Roth conversion from traditional IRA with some nondeductible contributions

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
June 4, 2019
2 replies
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I received an 1099-R showing the value of a partial conversion of a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. The "Taxable amount not determined" box is checked.

I have some nondeductible contributions to the traditional IRA and I've been tracking this annually through Form 8606, so I know my basis in the traditional IRA

I can't figure out where in TurboTax to enter the information so that it will correctly calculate the taxable portion of the Roth conversion. Right now form 1040 is showing the full amount of the Roth conversion as taxable, and I know this is not correct.

TurboTax Home & Biz Mac

Best answer by dmertz

Expert Reviewed

After entering the Form 1099-R exactly as received under Wages & Income (or Personal Income) -> Retirement Plans and Social Security -> IRA, 401(k), Pension Plans (1099-R) and answering the immediate follow-up questions to indicate that you converted the money to Roth, click the Continue button on the Your 1099-R Entries page and, when asked, indicate that you made nondeductible contributions to your traditional IRAs. TurboTax will then ask you to enter the amount of prior-year nondeductible contributions from your most recently filed Form 8606 and will ask for your total 2017 year-end balance in your traditional IRAs. TurboTax will use these entries to prepare Form 8606.

dmertzAnswer

Level 15

Expert Reviewed

rcamnerAuthor

Level 2

Thanks for your quick reply. The problem is that after answering all the questions and then clicking the Continue button TurboTax doesn't ask me the question about whether I made nondeductible contributions to the traditional IRA; it just goes back to the "Your 1099-R Entries" screen, and when I click Continue there, takes me back to the "Your 2017 Income Summary" page.

BUT, I believe I finally figured it out. I had not seen that the IRA/SEP/Simple box was checked on the form 1099-R, and that's what triggers the questions!

Thanks again for your help.

DukeWeston

Level 2

I was also caught out by the poor wording in the Turbotax interview. Unfortunately I did not catch it until after I had filed, and I had to file amended returns.

The wording in TT 2018 is

- Yes, John made and tracked non-deductible contributions to John's IRA

- No, John did not make and track non-deductible contributions to John's IRA

Without mentioning prior years this question is misleading. In my humble opinion it would be much clearer if it said:

- Yes, John made or tracked non-deductible contributions to John's IRA in any prior year.

- No, John has never made a non-deductible contributions to John's IRA in any prior year.

Intuit developers - please pay attention to this if you are reading this forum.