Do my husband (73) and I (72) have to list Roth IRA contributions before 2016 even though we’ve been retired since 2009 and haven’t contributed to them since 2009?

[anitalcmike]

We withdrew from the Roth IRA’s in 2013 and 2016. I guess Turbo Tax is asking about contributions because in 2016 we withdrew money a second time from the Roth.

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

Because you are over age 59½ and the distribution was made after it had been more than 5 years since the beginning of the year for which you first made your Roth IRA contribution, your Roth IRA distribution is a qualified distribution, tax and penalty free.  Because it is a qualified distribution and automatically tax free, to calculate the taxable amount TurboTax doesn't need to know the amount originally contributed.

However, if you completely distributed all of the money in you Roth IRA leaving you with a zero balance on December 31, 2016, TurboTax needs to know the amount your contributions to be able to determine if you had losses eligible for a miscellaneous deduction due to unrecoverable contribution basis.  If your December 31, 2016 balance was nonzero or you did not experience investment losses in your Roth IRA, you can simply enter zero for your Roth IRA contribution basis.

This applies to each person's Roth IRAs separately.