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Accounts in the United States

Every kind of account and pension the planner offers in the United States: what each one is, when money can come out, how it is taxed, and the pages we read the rules from.

Engine 2026Reviewed

Most American retirement savings sit in plans through work, such as a 401(k), 403(b) or 457(b), and in individual retirement accounts (IRAs). Each comes in two kinds. A traditional account was paid into before income tax, so what comes out is taxed as income. A Roth account was paid into from taxed pay, so what comes out later is usually tax free. Outside them sit an ordinary brokerage account, a health savings account and a few insurance products, each with rules of its own.

Each kind has its own row in the money step, because the same balance can cost very different amounts of tax depending on where it sits. Your plan's statement, or the form your IRA provider sends each year, says which kind each account is. Social Security and a pension that already pays you an income go in the pension step instead.

Rules as of the 2026 tax year, read from the authorities on 2026-07-27. Each account lists the pages we read it from.

Accounts you can enter

A new plan starts with 29% in Regular investment account, 65% in Traditional IRA, 6% in Roth IRA, until you replace it with your own accounts. Where that split comes from: Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2025: households aged 55 to 64 below the top tenth by savings.

Regular investment account

Dividends and interest are taxed each year, and profit is taxed when you sell.

Shares, funds, bonds, certificates of deposit and cash you hold at a bank or broker outside any retirement account. Interest and dividends are taxed in the year they arrive. When you sell, only the profit is taxed, at the lower rates for investments held more than a year, because the plan keeps track of what you paid.

When one of a couple dies, the gain built up in what the partner owned is wiped for tax. On a joint account that is the partner's half, or the whole account in the nine community-property states. There an account in one name is treated as that partner's own, so mark an account as shared if it is really shared property.

How it is taxed, rate by rate, is on the tax page.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over, and the gain built up in it is wiped for tax

401(k) or 403(b)

A workplace plan. You have not paid tax on it yet, so the whole amount counts as income when you take it out. Leave the job at 55 or later and this plan pays out without the 10% early charge.

A savings plan through work: a 401(k), a 403(b), the traditional side of the federal Thrift Savings Plan, or a solo 401(k) if you are self-employed. Contributions came out of your pay before income tax, so every dollar that comes out counts as income in that year, on top of your other income, including in the test for how much of your Social Security is taxed.

Before 59½ a withdrawal costs an extra 10%. If you leave your job in or after the year you turn 55, the plan lifts that charge on this account from the age you retire. A schedule of yearly payments (a SEPP) also lifts it: choose one on the account and the plan pays it each year until five years have passed or you reach 59½, whichever is later. Under the two fixed methods that is the same amount every year; under the life expectancy method it is worked out again each year from the balance.

From 73, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later, a minimum must come out each year: last year's closing balance divided by a life expectancy figure from the IRS table. What you do not spend that year moves to your regular investment account.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Before 59½, an extra 10% on top of income tax
Pays out
At least a legal minimum every year
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Take equal yearly payments before 59½ (a SEPP) We assume: no.
  • Age the payments start From 18 to 59. We assume your retirement age.
  • How the payment is worked out No default: you answer it.
  • Interest rate for the schedule From 0% to 10%. We assume 5%.
Where the model simplifies

  • Taking money out of a 401(k) or traditional IRA before 59 and a half costs an extra 10 percent, and we charge it. Leaving your job at 55 or later lifts it on a 401(k), and a schedule of equal yearly payments (a SEPP) lifts it on the payments: you can set one up on the account. Other routes we cannot check: tell us the age you can take money out without the charge. In the year you turn 59 we charge half the year's early withdrawals, since we do not know your birthday. A SEPP you already started before your plan has its payment worked out from today's balance, not the one it started on.

    Your real tax is lower/up to $9,545 a year/anyone drawing on a retirement account before 59 and a half who has a legal route around the charge other than the two modelled, and has not said so

  • The plan takes the required minimum out of your pre-tax retirement account every year from the age the law sets for your birth year, and anything you do not spend is moved to your ordinary account. What we simplify: the law lets you push the very first payment into the following April, some couples with a much younger spouse owe a little less, and a gift to charity straight from the account can cancel the tax on it. If you hold a longevity annuity bought with IRA money (a QLAC), enter your IRA without it and add the annuity's payments as a pre-tax private pension from the age they start: the law leaves it out of the required minimum, and the money in it cannot be spent before then. Each simplification makes the plan slightly more careful, not less.

