My 1099-R does not have a completed box 16 since 2020. Never a problem before but for 2024 taxes Turbotax now requires this to be filled. Why?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 11, 2025
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Turbo Tax is requiring an amount from box 16 on my Ohio Public Emp Ret Sys 1099-R. My 1099-R does not have a completed box 16 since 2020. Never a problem before but for 2024 taxes Turbotax now requires this to be filled. Why?

TurboTax Home & Biz Windows

SteamTrain

Employee

Yep...some change or another now needs it.

If box 2a has a non-zero value in it use that $$ amount.

If box 2a is blank, zero, or "undetermined"...you use the amount of box 1 that the IRS included in Fed taxable income on the Federal forms (usually just box 1 value, as long as you didn't make any "after-Tax" contributions to that retirement fund)

______________

Edit:

Oh yeah...your actions might be dependent on what's in box 14 as noted in the following response.

____________*Answers are correct to the best of my knowledge when posted, but should not be considered to be legal or official tax advice.*

mglauner

If your 1099-R has an amount in Box 14, State Tax Withheld, there must also be an amount in Box 16, State Distribution (which is generally the same amount as in Box 1).

However, if Box 14 and 15 are blank, you are correct that you don't need an entry in Box 16. If there is an entry in Box 15 only, State Payer's ID, you can leave boxes 14-16 blank in TurboTax.

Be sure to indicate that you have a Public Pension when entering your 1099-R.

buckeyeandbluegrass

Box 16 is blank and box 14 is filled in, just as it always has been for the last 14 years. TT used to allow me to enter the 1099-R exactly that way, until this year, and it processed that action of leaving box 16 blank as a zero. This year TT changed, but my documentation has not.

buckeyeandbluegrass

Is there an update on this problem? I have received confirmation from State of Ohio Taxation, as well as the issuer/payer of my 1099-R that the filled Box 14 & 15 with blank Box 16 is correct. This is exactly how my 1099-R has been handled for many years without problem. It is only for this 2024 tax year that TT is blocking my progress. When I contacted TT they said they would escalate the problem for resolution, but less than three hours later they closed my case number without any changes/corrections.

I understand some states require Box 16 be populated if Box 14 is, but not Ohio, so I'm wondering if TT unintentionally somehow included Ohio in this handling, when it should not have been? Are they even working on this any more? Did they just give up trying to correct this? I cannot finish our returns until it is fixed, and I can't tell if they are even trying to fix it anymore.