@dmertz
"An excess traditional IRA contribution is a nondeductible contribution"
Agreed.
"…so it can reduce the taxable amount of some otherwise unrelated traditional IRA distribution"
That doesn't make sense to me. If taxable income is reduced by the amount of the excess, that's effectively identical to getting a deduction for the excess. As agreed above, that's the opposite of the treatment that excess is supposed to get.
Do you know what worksheet the IRA deduction line of form 1040 comes directly from? If I can follow the number upstream I might be able to get more insight into what's going on.