    Your real tax is lower/households past the applicable age, mainly couples with a much younger spouse, regular charitable giving from the account, or a longevity annuity (QLAC)

  • Your first required withdrawal can wait until 1 April of the following year, but then you take two in that year. We always take each one in its own year, which is usually the cheaper choice because two in one year can push you into a higher band.

    Could go either way/IRA owners who would defer their first minimum

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 72(t)(2)(A)(v), 401(a)(9), 408A(d)(3)

Traditional IRA

You have not paid tax on it yet, so the whole amount counts as income when you take it out. Before 59½ it costs an extra 10%.

An IRA you or your employer paid into before income tax, including a rollover IRA from an old workplace plan and a SEP-IRA if you are self-employed. Every dollar that comes out counts as income, plus 10% before 59½. Leaving a job at 55 does not lift that charge on an IRA, but a schedule of equal yearly payments (a SEPP) does, and the planner can set one up.

If you put money in that you could not deduct, the IRS tracks it on Form 8606 and it comes back tax free. It does so in proportion across all your traditional IRAs together, whichever one you take from, and the plan works it out the same way. The required minimum from 73 or 75 works as on a 401(k), and what you do not spend moves to your regular investment account.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Before 59½, an extra 10% on top of income tax
Pays out
At least a legal minimum every year
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Take equal yearly payments before 59½ (a SEPP) We assume: no.
  • Age the payments start From 18 to 59. We assume your retirement age.
  • How the payment is worked out No default: you answer it.
  • Interest rate for the schedule From 0% to 10%. We assume 5%.
Where the model simplifies

  • Taking money out of a 401(k) or traditional IRA before 59 and a half costs an extra 10 percent, and we charge it. Leaving your job at 55 or later lifts it on a 401(k), and a schedule of equal yearly payments (a SEPP) lifts it on the payments: you can set one up on the account. Other routes we cannot check: tell us the age you can take money out without the charge. In the year you turn 59 we charge half the year's early withdrawals, since we do not know your birthday. A SEPP you already started before your plan has its payment worked out from today's balance, not the one it started on.

    Your real tax is lower/up to $9,545 a year/anyone drawing on a retirement account before 59 and a half who has a legal route around the charge other than the two modelled, and has not said so

  • The plan takes the required minimum out of your pre-tax retirement account every year from the age the law sets for your birth year, and anything you do not spend is moved to your ordinary account. What we simplify: the law lets you push the very first payment into the following April, some couples with a much younger spouse owe a little less, and a gift to charity straight from the account can cancel the tax on it. If you hold a longevity annuity bought with IRA money (a QLAC), enter your IRA without it and add the annuity's payments as a pre-tax private pension from the age they start: the law leaves it out of the required minimum, and the money in it cannot be spent before then. Each simplification makes the plan slightly more careful, not less.

    Your real tax is lower/households past the applicable age, mainly couples with a much younger spouse, regular charitable giving from the account, or a longevity annuity (QLAC)

  • Your first required withdrawal can wait until 1 April of the following year, but then you take two in that year. We always take each one in its own year, which is usually the cheaper choice because two in one year can push you into a higher band.

    Could go either way/IRA owners who would defer their first minimum

  • Money you put into a traditional IRA after tax comes back tax free, in the share it makes up of all your traditional IRAs together, whichever one you take from or convert. We count the after-tax money you tell us you have today. New contributions during the plan are treated as deductible, so after-tax contributions you make later are taxed again when they come out.

    Your real tax is lower/savers making non-deductible IRA contributions during the plan

  • A longevity annuity bought inside an IRA (a QLAC) is left out of the balance your required minimum withdrawals are worked out on. We have no link between the two. Enter the annuity's future payments as a pension and leave the amount you paid for it out of your savings; if you include it, your required withdrawals here are higher than the law asks.

    Your real tax is lower/up to $8,537 a year/IRA owners who bought a QLAC and include it in their savings

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 72(t), 401(a)(9), 408(d), 408A(d)(3)

Roth IRA

Already taxed on the way in. What you put in comes out tax free at any age; the growth does too from 59½, once the account is five years old.

An IRA paid into from money already taxed. What you put in comes out first, tax free at any age. The growth comes out last, and is tax free too once you are 59½ and five years have passed since your first Roth contribution. Before then, growth that comes out is taxed as income, plus 10% before 59½. There is no required minimum while you are alive.

