In 2017, I had $1,200 (plus ~$40 in gains) in one Roth IRA account that I transferred to another Roth IRA account in 2018. Does this count as a contribution in addition to the money I placed within the latter account? In that same account I deposited $3,000 in contributions for the 2017 year but had already taken out $2,000 of that for 2018. Does this mean that my annual contribution for 2017 is $3,000 or $4,200?
No. If done properly as a trustee-to-trustee transfer simply switching accounts or custodians should not even generate a 1099-R and would not be reportable .
Thank you! Would this mean that the individual contributions I had initially made to each trustee be combined for the annual contribution, or would it only count for the trustee that everything has been transferred to?
Your contribution is new money that you put into a Roth. You said you *had* $1,200 in the Roth. If that was a prior year contribution then it is not a 2017 contribution.
My apologies, I had meant that the $1,200 was also a 2017 contribution. In that case, I assume then that both amounts would combine.
For tax purposes you only have one Roth IRA which is the aggregate total of all Roth accounts. It does not matter what account a contribution is made to. The contribution for the year is the total of all Roth contribution for that year to any Roth account.