I contributed to a Traditional IRA, and then converted/rolled it over to Roth. Now TT tells me I have excess Roth contribution. Help!

[Evie3]

Did I enter something wrong in TT? My income is too high to contribute to Roth directly, but I thought rollovers/conversions were still okay.

[Opus 17]

Did you enter it in the contribution section?  A rollover or conversion is not a contribution.  When you enter the 1099-R for the distribution from the traditional IRA, the program will then ask what you did with the money, and one of the choices is a Roth conversion. 

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

When entering the traditional IRA contribution, make sure that you do not indicate that you recharacterized, or "switched" the contribution to be a Roth IRA contribution.  A a Roth IRA conversion is not a recharacterization.