NY resident and Government Annuity help needed

[TaxLadyinPA]

I have a NY resident age 57 who is a retired postal worker. What is the rule exactly regarding a taxable portion of his annuity.

His CSA 1099R Gross Box 1 is $ 24000. Box 2 taxable is 22,000. Box 5 Employee Contributions/Designated Roth contributions or Insurance Premiums is $ 1200.
and Box 9 Total Employee Contributions is $ 68000. The distribution code is 7.

My problem is that my Proseries program is exempting the total amount of his Government Annuity and what I understand from reading in the NY IT-150 instructions for Line 16 it says to put the amount that represents a return of contributions in a year prior to retirement.
And what happened to the $ 20,000 exclusion limit?? I am confused

This is the first year I have done this return. I don't know how many years he has been retired. I of course didn't ask him … I thought … easy return … just some retirement. *L*

Any info you can give me to lead me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

[BOB W]

The $20,000 exclusion is for non-government pensions, IRA and such. Gov'tment pension are totally excluded. Check for a drop down box that tells your program that this is a gov'tment 1099R and pick the one that applies.

[New York Enrolled Agent]

Taxlady

To qualify for the $20,000 pension exclusion, the taxpayer must be at least 59½ at the time they received any pension distributions.

[TaxLadyinPA]

Yes sometimes I'm dumb

I knew that ... *duh me * I knew the 20000 exclusion was for over age 59 1/2 ... don't know why I even said that... LOL

But what I was not sure about ... was if the annuity was totally exempt because it is a Government employee ...

That is what I wanted to be sure about .... I didn't think I was reading the instructions correctly about the amount to allow for exemption ....

Which brings another question .... Why is it that all the little people get screwed while all the Government employees get to totally exempt their retirement. It just isn't right !!!!!
We won't even start that conversation ..... LOL

Thanks for your answers

[BOB W]

States can't tax federal items like pensions, us bonds, etc.

[Uncle Sam]

NY Resident-Postal Retiree

I have one of those type clients - who retired before 59 1/2.
I used the Simplified Method for computing the taxable portion of the distribution.
Then, whatever amount is taxable for the Federal return, is wholly exempt from NYS because it's a government pension.