The planner asks what share of the balance is your own contributions and conversions, and how long ago you opened your first Roth. Left alone, it assumes all of the balance is contributions and five years have passed, which is right for most people over 60.

In the withdrawal orders
With the tax-free accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
In a couple
Whose it is changes the tax, so the planner asks
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Share that is your own contributions From 0% to 100%. We assume 100%.
  • Years since your first Roth contribution From 0 to 80 years. We assume 5 years.
Where the model simplifies

  • Before 59 and a half, only the growth in a Roth is taxed, plus 10 percent. A Roth IRA pays out what you put in first, tax free; a Roth 401(k) pays out your contributions and growth in proportion, so every early withdrawal carries some growth. For either, we ask what share of the account today is your own contributions; if you leave it empty, we count all of it as contributions, so growth already in the account escapes that tax. Money you converted into a Roth IRA in the four years before your plan starts is also treated as free to take out, though the law gives each conversion five years before it is.

    Your real tax is higher/anyone under 59 and a half drawing a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) that holds growth, or a Roth IRA that holds recent conversions, who leaves the contributions share at its default

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 408A(d)(1)-(4), 72(t); IRS Pub. 590-B, ordering rules

Roth 401(k) or Roth 403(b)

Already taxed on the way in. Before 59½, each withdrawal is part contributions and part growth, and the growth is taxed. From 59½, after five years, nothing is.

The Roth side of a workplace plan, paid in from taxed pay. Once you are 59½ and five years have passed since your first Roth contribution to the plan, nothing that comes out is taxed and nothing counts as income.

Before then, the law treats each withdrawal as part contributions and part growth, in proportion to the balance, and the growth part is taxed as income plus 10%. Leaving the job in or after the year you turn 55 lifts the 10% here too. Since 2024 there is no required minimum while you are alive.

In the withdrawal orders
With the tax-free accounts
Before the earliest age
Before 59½, an extra 10% on top of income tax
Pays out
Whenever you like
In a couple
Whose it is changes the tax, so the planner asks
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Share that is your own contributions From 0% to 100%. We assume 100%.
  • Years since your first Roth contribution From 0 to 80 years. We assume 5 years.
Where the model simplifies

  • Before 59 and a half, only the growth in a Roth is taxed, plus 10 percent. A Roth IRA pays out what you put in first, tax free; a Roth 401(k) pays out your contributions and growth in proportion, so every early withdrawal carries some growth. For either, we ask what share of the account today is your own contributions; if you leave it empty, we count all of it as contributions, so growth already in the account escapes that tax. Money you converted into a Roth IRA in the four years before your plan starts is also treated as free to take out, though the law gives each conversion five years before it is.

    Your real tax is higher/anyone under 59 and a half drawing a Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) that holds growth, or a Roth IRA that holds recent conversions, who leaves the contributions share at its default

  • Taking money out of a 401(k) or traditional IRA before 59 and a half costs an extra 10 percent, and we charge it. Leaving your job at 55 or later lifts it on a 401(k), and a schedule of equal yearly payments (a SEPP) lifts it on the payments: you can set one up on the account. Other routes we cannot check: tell us the age you can take money out without the charge. In the year you turn 59 we charge half the year's early withdrawals, since we do not know your birthday. A SEPP you already started before your plan has its payment worked out from today's balance, not the one it started on.

    Your real tax is lower/up to $9,545 a year/anyone drawing on a retirement account before 59 and a half who has a legal route around the charge other than the two modelled, and has not said so

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 402A(d), 72(e)(8), 72(t)(2)(A)(v), 401(a)(9)(A) as amended by SECURE 2.0 s.325

Health savings account (HSA)

Drawn in your withdrawal order like any account. What it pays out in a year is tax free up to that year's medical and care costs; anything above is taxed as income, plus 20% before 65.

A health savings account, paid into before tax alongside a high-deductible health plan. Money that pays for medical costs never counts as income, at any age. From 65 the extra charge on other withdrawals falls away, so for anything that is not medical it then works like a traditional IRA.

The plan draws on it in your withdrawal order, like any other account. Whatever it pays out in a year counts first as paying that year's healthcare and long-term care costs, tax free, up to their total. Anything above that is treated as non-medical. There is no required minimum.

