@IdahoanTaxPayer wrote:
Dmertz, so are you saying that I have to file form 5498 each year to report my contributions? And if so, then do I have to file the form for all the previous years I haven’t filed it?
1.
No. The 5498 is issued to you, usually later in the year, so you can keep track of your contributions. A copy goes to the IRS. By itself, it has nothing to do with your tax return, although in theory, the IRS can cross-check the information with other information in your file to identify discrepancies.
2.
If you have an excess Roth IRA contribution, you must report it and either remove it before the tax deadline, or pay a penalty. Since the 5498 is usually issued after tax season, you must report your Roth contributions from your own personal financial records.
3.
The only way to know if your Roth IRA contribution is considered "excess" is to either know the rules (here: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-ira-contribution-li...) or to enter your contributions into Turbotax, which knows the rules. Turbotax will tell you if your contribution is considered "excess", but you aren't required to enter the amount if you know what the rules are and you know your contribution is ok.
4.
The other time you need to know what your original contributions were, is if you want to make a withdrawal before age 59-1/2. Before that age, you can withdraw contributions tax-free, but if you withdraw earnings or conversion amounts, they may be taxable and/or incur an additional 10% penalty. If you can keep track of your Roth contributions yourself, you don't need to enter them in Turbotax. But if you do enter them, the program will keep track for you in case you make a withdrawal and need to know the amount of previous year contributions.
