I've tried to enter a foreign pension two different ways in TT, and both generate errors due to lack of a US payer ID.
First, I entered the amount under Other income. TT could not process the address or payer ID, generating about 6 errors.
Second, I filled out Form 4852 for a substitute 1099-R, filled in the address, reasons, indicated it was foreign income. This method generated 2 errors, the one it could not resolve was the payer ID being 99-999999.
In both cases, I cannot e-file due to this problem. In the past, I could go the Misc income route to get around the payerID issue, but not anymore evidently.
Not being able to e-file is a real pain. That's one of the reasons why I use TT.
Is there ANY way to bypass that check?
By the way, I report on the problems with foreign pensions EVERY YEAR since it broke a few years ago and TT still hasn't fixed it.
You don't have to enter a Payer ID if you report your Foreign Pension as 'Miscellaneous Income'.
Scroll down the list of Income Topics to Less Common Income > Miscellaneous Income 1099-A, 1099-C, choose Start or Update.
Then scroll down the list of Miscellaneous Income Topics to 'Other Reportable Income'.
Enter 'Foreign Pension' and the Amount (screenshot).
Generally, most treaties allow pension income to be taxed by the country of residence.
Tax treaties generally reduce the U.S. taxes of residents of foreign countries as determined under the applicable treaties. With certain exceptions, they do not reduce the U.S. taxes of U.S. citizens or U.S. treaty residents. U.S. citizens and U.S. treaty residents are subject to U.S. income tax on their worldwide income.
Click this link for more details from the IRS on Taxation of Foreign Pension.
That is not the case here. I read the treaty and the associated IRS publication for the country in question before asking here.
Another tip found online, use PayerID 99-0999999 in this scenario -- it just worked for my foreign pension in August 2023.
Good luck...
Code 99-0999999 just worked for me (March, 2024) as the Federal PayerID, including allowing me to e-file.