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February 4, 2023
Question

How should my wife report income she received from the MA PFML program? She did not have taxes withheld from the income because the IRS hasn't made a ruling on it yet.

  • February 4, 2023
  • 1 reply
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She has a 1099-G form, but Turbotax online filing doesn't provide a checkbox for MA PFML payments under the "1099-G other income" option. Should she even report this income if the IRS has not determined whether it is taxable yet?

1 reply

February 5, 2023

Follow these instructions from a TurboTax Help article to enter the 1099-G in your return:

 

Important: If your 1099-G shows an amount in box 2go here for alternate instructions, as the steps below won't work.

If you're using the TurboTax mobile app, follow these instructions.

If you received unemployment payments or took paid family leave, enter your 1099-G info.

Unemployment compensation and paid family leave are entered in the same place:

  1. Open or continue your tax return
  2. Search for 1099-G and select the Jump to link at the top of the search results
  3. On the Did you or Spouse receive unemployment or paid family leave benefits? screen, answer Yes
  4. Follow the onscreen instructions to enter your 1099-G information

Should you report this as income?

 

From Tax Expert RobertB4444:

 

The IRS has still issued no guidance on this.  So you have two options:

 

1- Put the medical leave on your return in "Other Income" and when the system asks for the type of income enter "Washington Medical Leave".  If the IRS issues guidance on these payments that says that they are not taxable you would then file an amended return to get any taxes you paid refunded to you.

 

2- Leave the medical leave off your return and wait to see if the IRS issues guidance saying the payments are taxable. In which case you can amend your return to add the payments that you received back in.

 

I would tend to go with the first option.  Not just because it is safer but because the IRS has historically treated any payments received as replacements for wages that you would have earned as taxable.  I don't know why they haven't answered on this one - they are still very backed up - but I think erring on the side of caution for this would be wise.

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