SMART WORKSHEET FOR: Earlier year Lump-Sum Social Security Ws (2017 & 2018)
Section D Enter taxable social security benefits reported in the earlier year (form 1040 line 20b or form 1040A line 14b for years 2005-2017. Form 1040 Line 5b for 2018 and after See help for earlier years prior to 2000). I filled the forms according the instruction's of turbo Tax when asked for form SSA-1099- SOCIAL-SECURITY BENEFIT STATEMENT . I keep getting an error message for the information in those boxes.
Many times when someone receives a lump sum payment for Social Security, the year the lump sum payment is received is the first year any actual Social Security benefits have been received at all. If that is your situation and you do not have a spouse that has received any Social Security benefits in 2018 or 2017, then you should enter '0' for the amount of Social Security benefit that was taxable on your 2017 or 2018 tax return. If no benefits were actually received in the earlier years, then no benefits would have been taxable on the earlier year returns.
If that is not your situation and you (and/or your spouse) did actually receive Social Security benefits during those earlier years, then the best way to know what to enter is to actually look at copies of your earlier returns and enter the amount referenced on the line numbers mentioned above for the previous years' tax forms.