In the withdrawal orders
With the tax-free accounts
Before the earliest age
Before 65, an extra 20% on top of income tax
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
Where the model simplifies

  • Money you take from a health savings account (HSA) to pay medical and care costs is tax free, and we count this year's medical and care spending in your plan as paid from it first. If you hold two HSAs, each is treated as able to pay that whole year's spending, so the plan can take a little too much out tax free.

    Your real tax is higher/households holding two HSAs

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 223(f)(1), (2), (4); 213(a); IRS Pub. 969

457(b) government plan

Taxed as income when you take it out, but with no 10% early charge at any age. Money you rolled in from a 401(k) or IRA keeps that charge, so list it as its own account.

A deferred compensation plan for state and local government workers. What comes out is taxed as income, like a 401(k), but there is no 10% early charge at any age, so it can pay you as soon as you retire.

Money you rolled into it from a 401(k) or an IRA keeps that account's 10% charge. List it as its own account of the kind it came from. The required minimum from 73 or 75 applies as on a 401(k).

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Pays out
At least a legal minimum every year
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
Where the model simplifies

  • A governmental 457(b) plan pays out without the 10% early withdrawal tax at any age. Money you rolled into it from a 401(k) or an IRA keeps that tax: list it as its own account of that kind.

    Your real tax is higher/457(b) holders who rolled money in and do not list it apart

  • The plan takes the required minimum out of your pre-tax retirement account every year from the age the law sets for your birth year, and anything you do not spend is moved to your ordinary account. What we simplify: the law lets you push the very first payment into the following April, some couples with a much younger spouse owe a little less, and a gift to charity straight from the account can cancel the tax on it. If you hold a longevity annuity bought with IRA money (a QLAC), enter your IRA without it and add the annuity's payments as a pre-tax private pension from the age they start: the law leaves it out of the required minimum, and the money in it cannot be spent before then. Each simplification makes the plan slightly more careful, not less.

    Your real tax is lower/households past the applicable age, mainly couples with a much younger spouse, regular charitable giving from the account, or a longevity annuity (QLAC)

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 457(b), (d), 72(t)(1), (t)(9), 4974(c)

SIMPLE IRA

Works like a traditional IRA, but in the first two years after you join, taking money out before 59½ costs an extra 25% instead of 10%.

An IRA set up by a small employer. It is taxed exactly like a traditional IRA, including the required minimum from 73 or 75, except for one rule: in the first two years after you join, taking money out before 59½ costs an extra 25% instead of 10%.

The planner asks how many years you have been in the plan. Left alone, it assumes the two years have passed.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Before the age the law sets for it, an extra charge on top of income tax
Pays out
At least a legal minimum every year
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Years since you joined this plan From 0 to 60 years. We assume 2 years.
Where the model simplifies

  • In the first two years after you join a SIMPLE IRA, the early withdrawal tax is 25% instead of 10%. We count those two years from the years you tell us you have already been in the plan.

    Could go either way/new SIMPLE IRA participants drawing early

  • Money you put into a traditional IRA after tax comes back tax free, in the share it makes up of all your traditional IRAs together, whichever one you take from or convert. We count the after-tax money you tell us you have today. New contributions during the plan are treated as deductible, so after-tax contributions you make later are taxed again when they come out.

    Your real tax is lower/savers making non-deductible IRA contributions during the plan

  • The plan takes the required minimum out of your pre-tax retirement account every year from the age the law sets for your birth year, and anything you do not spend is moved to your ordinary account. What we simplify: the law lets you push the very first payment into the following April, some couples with a much younger spouse owe a little less, and a gift to charity straight from the account can cancel the tax on it. If you hold a longevity annuity bought with IRA money (a QLAC), enter your IRA without it and add the annuity's payments as a pre-tax private pension from the age they start: the law leaves it out of the required minimum, and the money in it cannot be spent before then. Each simplification makes the plan slightly more careful, not less.

    Your real tax is lower/households past the applicable age, mainly couples with a much younger spouse, regular charitable giving from the account, or a longevity annuity (QLAC)

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 72(t)(6), 408(p); IRS, SIMPLE IRA withdrawal and transfer rules

401(k) with after-tax money

A workplace plan that holds money you already paid tax on. Each withdrawal returns a share of it tax free, and only the rest counts as income.

Some workplace plans accept contributions beyond the usual limit, from pay you have already been taxed on. They are not Roth money: the growth on them is still taxed when it comes out.

