Retirement tax questions

To clarify, you recharacterized the 2018 contribution in 2019 before April 15th. You will have to enter the recharacterization on your 2018 tax return. Please see How do I amend a 2018 return in TurboTax?. 

1. Login to your TurboTax Account 
2. Click on "Search" on the top right and type “IRA contributions”
3. Click on “Jump to IRA contributions"
4. Select “Roth IRA”
5. Answer “No” to “Is This a Repayment of a Retirement Distribution
6. Enter the Roth contribution amount $5,500
7. Answer “Yes” to the recharacterized question on the “Did You Change Your Mind?” screen and enter the contribution amount $5,500 (no earnings or losses)
8. TurboTax will ask for an explanation statement where it should be stated that the original $xxx.xx plus $xxx.xx earnings (or loss) were recharacterized.
9. On the screen "Choose Not to Deduct IRA Contributions" answer "Yes" (if you are thinking about doing a backdoor Roth. If you have a retirement plan at work and are over the income limit it will be nondeductible and you only get a screen saying $0 is deductible)

 There is no tax or penalty on the earnings since the earning will be simply switched into the recharacterized account.

Form 8606 is used to track the basis if you make the contribution nondeductible like mentioned in step 9.

You will not use Form 5329 since you recharacterized the amount in time and therefore no longer had an excess contribution.

Is the money still in the traditional IRA or did you convert the amount to a Roth IRA?