Right, but this is exactly why I'm confused. My spouse and I did clean backdoor Roth IRAs (i.e., contribution and conversion in the same year, conversion done ASAP so there was no growth in the traditional IRA contribution, no cost basis, etc). The only difference is my spouse doesn't have a retirement plan which is why TurboTax is asking if we want to make her portion of the contribution deductible or not. Regardless of what option I choose, the refund should stay the same because of your explanation. Why is it that when I choose to keep the deduction, our refund amount is going up (which I assume means it's not taxing the conversion and, therefore, offsetting the deduction)?
