Doing your taxes is crazy enough without getting inconsistencies from one year to the next. But thanks for the explanation, which I accidentally noted when I pulled up the forms in my return.
I was wondering why my two year summary showed w2 income last year and zero this year. That number should be exactly the same every year. Sure enough, I opened the 1040 and noticed that the w2 amount now appeared on line 8t as "other income" instead of on line 1 as in prior years. I initially thought this must be an error, particularly since the amount always appeared on line 1. But when you go through the step-by-step, you have no choice but to answer the question that says "yes, I took the amount as a distribution" or some such thing because the other answer implies that you took out your own contribution, which is clearly wrong. Ugh!
Like I said at the beginning, doing taxes is tough enough without seeing odd inconsistencies in how the forms get filled in. I always look at the forms and the final return before filing just to insure that everything looks OK. Not seeing a w2 number in Line 1 is a glaring red flag that required me to plow through and try to figure out what the heck happened. Sheesh!
