Question

What to use as a federal tax ID for a foreign entity? I've used all 1s or all 9s before for foreign pensions. Now Turbotax insists that's wrong. Thanks!

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
March 21, 2024
3 replies
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TurboTax Online

Enter all two's (2), that should work. Your "Mock" 1099-R entries in TurboTax are simply to get the foreign pension to show up on the form 1040 as taxable pension on line 5b. The actual payer information does not get transmitted as part of your tax return.

Be advised if there was any foreign withholding shown on your form that does not get reported in the "Mock" 1099-R entries; that is not taxes paid to the US. You will need to enter the foreign withholding as foreign tax paid to claim a foreign tax credit. In the "Deductions & Credits" section scroll to "Estimates and other taxes paid" to find the "Foreign Tax Credit" topic.

Finally, US treaties govern how the foreign pensions are taxed. Be sure to check the treaty information for the source country of the distribution. Here is a link that may be helpful.

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K

KRhodaAuthor

Thank you very much! Using all 2s got Turbotax to accept it. I hope that's OK with the IRS, though.

It gives me pause that you linked your answer with the misunderstanding that with foreign pensions "The actual payer information does not get transmitted as part of your tax return." Not so. In my experience (married filing jointly for 12 years now with a spouse with two foreign pensions), the process of creating a substitute 1099-R leads to generating a Form 4852 which is indeed part of the tax filing, and the payer is fully identified on it.

Last year we identifed the pensions payers with all 1s. Could changing to all 2s trigger unwanted scrutiny from the IRS? Thanks again!

P

pk12_2

Employee

@KRhoda , having read through your post and the answers thereto, just be aware that for foreign pensions and the tax treatment thereof may be influenced by tax treaty between US and "that country". So suggest you familiarize how your foreign pension ( and source thereof ) is to be treated.

J

jj148

Is there a reason the substitute 1099-R does not print with the rest of the documentation?

AmyC

Employee

From this thread, I think you are filing a 1099-R with a dummy id, not a substitute 1099-R. If you are filing a true substitute 1099-R, Form 4852, it should be printing. Form 4852 is not allowed for efiling.

When you select to view all forms, the 4852 should be a part of your forms. To print your forms:

In desktop, switch to Forms Mode.
For online:
1. On the left side, select Tax Tools
2. Select Print center
3. Select Print, save or preview this year's return
4. If you have not paid, select pay now.