IRS help is, well, not helpful. 8606 asks for my basis with no guidance.
If I converted 100% off my Trad IRA to a Roth in the tax year in question (i.e. ending the year with a Trad IRA balance of $0), but the previous years IRA basis was non zero, does my Basis go back to zero or does the previous value carry through even though it was completely converted?
Specifically, my 2010 8606 Trad basis is $21333 but I converted more than that (earnings) at the end of the year. What would my starting basis be for 2011?
My Googling has told me that the IRA Basis is the amount of IRA Contributions that have already been taxed (I could not deduct my IRAs due to my income). Common sense would tell me once that has been converted to a Roth then and the account balance zeroed out the Basis would go away as well. However Turbotax inserted 2083 in line 2 as the total Trad IRA Basis. For the life of me I can't figure out where that number came from.
(I'm trying to reconstruct my current IRA Basis for this years taxes after many of my previous records were lost)
