1099R earnings reported in two states.

[Absolut]

I use Pro Series Express. My client received three 1099 R, reported as follows:

Mass Inst of Tech Basic Reitrement Plan - $50,592.72 reported as MA earned.

Teachers Insurance and Annuity Assoc - $23,459.36 - reported as ME earned.
Teachers Insurance and Annuity Assoc - $13,834.08 - reported as ME earned.

What I want to know is on the MA return it asked if any of the Pension/Annuity earnings are exempt from tax, are teachers Pension exempt in MA?

I know I have to allocate the MA to MA and the same with ME so both states don't tax it correct?

[JG EA]

Part year

If your client was a part year resident then yes you allocate to the correct state.

I don't have your program, but on mine there is a place on the 1099 screen to put the different states, just like at the bottom of the W-2.

I've been noticing that many payers of retirement income have been quick to change the State when the client has moved and even issue two 1099's for the correct state - which makes life easier.

PS. In the old days (still works) we made columns with total income and columns for the states involved and a column for double taxed income that could be handled on the final home state.

It was then easy to see just where everything went. This is helpful now to double check your program and see if everything is going where it should.

[Absolut]

Full Year Resident of Maine

He was a full year resident of Maine. Seems to me that MA should change his reporting state to ME. I actually emailed MA revenue office to see what they said. I was just wondering if it's taxable at all in MA b/c it's being paid by MASS Tech, I was thinking b/c he was a teacher it was State Retirement, and maybe not taxed. Maybe I'm thinking wrong. I was hoping someone from MA was on this board that might be able to answer it.

[Snaggletooth]

Absolutly not taxable to MA

TIAA is the ultimate portable retirement system, concocted by the college industry long before any of the current portables were in vogue or even dreamed of. The idea was that a college professor could spend his career in any number of states, and carry his TIAA around with him wherever he goes.

If he lives in Maine, I've been told that he can only be taxed in Maine. And many states, Maine possibly included, allow minimal taxation of teacher's retirements. That is because in most states the teachers are joined with state employees for purposes of exempting themselves. In other words, if Maine is his full-time residency state, no other state can lay claim to the income taxation even though the "source" of the retirement may be traceable to another state.

I don't know what you will be told by Massachusetts tax authorities, but quite frankly, they are hardly an objective source. They would be the very last people I would ask about whether something is taxable in their state or not. Kinda like finding a billfold with $1000 then asking a group of teenage punks - "Who lost $1000?"