Does a 401(k) direct rollover to a Roth IRA count as a distribution from a retirement plan for the retirement contribution tax credit?

[nathanieltidwell]

I opened a Roth IRA at the beginning of the year and contributed to that in addition to contributing to a Roth 401k through my job. The job ended and I rolled the entire amount into the Roth IRA. Does this rollover count as a distribution from a retirement plan and mean I can't receive the credit for retirement contributions?

[LisaBr]

Rollover's do not count as a contribution or a distribution.  It is all a Roth, you have just moved it from one room to the other.

However, your question made me think that you did have Roth contributions in 2017(beginning of the year?)

The Retirement Savings Contribution Credit is available to you for contributions made to various types of retirement accounts.  These include IRA's, ROTH's and 401(k) contributions as well as other retirement vehicles.

Your credit can be 50%, 20% or 10% of your retirement contributions depending on your Adjusted Gross Income.

I've inserted an IRS link that may be helpful I understanding this credit:

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-savings-contributions-save...

[dmertz]

A rollover does not reduce the amount of your contributions form 2017 that is considered for the Retirement Savings Contributions Credit.  When TurboTax asks if you received any distributions after 2014, do not include the any amount of a distribution that you rolled over (or converted to Roth).