I took a disaster-related retirement distribution in 2020. When asked "Have you ever taken a disaster distribution before 2021?" I selected "yes".
I understand that 8915-F is not yet ready and no one knows when it will be.
However, the status of my Federal return says "Ready to file". If 8915-f is not yet ready, how can my federal refund amount be accurate, and how is my federal return "Ready to file"?
The distribution you took last year and choose to pay taxes on it over 3 years then that section of the 1099-R interview is not yet functional so you cannot correctly file the return now if you have 1/3 of the 2020 distribution to report in 2021 you still have to wait.
Once those forms are implemented you will visit the "Retirement" topic in the "Wages and Income" tab. If you have Forms 1099-R for TY2021 distributions, you can enter them as usual.
If not, you just select "NO" when asked if you received a 1099-R.
At either point, you will then be asked about prior year "Disaster Distributions." Follow the prompts from there to enter the second installment of your distribution.
Your return is not ready to file without Form 8915-F. The return is not yet complete since it would seem the one third of the qualified disaster distribution is not yet part of the tax return. The 'draft' has been lifted by the IRS as of today (I checked earlier and it was still in draft). Continue to watch for the availability to complete in TurboTax before filing your tax return.
This does not answer my question.
I indicated in my question I had already answered this correctly.
Why is the status "Ready to file"?
It says ready to file because the program doesn't know you still need to finish that section so you must wait for that section to be functional as instructed ... you know it still needs to be completed before you can file. Failure to wait and filing without the required form 8915-F will either get you an audit notice from the IRS, have the return rejected and/or will require you to amend the return later.