New Jersey - Cares Act 401k withdrawals

[mppsu2003]

Spoiler

I'm pretty lost in regards to whether or not you can spread your 401k covid withdrawal tax liability over 3 years as you could the federal.  Initially I read that NJ didn't adopt that provision.  However, their website says they follow federal guidelines.  Effective April 16 this is all the state site says:

"New Jersey follows federal guidelines and timeframes for coronavirus-related distributions (CRD) for qualified individuals. If the repayment of CRD qualifies as a tax-free rollover for federal tax purposes, we will recognize a CRD as a tax-free rollover. Report your distribution in the same manner as you are required to do for federal purposes. The repayment will qualify when it qualifies for federal purposes. You can file amended returns to exclude CRD income originally reported and taxed and receive a refund. See IRS coronavirus-related relief for more details and reporting examples."



This would seem to imply you can spread it, but then it mentions rollovers and repayments.  In going through TurboTax I see no option to split the state and automatically defaults to the full amount.  I see an option for General Rule that lowers the liability and keeps the income under the state total, but i'm not sure if that is right.  



Please help me understand what I should be doing

[fanfare]

NJ does not allow you to split your distribution in three parts.

NJ does not have any early withdrawal penalties so your age does not matter.

You will pay tax on whatever amount you took out, less the amount rolled over aka paid back.

If it is an IRA you can reduce NJ taxable amount using Worksheet C.

[cjp3]

Per NJ Tax web site:

"New Jersey follows federal guidelines and timeframes for coronavirus-related distributions (CRD) for qualified individuals."

If Federal guidelines allow a 3 year timeframe,  then why wouldn't NJ?

[mppsu2003]

I don’t know why they wouldn’t but they don’t seem to.  It’s very confusing.   I even contacted the tax office and got no info.