If Box 16 (State Distribution) on your 1099-R form is blank but TurboTax is indicating an error, here's what you can do: Check Boxes 14 and 15: If there are entries in Boxes 14 (State Tax Withheld) or 15 (State ID Number), TurboTax expects an amount in Box 16 (State distribution) Leave it blank if no state tax was withheld: If Boxes 14 and 15 are blank, you can leave Box 16 blank as well - and this should remove error.If there should be an amount in Box 16 and it's missing, you will need to request a corrected 1099-R form from the issue Original Post

Question

box 16 state dist - The system indicates an error because I left box 16 blank. Box 16 on my 1099R is blank as well. What amount should be entered in box 16?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
March 20, 2025
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SabrinaD2

If Box 16 (State Distribution) on your 1099-R form is blank but TurboTax is indicating an error, here's what you can do:

Check Boxes 14 and 15: If there are entries in Boxes 14 (State Tax Withheld) or 15 (State ID Number), TurboTax expects an amount in Box 16 (State distribution)
Leave it blank if no state tax was withheld: If Boxes 14 and 15 are blank, you can leave Box 16 blank as well - and this should remove error.

If there should be an amount in Box 16 and it's missing, you will need to request a corrected 1099-R form from the issue

Original Post

M

Milo2020

@SabrinaD2 Why does TurboTax expect an amount in Box 16 if the IRS or the state does not require that? Can we not expect to have the IRS or state tax departments to flag such a change and question why we changed the 1099?

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LeticiaF1

Per IRS Instructions for Form 1099-R Boxes 14–19 are provided for your convenience only. They don't need to be completed for the IRS.

As SabrinaD2 mentioned, if you didn't have state withholding on Box 14, you can leave boxes 14–19 empty. If you do have withholding, then usually the state that you live in will tax the whole distribution. This would make box 16 the same as box 1.

@Milo2020