Each withdrawal is part after-tax contributions, which come back tax free, and part everything else, which counts as income, in proportion to the account. Only the taxed part carries the 10% charge before 59½, and leaving the job at 55 or later lifts it as on any 401(k). If your plan keeps the after-tax money in a separate account, list that part as its own account here and the rest as a 401(k).

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Before 59½, an extra 10% on top of income tax
Pays out
At least a legal minimum every year
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
Where the model simplifies

  • Taking money out of a 401(k) or traditional IRA before 59 and a half costs an extra 10 percent, and we charge it. Leaving your job at 55 or later lifts it on a 401(k), and a schedule of equal yearly payments (a SEPP) lifts it on the payments: you can set one up on the account. Other routes we cannot check: tell us the age you can take money out without the charge. In the year you turn 59 we charge half the year's early withdrawals, since we do not know your birthday. A SEPP you already started before your plan has its payment worked out from today's balance, not the one it started on.

    Your real tax is lower/up to $9,545 a year/anyone drawing on a retirement account before 59 and a half who has a legal route around the charge other than the two modelled, and has not said so

  • The plan takes the required minimum out of your pre-tax retirement account every year from the age the law sets for your birth year, and anything you do not spend is moved to your ordinary account. What we simplify: the law lets you push the very first payment into the following April, some couples with a much younger spouse owe a little less, and a gift to charity straight from the account can cancel the tax on it. If you hold a longevity annuity bought with IRA money (a QLAC), enter your IRA without it and add the annuity's payments as a pre-tax private pension from the age they start: the law leaves it out of the required minimum, and the money in it cannot be spent before then. Each simplification makes the plan slightly more careful, not less.

    Your real tax is lower/households past the applicable age, mainly couples with a much younger spouse, regular charitable giving from the account, or a longevity annuity (QLAC)

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 72(e)(8), (d)(2), 72(t)(2)(A)(v); IRS Pub. 575

Deferred annuity (after-tax)

An annuity you bought with money already taxed. Earnings come out first and are taxed as income, plus 10% before 59½. What you paid in comes back tax free after that.

A fixed, indexed or variable annuity you bought with money already taxed, outside any retirement plan, that has not started paying you an income yet. Nothing is taxed while it grows.

Withdrawals come out of the growth first, taxed as income and counted toward the 3.8% tax on investment income, plus 10% on that part before 59½. Once all the growth is out, what you paid in comes back tax free. The planner asks what you paid in; left empty, it assumes there is no growth yet.

There is no required minimum. If you turn it into a lifetime income instead, enter that income in the pension step as an annuity bought with after-tax money.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Before the earliest age
Before 59½, an extra 10% on top of income tax
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
Where the model simplifies

  • A deferred annuity you bought with after-tax money is modelled as an account you draw from: earnings come out first and are taxed as income, then what you paid in comes back tax free. If you turn it into a lifetime income instead, enter that as a pension.

    Your real tax is lower/holders of deferred annuities who annuitise or qualify for a 72(q) exception

The law behind it
26 U.S.C. 72(e)(2)(B), (e)(3), (e)(5)(E), 72(q), 1411(c)(1)(A)(i); Treas. Reg. 1.1411-4(a)(1)(i)

Kinds of pension

A pension paid to you as an income goes in the pension step, not here. Choose its kind there and the plan taxes it by that kind's rules; leave it on standard and it is taxed like a state or workplace pension.

Pension from an employer plan

Taxed as income, except the part that gives back any after-tax contributions you made.

Most pensions from a private employer were paid for entirely by the employer, and are taxed in full. Some public pensions took contributions from your pay after tax. Enter those as what you paid in, and the plan gives them back tax free spread over a number of payments the IRS sets by your age when the pension starts, until all of it has come back.

Where the model simplifies

  • If you tell us what you paid into an annuity or pension with money you had already paid tax on, we return that amount to you tax-free a little at a time, as the law does. Four details are simplified. A cost-of-living rise should be fully taxable, but we let the tax-free part rise with it. A pension or annuity that also pays your spouse should be spread over both your lifetimes, but we use yours alone. The small adjustments for monthly payments and for a refund guarantee are not made. And an annuity that started before 1987 should stay partly tax-free for life, but we stop once the cost is returned. The first two make your tax too low in the early years and too high once the cost is used up; the refund adjustment would raise your tax a little; the pre-1987 rule would lower it.

    Could go either way/retirees with an indexed or joint-and-survivor annuity or pension who entered a purchase price

  • If you die before an annuity has returned everything you paid for it, the part not yet returned can be deducted on your final tax return. We do not make that deduction.

