Why am i being asked about a lump sum payment amount for 1984-2021

Lump sum questions are commonly found when you are entering Social Security income information.  Social Security recipients may receive benefits for previous tax years (retroactively) in addition to their current year benefits.  The previous year's payments are considered 'lump sum' payments.

If your Social Security 1099-SSA did not include any payments for prior years as would be shown in box 3, then you do not need to enter any information about lump sum payments.

Go back through the Social Security income section and check your answer to the question about whether you received any lump sum payments for prior years.

Use the following steps to revisit that section:

• On the top row of the TurboTax online screen, click on Search (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax locate the search box in the upper right corner) 
• This opens a box where you can type in “social security income” (be sure to enter exactly as shown here) and click the magnifying glass (or for CD/downloaded TurboTax, click Find)
• The search results will give you an option to “Jump to social security income”
• Click on the blue “Jump to social security income” link and enter your information