@mama4life wrote:
Hi, I have a similar question. I did the same as you, except I had excess Roth IRA contributions for several years but only caught it last year (on my 2020 return). I was able to recharacterize the 2020 excess contributions to a traditional IRA (incl any interest) which I believe avoided the penalty since it was prior to the 10/15/21 extended deadline. Seems like since it is prior to 4/18/22 deadline, you could amend your 2021 taxes and recharacterize your excess contribution (with interest) to a traditional IRA to avoid any penalty. I did get a 1099-R this year (for 2021 taxes), but don't believe it affected my taxes for the 2020 excess contribution.
My question is about my excess contributions from prior years. I already amended my returns for 2019 and 2018 and paid the 6% penalty. (I still say shame on TurboTax for not catching this and making the connection that my MAGI was over the income threshold---seems like a simple programming connection since literally, TurboTax calculates my MAGI!!). However, I was not able to recharacterize the prior-year excess contributions to a Traditional IRA (and am very curious to know why) so now the 2021 form is requiring me to pay taxes as if this was an early withdrawal. It seems pretty crappy that I had to 6% penalty on this excess contribution AND now I'm being penalized again by 10% since it is considered an early withdrawal. Is this correct?
You cannot recharacterize a contribution after the due date for the tax return has passed. If you removed the excess prior to the end of 2021 then you need to go to the IRA contribution interview excess contribution past to say that it was removed and there is zero excess.
**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**
