Did I receive an incorrect 1099-R?

[banaszak7]

We did a direct rollover from my wife's pension plan into a Roth IRA account in 2020. I fully expected to have a tax bill as a result of this rollover for the taxable portion of the pension distribution. However, when I received the 1099-R form from the custodian, box 2a had a taxable amount of zero and box 7 code a code of "H".  Based on my understanding of what we did, I believe we should have a value greater than zero for in box 2a and a code of "G" in box 7, since we did a direct rollover from a pension to a Roth IRA. When I enter my 1099-R info into TurboTax as it appears on our form, it does not add anything to my tax bill, it's as if its a completely non-tax event, but I believe we should be paying taxes on the taxable portion of our rollover since it was rolled from a non-Roth account into a Roth IRA.

Is my 1099-R form incorrect? If so, how do I resolve this issue?

[ColeenD3]

You would have to check with the issuer of the 1099-R. Code H is Direct rollover of a designated Roth account distribution to a Roth IRA. He would have more insight into why that was the code.

[dmertz]

This Form 1099-R is reporting a rollover from a designated Roth account in a 401(k), 403(b), governmental 457(b) or federal TSP plan, not from the traditional account in the plan.  If the distribution was truly from a traditional (non-Roth) account, the Form 1099-R is wrong.

[banaszak7]

Help me understand when it says "a designated Roth account". I'm not sure what that means. The account we were rolling out of was a part of a pension plan. How can that account be considered a Roth account if it's a part of a pension plan? Maybe I'm just not understanding something here.

[dmertz]

Section 402A of the tax code established the ability for employers to have Roth accounts in employer's qualified retirement plans (401(k), 403(b) and governmental 457(b) plans as well as the federal TSP plan), similar to but not the same as a Roth IRA, should the employer's plan choose to adopt such provisions.

Roth IRAs were created under a different section of the tax code, section 408A.  The only tie between a designated Roth account in an employer's qualified retirement plan and a Roth IRA is that, under certain circumstances, money in a designated Roth account in an employer's qualified retirement plan is permitted to be rolled over to a Roth IRA.