I placed POST-tax dollars into a 403b and 457b, will I be penalized for this? I placed $18500 into each account, a total of $37000.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 6, 2019
4 replies
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TurboTax Deluxe Online

Best answer by dmertz

Items reported with codes BB and EE in box 12 of your W-2 are Roth contributions to the 403(b) and 457(b), respectively, and do not reduce the amount that your employer reports in box 1 of your W-2.

Item reported with codes E and G in box 12 of your W-2 are elective deferrals to the 401(k) and 457(b), respectively, and are pre-tax, not post tax, because your employer excludes these amounts from the amount in box 1 of your W-2.

TurboTax presently has a bug that flags maximized 457(b) contributions combined with maximized contributions to another type of qualified retirement plan such as a 403(b) as excess contributions because they exceed $18,500 when, in fact, the permissible total is $37,000. To e-file you'll need to wait for the TurboTax developers to fix this, otherwise you'll need to file by mail. There might be a fix in the April 5 update.

Opus 17

Level 15

How did you do that? A 403b, at least, should not legally accept extra payments. Only payments made via payroll deduction.

If your plan allows after tax deductions, that sounds like a Roth account. There’s nothing wrong with that. It means you pay tax on the money going in instead of when you take it out.

lindsay-burt-07Author

Level 2

I was able to place $18500 post-tax dollars into a 403b and another $18500 post tax into a 457b. I thought that it would be okay because I was allowed to do it through my employer retirement set up but when I am filing my taxes on turbotax it says I will be penalized

Opus 17

Level 15

@dmertz

dmertzAnswer

Level 15

Items reported with codes BB and EE in box 12 of your W-2 are Roth contributions to the 403(b) and 457(b), respectively, and do not reduce the amount that your employer reports in box 1 of your W-2.

anna_stockton

Level 2

I have the same issue and the program won't allow me to select the option to file by mail. Is there a way to force it to print and allow filing by mail?