When will form 8915-E be update and available for 2021 tax year?

[DoninGA]

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@jashreed wrote:

We received the 401k Covid Care Acts withdraw only in 2020- can I use form 8915-E or am I supposed to use form F? 

we split our tax to come out over 3 years 

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You will need to use the Form 8915-F when it becomes available from the IRS.

You will report this in the Retirement Plans and Social Security section under Wages & Income.  However, the Form 8915-F has not been finalized by the IRS for including in a 2021 tax return so the questions are not being asked until the form is available.  There is no estimate from the IRS when this form will be available, but guessing sometime in March 2022.

[kejc4]

If you opted to file your 2020 401k cares act withdrawal over 3 years, do you still have to file state taxes in the original state you lived when the 401k was withdrawn in 2020 if you moved and lived in a new state in the whole 2021 tax year? Or do you just file the second portion of it in the state you lived in in 2021?

[MarilynG1]

Yes, you would just file for the state you lived in for 2021.  

The distribution amount  you report in your Federal return will flow to your state return appropriately.

You already paid tax on the distribution amount you reported in 2020 to the state you lived in 2020. 

You may want to check your new state policies on taxation of Retirement Distributions. 

Click this link for info on How to Contact your State Dept of Revenue.

[kmcmillan]

I'm so confused... The post above this says to use 8915 E for distributions taken out in 2020. But here it says F?? Can someone clarify the difference between E and F and which form needs to be filled out if you took early distribution in 2020 under the CARES Act and are paying taxes over 3 years? This will be my second installment. 

[fanfare]

Don't be confused.

Use 8915-E for 2020, and 8915-F for 2021.

Continue to wait.

[kmcmillan]

I'd love not to be confused but it's difficult with contradictory information! One person says to use E, others say F... I just want to verify that I'll use the correct form.

[DoninGA]

You will report this in the Retirement Plans and Social Security section under Wages & Income.  However, the Form 8915-F has not been finalized by the IRS for including in a 2021 tax return so the questions are not being asked until the form is available.  There is no estimate from the IRS when this form will be available, but guessing sometime in March 2022.

As stated in the Form 8915-F instructions - https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/i8915f--dft.pdf

Purpose of Form
Use Form 8915-F to report:
• Qualified 2021 and later disaster distributions, if any;
• Qualified 2020 disaster distributions made in 2021 or 2022, as applicable (coronavirus-related distributions can't be made after December 30, 2020);
• Repayments of qualified 2020 and later disaster distributions;
• Income in 2021 and later years from qualified 2020 and later disaster distributions; and
• Qualified distributions received in 2021 and later years

And additionally -

• You are repaying, or have income from, a coronavirus-related distribution or other qualified 2020 disaster distribution reported on Part I of 2020 Form 8915-E;

Reporting coronavirus-related and other distributions for qualified 2020 disasters made or received in 2020. This form replaces Form 8915-E for tax years beginning after 2020. 

The Form 8915-E was only used for tax year 2020.  It will no longer be used for any other tax year.

[tonyteshera · Accepted solution]

I'm not an expert, but I'm the original poster of this thread, and I think I understand why we've all been confused. First, it's a bit frustrating that so many experts toss out "2020" and "2021" without clarifying if they're referring to the year you took the distribution, or the year for which you're filing taxes. So that doesn't help.

Second, as best I can tell, this issue of electing to be taxed over 3 years seems to be novel (is it?) and the IRS seems to be changing how 8915 is used because of it. Normally, the letter (-A, -B, etc.) seems to refer to "everything related to a distribution in the given year". So, 8915-C would be "everything related to a distribution in 2018", and 8915-D would be "everything related to a distribution in 2019". And so that's what led me and others to believe that 8915-E would be used not just last year for the distribution we took in 2020, but again this year. But it's this 3-year thing that it seems the IRS is handling differently.

The key is that when you go in and look at the draft 8915-F, which would normally be just "everything related to a distribution in 2021", it's also being used for the additional years of taxation for those 2020 early distributions we took due to COVID. As some have pointed out, it's a draft and not final, but if you go through the draft 8915-F form and instructions, you'll see there's a place that you're supposed to indicate the one-third of the distribution from 2020 that should be taxable in 2021 (they have you enter an amount from your 2020 1040, and it's the first third you were taxed on that year). And it looks like they're going to use 8915-F again next year for the final third. That's how it appears based on the draft form and instructions anyway.

I really appreciate all of the experts weighing in on this thread, but I'm with @kmcmillan in that it's very confusing, and honestly, the way the responses are worded doesn't help much.

[ung29378]

Since the 1099-R was for year 2020 and I don’t receive any 1099-R, how do I complete the 1099-R for 2nd portion of distribution qualified and filed in 8915-E form in 2021 filing?

I hope that Turbo Tax online will use last year return and automatically help all of us with this year and next year filing on the distribution. Please advise so I can complete the filing online. Thank you

[DoninGA]

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@ung29378 wrote:

Since the 1099-R was for year 2020 and I don’t receive any 1099-R, how do I complete the 1099-R for 2nd portion of distribution qualified and filed in 8915-E form in 2021 filing?

I hope that Turbo Tax online will use last year return and automatically help all of us with this year and next year filing on the distribution. Please advise so I can complete the filing online. Thank you

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You will report this in the Retirement Plans and Social Security section under Wages & Income.  However, the Form 8915-F has not been finalized by the IRS for including in a 2021 tax return so the questions are not being asked until the form is available.  There is no estimate from the IRS when this form will be available, but guessing sometime in March 2022.

[Jsmit295]

It seems that even the people responding for intuit are misinformed. The irs has the information on their website and that the years after 2020 that you took out 401k will use the 8915-F. The people who took out the 401k for covid related disaster in 2020 will still use the 8915-E so we are currently waiting for no reason at all.  Here is a link to the IRS website about this….https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-dft/i8915f--dft.pdf

[DoninGA]

I haven't seen a response from any TurboTax employee that the form 8915-E has to be used.  All the responses on this thread from employee's/Experts have referred to the Form 8915-F as have all of my posts on this thread.

[kmcmillan]

AHHHaaaahhhahhhhaaa! Why so many differing opinions! This is why I'm confused. 

[fanfare]

@kmcmillan 

 Perhaps this will clarify for you.

There will not be any 2021 Form 8915-E.

When TurboTax is updated in coming week or weeks, there will be no confusion possible.

[peterooi]

Can I start my return now and visit that section later when 8915-F becomes available? Or would I be better off waiting till all forms are released?

Thank you