    Your real tax is lower/people with a purchase price on an annuity who die before recovering it

The law behind it
IRC sec. 72(d)(1)(B)(i) and (iii) (Simplified Method: monthly exclusion = investment in the contract / number of anticipated payments: not more than 55: 360; 56-60: 310; 61-65: 260; 66-70: 210; more than 70: 160); sec. 72(b)(2) via 72(d)(1)(B)(ii) (exclusion stops once cost is recovered); IRS Publication 575 (2025) Simplified Method Worksheet, Table 1

Annuity bought with after-tax money

Part of each payment gives back what you paid and is not taxed until all of it has come back, and the rest is taxed as income.

For an annuity bought outside a retirement plan, or a deferred annuity you turned into an income. The tax-free part of each payment is your purchase price divided by what the IRS life expectancy tables say the annuity will pay over your life, until the price has all come back. The taxed part counts toward the 3.8% tax on investment income.

Where the model simplifies

  • If you tell us what you paid into an annuity or pension with money you had already paid tax on, we return that amount to you tax-free a little at a time, as the law does. Four details are simplified. A cost-of-living rise should be fully taxable, but we let the tax-free part rise with it. A pension or annuity that also pays your spouse should be spread over both your lifetimes, but we use yours alone. The small adjustments for monthly payments and for a refund guarantee are not made. And an annuity that started before 1987 should stay partly tax-free for life, but we stop once the cost is returned. The first two make your tax too low in the early years and too high once the cost is used up; the refund adjustment would raise your tax a little; the pre-1987 rule would lower it.

    Could go either way/retirees with an indexed or joint-and-survivor annuity or pension who entered a purchase price

  • If you die before an annuity has returned everything you paid for it, the part not yet returned can be deducted on your final tax return. We do not make that deduction.

    Your real tax is lower/people with a purchase price on an annuity who die before recovering it

  • States treat a privately bought annuity in different ways. We tax its taxable part like interest in every state, without the pension or retirement exclusion your state may give. Where your state's exclusion also covers private annuities, your state bill here is somewhat higher than your real one. An employer pension you mark as one gets the same state treatment as before.

    Your real tax is lower/holders of a privately bought annuity in states whose retirement exclusion covers it

The law behind it
IRC sec. 72(b)(1) (exclusion ratio = investment in the contract / expected return), 72(b)(2) (exclusion ends once the unrecovered investment is zero, starting dates after 1986), 72(c)(3)(A) (expected return by Treasury tables); Treas. Reg. sec. 1.72-9 Table V (ordinary life annuities, one life, expected return multiples, ages 5 to 115, for investment after 30 June 1986); IRS Publication 939 (rev. December 2025); sec. 1411(c)(1)(A)(i) (annuities are net investment income)

Where other things you hold go

Cash value life insurance
Enter its cash value in the investment account, with the premiums you paid as what you paid for it. That taxes the growth when it comes out, as the law does, but at the rate for investment profit rather than as income, so it shows a little less tax than you would pay.
A deferred annuity bought before 14 August 1982
Enter it as a deferred annuity, with what you paid in as its paid-in amount. In law the money paid in before that date comes out first and untaxed, and the 10% charge before 59½ does not reach it, so the plan shows tax earlier, and more of it, than you would pay.
Social Security and Railroad Retirement Tier I
Enter it in the pension step as your state pension. Up to 85% of it is taxed, depending on your other income. Railroad Retirement Tier II is taxed like a workplace pension, so enter it separately as one.
An inherited IRA
There is no row for it. Entered as a traditional IRA it is taxed the same way on the way out, but the plan applies your own required minimum and the 10% early charge, which a beneficiary does not pay, and does not make you empty it within the ten years the law usually sets.
A longevity annuity in an IRA (QLAC)
Leave what you paid for it out of your IRA and enter its payments in the pension step, before tax, from the age they start. The law leaves it out of the required minimum.
Savings bonds (I bonds and EE bonds)
Enter them in the regular investment account. The plan taxes their interest each year, where the law lets you wait until you cash them in, so it shows the tax earlier than you would pay it.
Deferred compensation from a private employer
Enter it in the pension step as a standard pension, before tax, from the years it pays. It is taxed in full as income when paid.
529, ABLE and Trump accounts
Leave them out. They are for education, disability costs or a child, not your retirement spending.