2019 tax year, State University of NY pension in NYS return. Entered specific amount to be excluded in Governmental Pension Exclusion input. That specific amount is over $20,000. Pension Deduction Summary page then shows that specific amount on the line for 'New York deduction for government pensions' *and* $20,000 on the line 'New York deduction for other pensions'. Two deductions for the same pension entry? The total deduction ends up being almost 2X of the pension amount itself!
*The Normal Case*
When you enter that you are a New York state resident, after you enter your 1099-R for your pension, there will be a series of screens. One screen will ask you to Select Your State.
When you select New York, the next screen will ask "Where is this distribution from?"
This will give you the opportunity to select the source of the pension. If you have a pension that qualifies for exclusion in New York, it will be removed from your New York return.
*Your Case*
Did you also enter the $20,000 as a subtraction or exclusion while inside the New York interview itself? If so, you should go back and remove it. The data entry immediately after the 1099-R is normally all you need to do.
*The Normal Case*
When you enter that you are a New York state resident, after you enter your 1099-R for your pension, there will be a series of screens. One screen will ask you to Select Your State.
When you select New York, the next screen will ask "Where is this distribution from?"
This will give you the opportunity to select the source of the pension. If you have a pension that qualifies for exclusion in New York, it will be removed from your New York return.
*Your Case*
Did you also enter the $20,000 as a subtraction or exclusion while inside the New York interview itself? If so, you should go back and remove it. The data entry immediately after the 1099-R is normally all you need to do.
I'm in the same situation. NYS return automatically deducts the $20,000. I never entered it manually. I did select that the pension is from NYS education on the federal return. I can't seem to find how to remove the $20,000. I'm going over this return many times, and the worksheets, but can't find what is incorrect. It all looks correct to me.
I have the exact same problem and can not figure out how to remedy it. I only entered my NYS pension. I did not enter a $20,000 exclusion and I can't get rid of it
I have the exact same problem and can not figure out how to remedy it. I only entered my NYS pension. I did not enter a $20,000 exclusion and I can't get rid of it
SAME problem here. It knows correctly that the pensions are not taxable by NYS, but INSISTS on adding in the $20k exclusion THAT DOES NOT APPLY. Fix this, Intuit. It tells me that I have to fix it in my Federal return, where it is already correct.
NOT SOLVED. Sources are correct, pensions rightly noted that they are exempt, yet still deducting another $20k. Fix it.
When I enter my Union pension info I asked questions about my IRA account not my Union pension
Same problem for me. I filed for an extension hoping somebody (Turbo Tax, are you listening?) will fix this.
This is still not fixed and Intuit customer service does not pick up the phone or I get disconnected.
I think I am going to have to find a different tax prep software because they obviously do not get it.
It was never broken ... you must enter this in the federal 1099-R entry section only properly. Read the approved answer in this thread.
If you still need help contact support on Monday :
To call TurboTax customer support
https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1899263-what-is-the-turbotax-phone-number
After speaking with several people at Intuit: This is a KNOWN bug and they hope to have it fixed for the 2020 version.
There is no fix for 2019 as of 12/2020 in spite of what was previously posted
As of January 1, 2020, for TurboTax 2020, I have the same problem where the 20k exclusion is deducted when it should not be deducted for New York State Teachers Retirement System.
Pension Deduction Summary
We automatically calculated your New York pension deductions.
Joe Jane
Total federal taxable non-disability pensions and IRA $120,000 $48,000
distributions
New York deduction for government pensions $0 $48,000
New York deduction for railroad retirement $0 $0
New York deduction for other pensions $20,000 $20,000 <-- should be 0
Total taxable pensions and IRA distributions $100,000 -$20,000
This bug is still in the tool it has not been resolved.
I am trying to prepare for 2020. My NYS & Local governmental pension payments are correctly being excluded from taxable income for NY State. However, as stated in this thread, the TurboTax tool is still applying an additional $20,000 Pension and Annuity Exclusion in NYS tax application -- and it shouldn't be. This is not a Tax Regulation or CPA question it is clearly a glitch in the software. I spoke to customer service and they said they are aware that this bug exists, they have no timeframe for fixing it.
I had the same problem, but (back in August 2019) I was fortunate enough to talk with someone at TurboTax who acknowledged the problem and suggested a work-around. Looking at these recent posts, I see that not only has the problem not been solved but the work-around isn't generally known to TurboTax support.
Good for me this is now working. Bad for the forum I do not know what fixed it. There were automatic updates applied around January 15, 2021 I hade previously tried deleting and reentering the New York State 1099-R and deleting and recreating the entire tax return. I assumed that one of the automatic fixes fixed the problem. If it is still not working for some this must be a difficult bug to track and fix. Hoping for myself that this remains fixed until I file later this year.
Thanks for the comment.
