Pension Plan Payout

[Gibbler]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?NM

But the pension plan was paid out in IL while living in IL.

I received a pension plan payout thru a QDRO from my ex husband. I am not 59 1/2 yet. When I received the check it had the mandatory 20% already taken out per federal tax law. I now have to claim the entire amount as income, including the 20% already taken for taxes.
My question is, how are the taxes that have already been paid dispursed? If I claim the entire amount (under 200K), it says for the amount I received, I would be in the 33% tax bracket. If you take 33% on this, plus the already 20% they have taken already for taxes, that would mean I would pay like 53% taxes. Nobody has a 53 % tax bracket. Do they take part of the 20% and put it towards the earned income tax? I realize there are penalties for taking early withdrawl. But I did contact the IRS and they said I do not have the 10% added penalty because the money was obtained thru a QDRO.
Thanks for any help in explaining this.

 

[abezon]

The 1099R you receive will show a payment to the IRS of 20%, which will be credited towards your total tax liability, just like withholding from your paycheck is. You get out of the 10% penalty by filing form 5329 & claiming an exception from the penalty for a disbursement related to a QDRO.

The total disbursement must be claimed as income unless you rolled it into an IRA within 60 days of disbursement (or can show the IRS that you tried to roll it over & were prevented from doing so by something that was not your fault, such as bad advice from an incompetant finacial advisor). Didn't your lawyer tell you to talk to a tax person before getting the money?