to see the tax-free and taxable split
IRS Simplified Method · Pub 575 · Form 1099-R · 1040 Line 5b · TY 2025 & 2026
Find the tax-free and taxable part of each pension or annuity payment under the IRS Simplified Method. Enter your cost in the plan and your age at the annuity starting date to see the tax-free amount in every check, the taxable amount that lands on Form 1040 line 5b, and the point at which your cost runs out.
Want the full picture - the Simplified Method versus the General Rule, how to read Form 1099-R, withholding with Form W-4P, and how a pension stacks with Social Security? Read the companion guide.
Read the Pension & Annuity Income Tax Guide →If you made no after-tax contributions, your whole pension is taxable. If you have a cost in the plan (box 9b of Form 1099-R), part of each payment is a tax-free return of that cost under the IRS Simplified Method: the tax-free amount equals your cost divided by a fixed number of expected payments for your age. A retiree with a $31,000 cost on a joint annuity starting at 65 and 63 excludes $100 of every $1,200 monthly payment, so $13,200 of a $14,400 year is taxable on Form 1040 line 5b. The tax-free dollar amount never changes, and it stops once you have recovered your full cost.
| Table 1 - Single life, age at start | Payments | Table 2 - Joint, combined ages | Payments |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 or under | 360 | 110 or under | 410 |
| 56 to 60 | 310 | 111 to 120 | 360 |
| 61 to 65 | 260 | 121 to 130 | 310 |
| 66 to 70 | 210 | 131 to 140 | 260 |
| 71 or older | 160 | 141 or older | 210 |
These are the IRS Simplified Method tables from Publication 575 and the Form 1040 instructions. Table 1 applies to a single-life annuity using your age at the annuity starting date; Table 2 applies to a joint and survivor annuity with a starting date after 1997, using the combined ages of both annuitants. The tables are the same for tax years 2025 and 2026. Source: IRS Publication 575, IRS Topic 410, and IRS Topic 411.
The tool follows the IRS Simplified Method Worksheet line by line. For the General Rule used by nonqualified annuities and the full set of rules, see the Pension & Annuity Income Tax Guide.
Your cost (investment in the contract) is the after-tax money you put in, shown in box 9b of Form 1099-R for the first year of payments. Pre-tax salary deferrals are not cost. If your cost is zero, the entire pension is taxable and there is nothing to recover tax-free.
For a single-life annuity, the tool reads Table 1 by your age at the annuity starting date. For a joint and survivor annuity, it adds your age and the survivor's age and reads Table 2 by the combined ages. This number is how many monthly payments the IRS expects the annuity to make.
Divide the cost by the number of expected payments. The result is the tax-free amount in every monthly payment, and it is fixed for the life of the annuity even if the payment later rises with a cost-of-living adjustment.
Multiply the tax-free monthly amount by the months you received this year, but never more than the cost still left to recover. The taxable amount for the year is the gross received minus that tax-free part, reported on Form 1040 line 5b.
The tool adds this year's tax-free part to what you recovered before and subtracts from your total cost. Once the running total reaches your full cost, the exclusion stops and all later payments are fully taxable. Any cost left unrecovered at death is an itemized deduction on the final return.
The single biggest mistake we see is a retiree treating box 1 of Form 1099-R as the taxable number. For a government or older private pension with after-tax contributions, box 2a is often blank or marked "taxable amount not determined," and the payer leaves the math to you. People who skip the Simplified Method overpay every year because they never claim the tax-free recovery of their own cost. We always check box 9b on the very first 1099-R, because that cost figure drives the exclusion for decades.
The fixed-dollar nature of the exclusion surprises clients. The tax-free amount is locked the year the annuity starts; it does not rise when the pension gets a cost-of-living bump. So over time, as the payment grows and the tax-free piece stays flat, a larger and larger share of each check becomes taxable. We set client expectations early that the exclusion is a slowly shrinking percentage, not a fixed percentage.
Keep the worksheet. The Simplified Method is a multi-year computation: line 10 of this year's worksheet (the cost recovered so far) becomes the starting point next year. Clients who lose the prior worksheet end up guessing, and the IRS has no way to reconstruct it for them. We store a running tally in the client file so the recovery never gets double-counted or dropped.
Watch the recovery cliff. For a long-lived retiree, the cost eventually runs out, and the pension flips to fully taxable with no warning on the 1099-R. We flag the year the cost is projected to be exhausted so the client can adjust withholding on Form W-4P before the higher tax bill lands, rather than getting surprised by an underpayment penalty.
Use the calculator above with your box 9b cost, then read the worksheet walkthrough in the Pension & Annuity Income Tax Guide so you report the right amount on line 5b.
A taxable pension raises your provisional income, which can make more of your Social Security taxable. Check the ripple with the Social Security Tax Calculator and the Is Social Security Taxable guide.
Estimate your full retirement tax picture and adjust Form W-4P. The AGI & MAGI Calculator and the Senior Standard Deduction Calculator help you size the bill.
A pension or annuity payment before age 59½ can carry the 10 percent additional tax. Run it through the Early Withdrawal Penalty Calculator and the RMD Calculator for later years.