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Best answer by ThomasM

On your federal return, retirement income on a 1099-R is taxable unless it's a qualified distribution from a Roth IRA or there are other specific circumstances.  So when you add a 1099-R, you're basically adding income to your return.  If no tax was withheld when you took money out of the retirement account (or pension), then you're increasing your taxable income without offsetting it with taxes paid.  So your refund will go down.

In the future, if you're getting a 1099-R each year, you might want to have taxes withheld if you wind up owing Uncle Sam or your refund is less than you're comfortable with.

2 replies

ThomasMAnswer
Employee
June 5, 2019

On your federal return, retirement income on a 1099-R is taxable unless it's a qualified distribution from a Roth IRA or there are other specific circumstances.  So when you add a 1099-R, you're basically adding income to your return.  If no tax was withheld when you took money out of the retirement account (or pension), then you're increasing your taxable income without offsetting it with taxes paid.  So your refund will go down.

In the future, if you're getting a 1099-R each year, you might want to have taxes withheld if you wind up owing Uncle Sam or your refund is less than you're comfortable with.

February 15, 2022

I have the same problem, but I did have state tax withheld from the pension withdrawal, at a higher rate than was necessary.  Yet my return still dropped many hundreds of dollars, I can't figure out why.

Employee
February 15, 2022

Even if you had tax withheld at a higher rate than was necessary, you still may have not had enough withheld to pay the actual taxes owed from the income. If that is the case, you will still owe more taxes when you enter the 1099-R.

February 3, 2024

I had the same thing happen. They took a big chunk out in taxes. Then it lowered my refund by $2,000. So I got $8,000 and ended up paying $3,600 in taxes. It's ridiculous.