Entering Railroad Retirement Benefits from Form RRB-1099 Box 5

How to enter Railroad Retirement Benefits from a Form RRB-1099, Box 5?

Railroad Retirement Benefits (RRB-1099, Box 5) - Enter this amount in Screen 14.1, Miscellaneous Income, in Social Security Benefits section.  The program calculates the taxable portion in the same way as taxable social security benefits (see below).

Note: Do not report amounts from Form RRB-1099-R in this screen.

The program calculates the taxable portion based on modified adjusted gross income. The program calculates modified adjusted gross income by taking the adjusted gross income from Form 1040, excluding taxable social security benefits, and adding any non-taxable interest income. Please note the following:

• When the taxpayer's status is MFS and lived with the spouse, make an entry in Live With Spouse on Screen 1, Client Information. The program eliminates the exclusion per IRS instructions.
• When the taxpayer and/or spouse has income earned in a foreign country, a U.S. possession, or Puerto Rico that is excluded from gross income, you must manually calculate the taxable amount of social security benefits using the worksheet in IRS Pub. 915 and enter the amount in Taxable Social Security and Railroad Retirement [O] (Screen 14.1, codes 4, 54).

If the taxpayer receives social security benefits in the current year and the taxpayer also has current year IRA contributions, the program calculates the taxable portion as follows per IRS Pub. 590:

1. The program calculates a tentative taxable social security amount based on the Social Security Benefits worksheet in the IRS instructions without using the IRA deduction.
2. The program uses the tentative taxable social security amount calculated in step 1 to calculate the IRA deduction.
3.  After calculating the IRA deduction in step 2, the program recalculates the Social Security Benefits worksheet to determine the taxable social security benefits.