Your settlement amount should end up on Line 21 of your 1040. If it is settled out of court, I would still consider it a lawsuit settlement.
To enter your 1099-MISC:
Emotional distress and mental anguish settlements are taxable, but only on the amount above and beyond the undeducted medical costs for treatment of the distress or anguish. You'll need to paper-file your return so you can attach a statement that shows the settlement amount minus the (undeducted) medical expenses related to treatment.
Emotional distress or mental anguish proceeds you receive for emotional distress or mental anguish originating from a personal physical injury or physical sickness are treated the same as proceeds received for Personal physical injuries or physical sickness above.
To enter it so you are not taxed, you will have to make an extra entry to zero it out:
Go through the same steps above but enter it as a negative:
If it is settled out of court, I would still consider it a lawsuit settlement.
This settlement was done without a lawsuit. As such, would I still type in "lawsuit settlement"? It was settled by our lawyer and the former employer's lawyer, without ever filing a lawsuit or going to court. Additionally, based on other research, it looks like proceeds received for emotional distress or mental anguish ORIGINATING from a personal physical injury are non-taxable. Is that correct? If so, how should it be entered?
And given it ORIGINATED from a personal physical injury, is it taxable?
This is from <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4345.pdf:">https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p4345.pdf:</a> Emotional distress or mental anguish
• The proceeds you receive for emotional distress or mental anguish originating from a personal physical injury or physical sickness are treated the same as proceeds received for Personal physical injuries or physical sickness above. However, the attorney has issued it to you as taxable in Box 3.
IRS says not taxable but your 1099-MISC says taxable. Did your husband receive proceeds from a settlement for physical injury? If these are a follow up to a settlement for physical injury then it is not taxable. The attorney that issued the 1099-MISC is classifying it as taxable.
The attorney did not provide the 1099-MISC, the former employer provided the 1099-MISC and they entered the amount in Box 3. The proceeds of the 1099-MISC for "emotional distress" settlement he received from his former employer, and the emotional distress did originate from physical injury or physical sickness.
You can't enter the 1099-MISC on your tax return and mark it as non-taxable. There is no place the IRS gives you to mark it. You can leave it off your tax return, but keep your documentation in case the IRS questions why it isn't on your tax return. You will have to show them that it is not taxable.
I put a method in the answer for you to enter a negative amount for the 1099-MISC to zero it out.
Thank you, Cathi. For some reason, I'm not seeing the answer on how to enter the negative amount.
Also, when looking back through my husband's email chain for the settlement, we see he provided a W0(, in order to obtain the 1099-MISC for the emotional distress payment.
When you get a 1099, it is for something taxable. So the problem is, when you enter it, there is no where to mark it as not taxable. Here is a way to zero it out on your tax return. It is a work around, because IRS does not provide an easy way to override the way the employer issued it. Just keep your emails and settlement papers in case the IRS asks about it. You have your justification for showing it as not-taxable. See next comment.
To enter it so you are not taxed, you will have to make an extra entry for a negative amount to zero it out:
Go through the same steps above but enter it as a negative:
Select Add a 1099-MISC, and input the information from your paper 1099-MISC, then select Continue.
On the Describe the reason for this 1099-MISC screen,
type in "non-taxable lawsuit settlement" and select Continue.
On the Does one of these uncommon situations apply? screen, select This was money from a lawsuit settlement and then answer the back wages question before selecting Continue.
Enter the same amount of the settlement but as a negative.
On the Other Miscellaneous Income Summary make sure you see the 2 items, one positive and one negative and Total is $0.
I tried the method listed above, however, I notice that despite creating the 2nd 1099-MISC with all the same info, except the settlement amount as negative, my federal and state refund remain exactly the same, as if I'd never created the negative version. However, even by getting the Total to $0, the 1099-MISC seems to still be getting treated as taxable. If I don't enter the 1099-MISC info at all, in order to get $0 for Total 1099-MISC, I see that the refunds are far higher.
I'm not sure the work-arounds are working. We've already spent several hours and several days trying to resolve this.
Is this something that just cannot be done in Turbo Tax?
The IRS does not have a place on your tax return to mark your 1099-MISC as non-taxable. This Line 21 workaround does work on tax returns. If line 21 is showing $0, and you see the description of the 2 items, one positive and one negative, then the amount must be coming from somewhere else as well. If you choose to leave the 1099-MISC off your return, just keep your records. I would try calling your attorney that you used for the settlement and tell him the employer is reporting it as taxable. It is easy for the employer to file a corrected 1099-MISC and eliminate the problem.
Then what is the correct way that the employer should have reported the emotional distress payment, so that I may inform my attorney accordingly.
If it is not taxable they should not have issued a 1099-MISC but can now issue a corrected 1099-MISC showing $0 in Box 3. Your attorney will probably be aware of these issues. You don't report non taxable items on a 1099-MISC.
The instructions for entering a negative amount to offset medical expenses is incorrect. Turbotax ignores negative 1099-MISC, so this method does not help at all.
forgot to put last year the 1099 of emotional distress and phisical harm. What can I do?
@anita1515 If the amount received is taxable then you can amend your federal return for 2020. If you prepared it using TurboTax then you just log in to your account, select the 2020 return and click amend.
If the amount is non-taxable then leaving it off the return was the right thing to do. You should prepare the evidence that makes the settlement non-taxable and keep it on hand in case the IRS asks about it. But otherwise do nothing.