It is unfortunate that Intuit applications people and tech support have not fixed the bug (which was identified last year) , or at a minimum, provided a job aide or guidance to their customer service personnel to help users. Finding a clunky workaround is fine, but at the price that Intuit charges for the TurboTax software I think we consumers deserve better. This was my first time having to enter data for pension income for myself, and I recognized immediately that the tool was not calculating and applying the exclusions correctly (it only took a few mouse clicks to the NYS Tax & Finance reference material to confirm that).
Adding to the annoyance, I was told that I might have to "upgrade" to their TurboTax LIVE (i.e.; pay more $) for the privilege of having my call responded to by someone with more experience and expertise. That would be bogus as I wasn't seeking "tax advice" I was just trying to point out/resolve an obvious glitch in the software. I was told to call back in a few weeks to see if they decided do do anything to resolve the bug.
The problem is obviously in the forced-choice selections in the Federal income pages as they pertain to pension and annuity exclusions for NYS government retirees, and obviously the error gets carried forward in to NYS income tax package. Bottom line they should just fix the bug or at least give us a timeframe for correcting it. I've been a loyal user of TurboTax for many years, and have used it for doing taxes of other people in my family and recommend it to everyone I know. This was a big turn- off for me and frankly very poor tech support and customer relations -- so I've decided to use someone else software this year. Sorry TurboTax.
We are having the same problem - the only workaround appears to be to enter your NYS pension amount minus $20k in the State interview. The numbers come out right then, but the income is shown on incorrect lines in the IT-201 state return form.
The adjustment to exclude $20,000 from your NYS income is done under Wage and retirement adjustments. This is found on the NYS screen Changes to Federal Income.
You can follow these steps in TurboTax to exclude $20,000 of your retirement income:
Per NYS, taxpayers over age 59 1/2 can deduct up to $20,000 of certain federal, NY state or local government pensions and certain IRAs on their New York return. If married filing jointly, each spouse may deduct up to $20,000.
Thanks for responding! The issue at hand is that when the NYS pension income is entered in the Federal section (which is correct - let's say it is $45k as an example) and imported into the NY State portion of the software, it brings that number in as "Taxable NY State Income" and then subtracts it out again because NYS pension plans are not taxable at all in NYS. That's fine. The problem is that it also subtracts another $20k from the NYS income (because the pension income must again be entered when NYS pension income is requested in the State interview) which ends up deducting $65k from the overall NYS income instead of $45k which would be correct. When I checked the IT-201 form that was generated by this set of entries, one can see that the spurious $20k deduction shows up on a line that appears to apply to all non-NYS pensions. This is why I think the software is in error, and that having an entry in the NYS pension line (which triggers a subtraction of that same amount) also triggers the $20k deduction, resulting in a total deduction that is incorrect. I'm going to go back and carefully examine my entries based on your advice. If I can fix the problem, I'll post again.
I should mention that I'm using TurboTax Home & Business (Mac). The menu items that you mention do not appear as you indicated. I'm not using the online tool.
I just tried the suggested fix, and it did not work. Here are some additional specifics (with example numbers):
The $45,000 number was entered in the section for Governmental Pension Exclusion
(Did you receive a pension or other distribution from a New York State or local government pension plan or a federal government plan?) [*the answer to that questions is "yes", so I entered the total pension amount of $45,000 there*]
Then, when going on to the next section, this is what is shown:
Total federal taxable non-disability mentions and IRA distributions: $45,000
New York deduction for governmental pensions: $45,000
New York deduction for railroad pensions: $0
New York deduction for other pensions: $20,000 ["This is the number that is un-editable*]
-----
Total taxable pensions and IRA distributions: -$20,000 [*This is what TurboTax comes up with...*]
===========
What next?
It depends. You will need to edit the information in your state return as well. Try this procedure and see if this will work for you.
Thanks again - I will try this. I'm not using the online version of TurboTax, so I will try mapping these instructions onto the Home & Business version. I'll report back.
This latest suggestion did not work either. When I put the amount of the New York State pension received into the "Governmental Pension Exclusion" form, it simply subtracts that amount from the New York State pension amount transferred from the Federal form. Unfortunately, it also still includes the incorrect $20,000 as an additional pension deduction (which I cannot remove.) I'm at a loss as to what to do at this point. It really does appear to be a software bug in the Mac version of the TurboTax Home & Business 2020 package.
If any TurboTax program debuggers are online - here are some details about the version of software affected -
FPS 4.3.5
Help Content 2020.0.3
Interview Service 1.0.25
Per Fed Ind 1040 Formset 2020.11558
Per New York Ind Formset 2020.11042
Personal Program Help 2020.11034
Player 18.1.2
TKE Not available
Topics 54
TPS Engine 5.16.0 (Tsp-Compatibility-Version: 2018.5)
TPS Forms 2020.44.0.3
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Application: 2020.r14.034
Build Date: Jan 30, 2021 at 11:49:36 AM