We are filing joint return for Federal and NYS with Desktop version of Turbotax. This question was posed last year:
Under certain NYS conditions a non-qualified pension plan amount of Box 11 on W2 can be entered as a non-qualified pension allowance (up to $20000) on NYS Taxes after age 59 1/2 years old. In this case the non-qualified pension monthly payments are an executive retirement benefit from the company spouse retired from. During 2024 spouse became 59 1/2 so I think all the payments after birthday can be claimed as a NYS retirement allowance but this will be less than what was entered on W2 box 11 for the full year.
Is the previous proposed technique to override NYS form (proposed in above link) still best way to enter amount for this NYS allowance. Is there any way to document what is being done within Turbotax to clarify pension is coming from Box 11 and line 8t of schedule 1 of the Federal tax form?
A complicating factor is that our Federal and NYS taxes have already been submitted and will have to submit an amended NYS. Can this also be e-filed or do we need to mail it?
Yes, the solution to directly enter the exclusion on Form IT-201 is still correct. Note that you shouldn't need to override, which voids the accuracy guarantee. You should be able to just enter the amount on line 29.
Yes, TurboTax does support the electronic filing of amended NYS returns.
The previous web link was modifying line 26 which shows up as a brown input box in this year's TurboTax and can be changed without errors.
Line 29 however is a white input box and creates an error if overriding with intent to submit. If the Pensions/Annuities/IRAs Worksheet (Part II) is adjusted as shown below then no errors occur during Turbotaxe's check for accuracy. Do I void the accuracy guarantee when doing it through a work sheet entry like this?
Line 26 of the IT-201 is for government pension exclusion. If your pension was from a NY state, local, or federal government agency, you can enter your exclusion here. Otherwise, your exclusion would need to be on line 29.
Line 29 of the IT-201 should be editable. Which version of TurboTax are you using?
I have the desktop TurboTax Deluxe 2024 Federal + State (NYS).
Were you able to get this entered into the correct area?
No. I started Turbo Tax today and received more updates but line 29 of IT201 is still with white background showing only my pension allowance and I still cannot update it so to add spouse's allowance amount.
Line 29 is already maxxed out at a 20,000 exclusion. If you are already receiving the maximum exclusion why are you trying to change it?
Taxpayer and spouse each can have up to a $20000 exclusion in NYS for non-qualified pensions so line 29 can have up to a possible $40000 for a joint return when both have their own pensions that meet all the rules (like being older than 59 1/2).
Sorry! You hadn't mentioned that you had already received the exclusion. I should have figured.
I think probably the system isn't set up to do this in the year that you turn 59 and a half. I'll submit a ticket for it.
In the meantime, since her entire pension income falls into this exclusion, I would change her birth year to get it into the system for this year and then change it back next year.
I'm not sure I follow your suggestion. My situation right now is that NYS was filed before
April 15 without claiming that exclusion and I want to file an amended return with correct amount in line 29. I demonstrated earlier that I could overide the worksheet entries and get the updated correct amount into line 29 without having to overide line 29 itself. When TurboTax checks for errors it seems to be error-free but I haven't attempted to eFile amended return yet using this technique. Since NYS does not receive the worksheet copy during eFiling then I really don't see why it's necessary to do it any other way and since the worksheet is only kept for my records.
In that case then yes, override the amount in the worksheet and submit the return. I thought you were unable to override the form. If you can do it and efile it then you are good to go. Save all your data as backup in case New York ever has any questions.