Where do i document PUA Covid assistance

[just1cdsmith]

Is PUA considered to be unemployment

[DoninGA]

Yes.  Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) is unemployment compensation and is reported on your federal tax return as taxable income.

[DoninGA]

You will receive a Form 1099-G from your state for the unemployment compensation received in 2020.  The form should be mailed to you in January 2021.  Or you can go to your state department of unemployment as the Form 1099-G may be available on their website.

To enter unemployment compensation

• Click on Federal Taxes (Personal using Home and Business)
• Click on Wages and Income (Personal Income using Home and Business)
• Click on I'll choose what I work on (if shown)
• Under Unemployment
• On Unemployment and Paid Family Leave, click the start or update button

Or enter unemployment compensation in the Search box located in the upper right of the program screen. Click on Jump to unemployment compensation

[xmasbaby0]

Unemployment compensation is taxable on your federal return.  Enter your 1099G for unemployment in Federal>Wages and Income>Unemployment

You might need to get your 1099G from the state’s unemployment site.

STATES THAT TAX UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS

AZ, AR, CO, CT, DE, DC, GA, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MA, ME, MD, MI, MN, MS, MO, NB, NM, NY,NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, RI, SC, UT, VT, WV, WI

Unemployment compensation is taxable on your federal return.  Enter your 1099G for unemployment in Federal>Wages and Income>Unemployment.  You might need to get your 1099G from the state’s unemployment site.

STATES THAT DO NOT  TAX UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS on the state return

AK, CA, FL, MT, NH, NJ, NV ,PA, SD, TN, TX, VA, W

[khedges2]

I agreed to get a paperless 1099-G and when I go to the CA EDD website, it says that all the amounts are zero. I received PUA and CARES Act stimulus supplement.

[hbl3973]

Dear khedges2,

Oh dear, you received CA unemployment.  Be prepared for a sticker shock on your tax return.

First, though, to answer your question, the CA EDD site states:

"You will receive Form 1099G for the most recent tax year during the last week of January. We will mail you a paper Form 1099G if you do not choose electronic delivery by December 27. Form 1099G tax information is available for up to five years through UI Online."

As we are not in the last week of January, the 1099-G numbers you see right now are meaningless.  Check back next week.

OK, now the sticker shock:

From direct observation helping a friend navigate the CA EDD system, I found that the optional 10% federal tax withholding option only deducted 10% of the CA portion of the unemployment payments but never touched the extra federal stimulus contribution.  So, for example, if you received the $600/week supplement from April until the end of July, you received approximately $10,000 of untaxed unemployment income.  If your federal tax rate is relatively low, say 10%, that means an extra $1,000 of tax due.  On top of that unanticipated hole in your pocket, if the amount you owe on your return exceeds $1,000, you will owe additional underpayment penalties and interest.  Interestingly, TurboTax takes a crack at determining the amount of penalties and interest automatically, though it may be possible to use form 2210 to laboriously reduce that amount.

If the unexpected tax is more than you can afford right now, and, really, how can anyone on unemployment expect to have and extra grand in their back pocket, you may need to set up a payment plan with the IRS.

And, yes, I tried to alert EDD, my state representatives, and a reporter to the issue back in May without anything being changed at EDD.