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January 27, 2025
Question

W-2 Box 14 Input Issues During Review

  • January 27, 2025
  • 10 replies
  • 0 views

I am trying to file my tax return with box 14 on my W2 stating the following:

PRETAX $11,000 

 

I looked at my last pay and the amounts consists of pretax employee benefits (health insurance, vison, etc.) I tried to use "other not listed" as the drop down box as I have in all years past and it keeps giving me an error when I go to the federal review. I am filing in NY as well. There are no other options that fit and the ones that would give me the error during review. I am not sure how to get this to go through. Is there an error right now in the software? Help!?

    10 replies

    LindaS5247
    January 27, 2025

    There are no known errors regarding this issue. Make sure that all three boxes for line 14 have entries for your W-2. 

     

    "Other - not classified" is the correct "Category" to use.

     

    If you have added any additional boxes to item 14 and they are blank, delete them.

     

    In general, Box 14 contains informational items that don't affect your taxes.  Turbo Tax will determine if your Box 14 item affects your taxes.

     

    TurboTax may be just asking you to review the entry, and if that is the case you can just indicate that the entry is correct.

     

    You should be able to continue on through your screens to your final review page.  If it gives you an error code during final review you can come back here and indicate what your error message is so we can look into it further and resolve your issue.  

     

    Your can try clearing your cache and cookies, and you can also try deleting and reentering your Form W-2.

     

     

    Click here for additional information on Box 14 of your Form W-2.


     

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    January 30, 2025

    WRONG! The program won't accept other in the review. It wants to change my pretax health to "414" instead of "Other" Won't let me efile because of this.

    January 30, 2025

    Getting the same problem. Wants me to report my Pretax Health category as 414 instead of other. Very annoying. 

    January 30, 2025

    kbiagiotti:

     

    You say your W-2 has "PRETAX $11,000 ". Where does this appear on your W-2? Does it appear on Box 14?

     

    Then you say that when you choose "Other not listed" as the Category, you get an error in the Federal Review. What is the error?

     

    Robb315:

     

       Who wants you to report your Pretax Health category as 414 instead of other? TurboTax? What is the exact message, and where does this message appear?

     

    **Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
    January 30, 2025

    Yes. TurboTax wants me to change the category from other to 414. Just spent an hour on the phone with support and they couldn’t figure it out either. 

    February 1, 2025

    SAME PROBLEM - THIS IS BOKE FOR ME TOO!  PLEASE FIX IT!

    February 8, 2025

    The Issue with the error at the review has to do with how the description in the first box of box 14 comes into the program.  Normally it is an imported W2, and comes in as all caps. 

    The resolution is to change the word, in this case "PRETAX" to something shorter and not in caps such as ""Medical"" (it is sometimes the medical deduction), or FSA, etc.  Do this in each box that is erroring out and it will clear the error and allow you to move on.

    February 8, 2025

    This worked! I changed mine to Health as all mine was related to health insurance and was able to efile! Thank you

    February 16, 2025

    I changed the description from PRETAX to PRE TAX with a space to bypass the error.

    February 21, 2025

    for 2023 tax year, I had a w2 with no line 1 also but line 12a had DD with a entry. (about 8k). I was unable to file Turbo tax due to this. So I called Turbo tax ad they suggested I put in $1 in the wage line. Big mistake. Was audited likely because why would someone earn wages of $1. So don't do this. This 2024 tax year, I was concerned same thing would happen and not be able to file if line 1 blank and this year Turbo tax felt I could delete this w2 because I made no table income and this is for my general info only. So this is what i plan on doing-- when I am ready to file in March , I will try to leave it in (thinking maybe Turbo tax fixed this issue) but if not I will delete the form. I am not under-reporting any income.  

    LenaH
    February 21, 2025

    The word PRETAX in the description is causing the error and forcing you to choose 414(h) exempt or taxable in Box 14. Please try adding a space between words (PRE TAX) or changing to another description. This should clear the error. 

     

    @egilberg 

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    February 21, 2025

    I saw another post suggesting putting a space between PRE and TAX and it works! Thanks

    February 21, 2025

    I am having the exact same problem! There is a line item in the W-2 Box 14 that has an amount and "PRETAX" with no code. I tried using "Other -- not classified" and it says I can't efile. It gives me this message: 

    "NYS does not allow the description selected for the NY public employee retirement code entered (ERS, NYRET, RET, NYSERS). To e-file successfully you must choose either 'NYC IRC 414H Subject to NY tax' or 'NY IRC 414H NY Tax Exempt' from the picklist."
    This is inapplicable to my situation. Turbotax, please fix this!
    February 22, 2025

    I got the same error for entering EERETIREDED in Box 14 for retirement contributions.  I think the issue is that for some reason, Turbo Tax reads the "RET" in the description as the NYS Public employees retirement system, even though I am not a NYS employee.  When I removed the "T" from the description or wrote it as "EERE TIREDED," with a space somewhere in "RET," the error cleared.

     

    I never had this problem in the past with this description and using "Other"; not sure why this is happening this year, but seems to be a programing/code issue with TurboTax.

    March 21, 2025

    While this may not be a fix, it is a work around. What is holding this up is the word PRETAX, The letters in these boxes are really used for employers as a "catch-all" if you will. 
    If you just take PRETAX out and use the word OTHER, it will allow you to e-file. 

    March 25, 2025

    Spoke with a rep: "If Turbotax forces a selection, try choosing "Other (not specified)" instead of assigning it a NY tax classification. If that triggers the NYIRC error, remove the entry for Pretax Med entirely, because it doesn't affect taxable income." 

    I'm in NY and since it doesn't affect me, I deleted it and I was able to progress. 

    March 30, 2025

    The Code-A 101 error is a known issue and is currently being worked on by developers.  If you are using TurboTax Desktop, you can use the following work around.  

     

    I have noticed a zero being input in the add/sub (225) worksheet. If you remove the zero, the needs review goes away. See the screenshot below:




    To remove the 0, follow these steps:

    Open TurboTax
    Click forms in the upper right corner
    Select Add/Sub (225)
    remove all 0's, included the one for NY State allocated amount of above

    **Say "Thanks" by clicking the thumb icon in a post**Mark the post that answers your question by clicking on "Mark as Best Answer"
    March 30, 2025

    This worked - thank you!!! It took a few tries to get it to delete the zero and not auto refill it, but once I did that I was able to file. What a relief - you've saved me hours of frustration!!!

    April 7, 2025

    I am having a similiar issue but not with a W2 form but with a 1099-R form from my IRA company.

    I get a message saying that the amount in box 14 "State tax withheld"  can be less than or equal to the

    amount in Box 1 "Gross Distribution".  Box 14 is blank and Box 1 is $10,000 .  I placed zero in the blank

    Box 14 but the same error still showed.   Users should have the option of forcing the efile for an error message

    they deem erroneous.

     

     

        

    April 8, 2025


     By the sounds of your post, you did not have any state tax taken out, so you would use the 1st step. 
    Leave the box for state tax blank, make sure to take out your state, make sure that the payor id is blank and take out whatever amount is in box 16 and that will clear your error. 

    If you had state tax taken out, put in the amount that was taken out for the state tax, put in your state and then put in your gross wages in box 16. 


    Any box that has nothing in it from your 1099-R or your W2, do not put in a 0, just leave it blank.