NYS Department of Labor unemployment not taxable - what year was this and did I miss filing correctly?
I'm trying to figure out my tax situation and I remember hearing that unemployment benefits weren't taxable for one year recently. Was this 2020 or 2021? I received NYS Department of Labor unemployment for about 8 months during that time and I'm worried I might have filed my taxes wrong. Did anyone else deal with this? I can't find clear information about whether NY state unemployment was included in this or just federal.
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Andre Dupont
It was 2020 when the first $10,200 of unemployment benefits weren't subject to federal taxes, but only if your adjusted gross income was under $150,000. This applied to all unemployment including NYS Department of Labor payments. You should have received a corrected 1099-G if you already filed your 2020 taxes before this change.
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Carmen Lopez
•Thank you! I think I did get a corrected form but I'm not sure I understood what to do with it. Should I have amended my 2020 return?
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QuantumQuasar
yeah i remember that year was confusing as hell, the irs kept changing the rules and my tax guy said most people had to amend their returns
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Zoe Papanikolaou
Just to clarify - this was specifically for tax year 2020 (unemployment received in 2020). The $10,200 exclusion only applied to federal taxes, not NY state taxes. If you received NYS Department of Labor unemployment in 2020, you still had to pay NY state income tax on the full amount. Many people got confused about this distinction.
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Jamal Wilson
•Wait so even with the federal exclusion we still owed NY state taxes on unemployment? That seems unfair since we were already struggling financially!
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Zoe Papanikolaou
•Unfortunately yes, the federal exclusion didn't extend to state taxes. NY continued to tax unemployment benefits as regular income even in 2020.
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Mei Lin
I had such a nightmare trying to get through to anyone at the IRS about this. Spent hours on hold multiple times. If you need to reach NYS Department of Labor about tax documents or anything else, I found this service called Claimyr that actually got me through to a real person. Check out claimyr.com - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Saved me so much frustration.
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Carmen Lopez
•Thanks for the tip! I might need to call about getting duplicate tax forms since I can't find my 1099-G anywhere.
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Liam Fitzgerald
omg yes 2020 taxes were the worst!! i filed mine early and then had to amend when they changed the rules about unemployment not being taxable up to that amount, what a mess
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