Thanks for the response. I'm trying to understand "all of your traditional IRAs must be treated in aggregate for this purpose." I don't see that specifically stated in IRS Pub 590-A. Maybe, " However, a special rule treats a distribution you roll over into an eligible retirement plan as including only otherwise taxable amounts if the amount you either leave in your IRAs or don’t roll over is at least equal to your basis." ?
My situation: I currently have a 401k, and two IRAs. Both IRAs were direct transfers from 401ks so started with pretax contributions. One IRA I have not contributed to so should be 100% pretax and about half the size of the other IRA. The other IRA I have done non-deductible contributions for about 25 years. The earnings plus the starting pretax value from the 401k rollover are about 70% of the current value. The IRS Pub 590-A statement above seems to indicate that I should not roll over the basis which is my non-deductible contributions and much less than what I would roll over. I would like to only roll over the second IRA and that seems like it satisfies the IRS Pub 590-A statement. Can you explain why I can't do that?
