How to file unemployment benefits on taxes - NYS Department of Labor 1099-G confusion
I'm completely lost on how to handle my unemployment benefits when filing my 2024 taxes. I received unemployment from NYS Department of Labor for about 6 months last year and just got my 1099-G form. The amount seems way higher than what I thought I got - it shows $8,200 but I was only getting $385 a week. Do I have to report all of this as income? I heard somewhere that some unemployment might not be taxable but I can't figure out what applies to regular NYS unemployment benefits. Has anyone dealt with this before? I'm using TurboTax but it's asking questions I don't understand about my unemployment income.
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Anita George
Yes, unemployment benefits from NYS Department of Labor are considered taxable income by the IRS. You'll need to report the full amount shown on your 1099-G form. The reason your 1099-G shows $8,200 for 6 months at $385/week is probably because you received some back payments or there were weeks where you got additional amounts. Check your benefit payment history on your my.ny.gov account to verify the total.
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Austin Leonard
•That makes sense about the back payments. I did have some delays early on when my claim was in adjudication. So I just enter the 1099-G amount as regular income?
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Abigail Spencer
Make sure you didn't have any taxes withheld from your unemployment payments. If you elected to have federal taxes taken out (10%), that should also be shown on your 1099-G in box 4. A lot of people forget they can have taxes withheld and then get surprised at tax time.
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Logan Chiang
•I wish I had known about the withholding option when I was filing my weekly claims. Now I owe like $900 in taxes on my unemployment.
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Isla Fischer
ugh the whole tax thing with unemployment is such a nightmare!! why doesnt the government just make it simple instead of all these confusing forms
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Miles Hammonds
If you're having trouble getting information about your unemployment payments or need to verify amounts with NYS Department of Labor, I had success using a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) to actually get through to someone at the unemployment office. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Way easier than trying to call the regular number and getting hung up on.
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Austin Leonard
•Thanks! I might need to do that if my payment history doesn't match up with the 1099-G amount.
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Ruby Blake
Just went through this same thing last week. TurboTax will walk you through it step by step. You enter the 1099-G info in the 'Federal Taxes' section under 'Unemployment Income.' It's actually pretty straightforward once you find the right section. The software calculates everything for you.
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GalaxyGazer
One thing to double-check is whether you received any supplemental unemployment benefits like the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) or other pandemic-related payments mixed in with your regular NYS benefits. Even though those programs ended, if you received any of those payments in early 2024, they would be included in your 1099-G total. Also, make sure to keep a copy of your 1099-G form - you'll need it for your records and the IRS gets a copy too, so the amounts need to match what you report.
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Ezra Beard
•That's a really good point about the pandemic payments! I totally forgot about those. I think I might have gotten some FPUC payments early in 2024 before they fully ended, which would explain why my total seems higher than expected. I'll need to dig through my payment history to see if that's what's causing the discrepancy with my weekly benefit amount calculations.
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