I had sort of the same question too. I thought there are no tax benefits for Roth IRA contributions either, so I was surprised that turbo tax asked me to enter Roth IRA contributions. I work for the fed gov and contributed to both the TSP (401k) and TSP (Roth) options in 2018. I also have a Roth IRA with Ed Jones I contributed to separately in 2018. So I entered the W2 box 12 info into turbotax initially which includes info about my contributions to each TSP program. When I got to the Roth IRA contributions section (deductions and credits section) in Turbotax later, I entered the amount of money I put into the separate Ed Jones Roth IRA account. To my surprise, the Federal Tax due WENT UP! How is this? I am using money that has already been taxed to contribute. Can someone please explain what's going on?
