@gulsheenk wrote:
@dmertz : follow up questions as I filled Turbo tax --> Federal Taxes --> Deductions & Credits ---> Retirement and Investments --> Traditional and Roth IRA Contributions
I included $6,000 towards 2022 traditional IRA between Jan 1, 2023 and April 18, 2023 and stated the entire $6000 amount switched from traditional IRA contribution to a Roth IRA contribution (back door Roth, basically). It then asked for Explanation Statement; it auto filled some Explanation fields (after I clicked on their link for examples). I have the following questions:
There may be more facts missing here.
Did you only perform the rollovers previously discussed (pre-tax 401k to IRA and Roth 401k to Roth IRA), or did you also contribute $6000 of new funds toward your IRA?
If you plan those $6000 of new contributions to be non-deductible but contributed to a pre-tax IRA, then you should have a form 8606 with your tax return.
Then, if you want to do a "back door Roth conversion", you would convert the IRA to a Roth IRA. However, even though you can make contributions in 2023 that are designated for 2022, the Roth conversion is only reported on your 2023 tax return if it happened in 2023 (it is not retroactive like contributions can sometimes be.)
However, if you have a pre-existing pre-tax balance in your IRA, the back door Roth IRA conversion will not work the way you think it works. This doesn't go on your 2022 tax return but it may be something we need to talk about.
