Tax season is coming.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will begin accepting tax returns later this month. In late January, NYSLRS will mail tax information to retirees (and some members and beneficiaries) so they can file their taxes.
1099-Rs
NYSLRS pensions are not subject to New York State income taxes, but they are subject to federal taxes. By January 31, we’ll mail 1099-R tax forms to nearly half a million retirees and beneficiaries. We also mail 1099-Rs to beneficiaries who received taxable income from NYSLRS in 2018, members who have taken taxable NYSLRS loans or have defaulted on their loans, and those who ended their membership and withdrew their contributions in 2018.
A 1099-R shows:
- The total benefit paid to you in a calendar year.
- The taxable amount of your benefit.
- The amount of taxes withheld from your benefit.
If you don’t get your 1099-R by the second week of February, you can request a reprint. This year, reprints will be available for calendar years 2016, 2017 and 2018.
1099-R Interactive Tutorial
Understanding your 1099-R Tutorial
If you have questions about the information on the form, we feature an interactive 1099-R tutorial on our website. It walks you through a sample 1099-R and offers a short explanation of specific boxes on the form.
Changing Your Federal Tax Withholdings
Because federal tax law was revised for 2018, you may discover that you had too little or too much withheld. You can change your federal tax withholding at any time by sending us a W-4P form. (A handy tutorial about the W-4P walks you through the steps on filling it out.)
Understanding your W-4P Form Tutorial
We offer a federal tax withholding calculator. Enter a marital status and a number of exemptions into the calculator to see how much we would withhold based on current tax tables.
For more information, please visit the Taxes and Your Pension page on our website.
After you’ve filed for retirement, we’ll reply back to you with a confirmation letter and some forms. One of these forms will be a W-4P form (Withholding Certificate for Pension or Annuity Payments). You’ll need to fill out this form to choose the amount you want withheld from your benefit each month for federal taxes. You can choose the withholding tax status that suits you, and you can change it any time afterward by completing a new W-4P form.