dmertz
Level 15

Retirement tax questions

silabbate, macuser_22 already provided an answer here:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/retirement/discussion/re-2019-1099-r-received-for-back-door-conver...

 

The Form 1099-R indicates that you did a Roth conversion, not a recharacterization.

 

A recharacterization would only have been appropriate if you MAGI for a Roth IRA contribution was below the limit, otherwise your only choice was to convert or not.  But what you did was a Roth conversion, not a recharacterization, and unless you actually did request a recharacterization and it was Vanguard's mistake to perform a conversion instead, which they claim is not the case, there is nothing you can do but report the Roth conversion.  Since you have other funds in traditional IRAs, your Roth conversion will be partly or mostly taxable, with future distributions from your traditional IRAs being partially nontaxable as your basis in nondeductible traditional IRA contributions is consumed gradually until it's finally all distributed in the year that you no longer have a traditional IRA balance at year-end.