“Other taxes years” for Social Security Lump Sum payments reporting

[MJR-TX]

How do I to enter into the TurboTax desktop version all of my Social Security Lump Sum payment from SSA 1099?  I have amounts listed on my SSA 1099 as “paid in 2025 for 2024”, “paid in 2025 for 2023”, “paid in 2025 for 2022”, “paid in 2025 for 2021” and “paid in 2025 for Other Tax Years”.  I can follow the TurboTax instructions for all the specified years, but there are no instructions for “Other Tax Years”. How do I address this oversight/bug/glitch in TurboTax?  Thanks very much.

[JamesG1]

The information from Other Tax Years must be taken from your previous years income tax returns.

The Social Security lump sum payment process requires you to enter information from your previous years tax returns.  Then the tax that would have been due from one or more prior year tax returns is simply added to your current year tax return as an additional tax assessment.

For instance, in 2025 you receive $20,000 in Social Security benefits, $5,000 for 2025 and $15,000 lump sum benefit for 2024.

You enter the information from your current year’s income tax return.  The Social Security worksheets determine how much, if any, additional tax would have been owed.  This additional amount due is added to your current year’s income tax return for payment.

If, in 2025, you had also received Social Security benefits for 2023 and 2024, those years are computed in the same way and the additional tax that would have been owed is added to your 2025 tax return.

In TurboTax Desktop, to report Social Security lump sum payments, follow these steps:

• Go to Federal / Wages & Income / Your income / Retirement Plan and Social Security / Social Security.
• Click Start / Revisit to the right.
• At the screen Did you receive any lump-sum payments?, answer Yes.

See also this TurboTax Help.

[MJR-TX]

Thanks, but it doesn’t answer my question.

  Here’s my question rephrased.

My SSA 1099 has a lump sum payment covering several years, so I enter “yes” in the appropriate section in my TurboTax Premier Desktop version for a Mac.

In the “Description of amount in Box 3” section of my SSA 1099 it states:

INCLUDES:

*******          Paid in 2025 for 2024

*******          Paid in 2025 for 2023

*******          Paid in 2025 for 2022

*******          Paid in 2025 for 2021

********        Paid in 2025 for Other Tax Years

I entered the data from the SSA 1099, and the additional information needed from previous tax years for 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 in TurboTax with no problems.  My question is:

How do I enter in TurboTax the data for “other tax years” as shown in the “description of amount in box 3” on my SSA 1099?   Here’s a screen shot of the page in Turbo Tax that allows only a specific year.  I have ******** in “other tax years” on my SSA 1099, and TurboTax requires a specific year.  So, I am stuck.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks.

[DaveF1006 · Accepted solution]

It depends if you had lump-sum payments reported for years prior to 2021. If not, enter "0" in that Box then enter 2020 as the year. If you have amounts reported prior to 2021:

1. Pick year 2020.
2. Enter the total amount shown for "Other Tax Years" under that specific year.

 As long as your income in those "Other" years was similar, the calculation will be accurate. If the amount is small (under $300), the tax impact is likely zero anyway.

@MJR-TX 

[MJR-TX]

Thanks @DaveF1006.  I appreciate your clear explanation.