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Form 1099-R: Retirement Plan Distributions

tax form, United States

Written byNancy Ashburn

Fact-checked byThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Illustration of a decorative 1099-R tax form, featuring abstract green wave patterns in the background and placeholder text in various boxes.

Use Form 1099-R to report distributions from retirement plans, pensions, annuities, and individual retirement accounts (IRAs).

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If you received money from a pension plan, annuity, individual retirement account (IRA), 401(k), or other retirement plan during the tax year, you may receive Form 1099-R. The form reports retirement plan distributions, including rollovers, and helps determine whether any portion of the distribution is taxable.

Not every distribution reported on Form 1099-R is taxable. For example, direct rollovers from one qualified retirement account to another generally aren’t taxable, even though they’re reported on the form.

Key boxes on Form 1099-R

Box 1: The total amount distributed to you. It may include periodic pension payments, required minimum distributions (RMDs), rollovers, Roth IRA conversions, or other retirement plan distributions.
Box 2a: The taxable portion of your distribution, if the payer calculated it. If the “Taxable amount not determined” box in Box 2b is checked, you may need to determine the taxable amount yourself. Direct rollovers generally aren’t taxable, so this box is often zero.
Box 4: Federal income tax withheld from your distribution.
Box 7: A distribution code that identifies the type of distribution you received, such as an early distribution, normal retirement distribution, or rollover. Tax software and tax preparers use this code to determine how the distribution should be reported.

Using Form 1099-R

Use Form 1099-R together with your other tax documents when preparing your federal income tax return. Like other Forms 1099, it reports information the Internal Revenue Service also receives, so keep the form with your tax records even if the distribution wasn’t taxable.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Nancy Ashburn