backdoor roth. Excess contribution and total basis from previous year

[giner05]

HI. i performed a back door roth last year for 2023 and 2022. I also performed a back door roth for 2024 but it has an excess of $20.

I'd rather not withdraw and have to amend something  as I am not too versed in taxes or filling out tax forms. I read that I can just take a 6% penalty and move it to my 2025 contribution. 

I am not understanding how that excess of $20 would be "moved" to the next year's roth. If my 2025 roth is funded at the max amount, would as simple as distributing $7000-20? or its some other outside action. 

It's also saying i have a total basis from previous years of $100. Can I just move my excess contribute from 2025 to the 2024 or is it too late because i've already distributed the excess $20? Or how is that done?

Thanks in advance.  

[ThomasM125]

If you over contributed for 2024 you can just reduce your 2025 contribution limit by the amount overcontributed and that will remove the overcontributed penalty going forward. You will have to pay the penalty tax in 2024 if you did that. Your other option would be to make a distribution in 2025 of the amount overcontributed and earmark it for 2024 and do it by April 15, 2025 to avoid the penalty all together. 

[giner05]

Thank you for the insight! another follow up question: 

In addition to that $20 over contribution,  by the time i performed the back door roth in 2025, it gained $7 from interested or something when i funded it, and i moved over $7007 instead of $7000 for 2025. So for my 2025, would I just reduce my total distribution by 27 dollars (the $20 from over contribution in 2024 and $7 from the random acquired interest?)? 

[DanaB27]

To clarify, you contributed more than $7,000 to the traditional IRA for 2024 and therefore you have a $20 excess contribution?

If you have gains before converting the funds to Roth then you can just move them with the contribution, this is not an excess and you do not need to remove them. 

Please make sure you do not enter a Roth IRA contribution or selected switched to Roth IRA in the IRA contribution interview. The conversion is only entered in the retirement section when you enter the 1099-R.

Please review How do I enter a backdoor Roth IRA conversion?