dmertz
Level 15

Retirement tax questions

If you request a recharacterization of $2,280, the custodian will calculate the investment gain attributable to that amount and include the gain in the amount transferred to the Roth IRA.

 

Before requesting a recharacterization, make the entries into TurboTax to allow TurboTax to confirm that you are eligible to make the resulting Roth IRA contribution (although I can't imagine a scenario where you would not be eligible to make this Roth IRA contribution).  You do this by revisiting your traditional IRA contribution entry and on the page after the one where indicating that you made a $7,000 traditional IRA contribution you indicate that you "changed your mind" and then indicate that you recharacterized $2,280.  TurboTax will then prompt you to provide an explanation statement where you'll show the dates, the amount recharacterized and the gain-adjusted amount transferred.

 

Since you are dealing with a bank, make sure that they do a recharacterization and not a Roth conversion.  In general, many bank reps are clueless about the difference and occasionally perform the wrong type of transaction.  A mistaken Roth conversion, while a permissible transaction, is not as beneficial and cannot be reversed.