DanaB27
Expert Alumni

Retirement tax questions

You will enter the recharacterization when you enter the contribution to the Roth IRA:

 

  1. Login to your TurboTax Account 
  2. Click on "Search" on the top right and type “IRA contributions” 
  3. Click on “Jump to IRA contributions"
  4. Select “Roth IRA
  5. Answer ‘Yes” on the “Roth IRA Contribution” screen
  6. Answer “No” to “Is This a Repayment of a Retirement Distribution
  7. Enter the Roth contribution amount 
  8. Answer “Yes” to the recharacterized question on the “Switch from a Roth To a Traditional IRA?” screen and enter the contribution amount (no earnings or losses) on the next screen.
  9. TurboTax will ask for an explanation statement where it should be stated that the original $xxx.xx plus $xxx.xx earnings (or loss) were recharacterized.
  10. On the screen "Choose Not to Deduct IRA Contributions" answer "Yes" since you are thinking about doing a backdoor Roth. If you have a retirement plan at work and are over the income limit it will be nondeductible automatically and you only get a warning and then a screen saying $0 is deductible.

 

 

 

TurboTax will create Form 8606 with a basis on line 14 and this will be carried over to your 2025 return.

You will report the conversion next on your 2025 return when you get the 2025 Form 1099-R with code 2 (usually).

 

You will also get a 2025 Form 1099-R  for the recharacterization with code R-Recharacterized IRA contribution made for 2024 and this belongs on the 2024 return. But a Form 1099-R with code R will do nothing to your return. You can only report it as mentioned above. Therefore, you can ignore the Form 1099-R with code R when you get it in 2026.

 

@tinacun812 

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