Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

[trilogy1943]

my wife is 77 and on ssi. her ira account lost appox 65,000 in the equities market before she pulled the money out and put it back into a traditional ira account.

[VolvoGirl]

No.  She will just have less income to pay taxes on when she takes it out.  Has she been taking her RMD each year?  Did she put it back within the 60 days?  If there was tax withholding taken out she needed to to replace the withholding when she put it back or the withholding becomes a distribution and taxable.  

[fanfare]

@VolvoGirl 

' She will just have less income to pay taxes on when she takes it out. "

Are you saying her tax will be less because her account is smaller now.?

Not much consolation for a loss of $65,000. 

[VolvoGirl]

Basically.  You still pay tax on any distributions like the RMD but you will be taking less distributions unless the account goes back up.  @dmertz 

[fanfare]

the account can't go back up because the person cashed out.

This usually happens at the bottom of the market.

[dmertz]

I didn't reply previously because VolvoGirl's original reply said everything that needed to be said.  Except in the case where the total value of the individual's IRAs is less than any basis in nondeductible traditional IRA contributions, IRAs contain deferred income, income on which one has not yet paid taxes.  The losses in the IRAs simply reduce the amount that would otherwise be taxable in the future.

[VolvoGirl]

@fanfare   the user did say....."put it back into a traditional ira account."  Sounds like she rolled it back in.  So the account can go up or down.