Yes, enter the Box 7 code "4" shown on your copy of your CSF-1099R in the box 7 shown in TurboTax for your CFS-1099-R form entry. This indicates a "Death Benefit."

Re: Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R

dcunningham1 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:03:21 GMT

Thanks. That is the code that I put. My issue is when the information populates my PA state form, it shows as Retirement and has a drop down menu for the reason. Death Benefit is not one of the reasons in the drop down menu. The PA will not process without a reason being chosen.

Re: Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R

DMarkM1 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:35:39 GMT

It's a "US Civil Service ret/disability/annuity" in the PA dropdown.

Re: Survivor Annuity Benefits 1099-R

dcunningham1 — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 14:40:43 GMT

Thank you so very much!!!!