I forgot to include my 2022 Roth IRA contribution on my 2022 taxes. Do I need to amend my return to include this?

[emilyakoontz-gma]

I tried to amend this on my tax form already, and it showed a federal tax refund of ~$600 and that I owed ~$160 for my state. Why did this change?

[Opus 17]

Generally, a Roth IRA contribution is not required to be reported in Turbotax.  It does not create a tax deduction or change your tax or refund.  There are two reasons to report a Roth IRA contribution.

1. if your income is too high to make a Roth IRA contribution, Turbotax will warn you so you can take steps to avoid a penalty.

2. Turbotax can keep track of your contributions which may be helpful if you want to withdraw funds before age 59-1/2.  But this is not required as long as you keep your own reliable records, and only helps you if you use TurboTax every year.  You can add the information next year if you use Turbotax again. 

[Edited to add]

3. If your income is less than the thresholds given here, you might qualify for a retirement savers credit.

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

The contribution limits for Roth IRAs depend on your income, filing status and other tax situations, see here.

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/roth-iras

[dmertz]

If the Roth IRA contribution qualified you for a Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, that would explain the federal refund calculated on your amendment.  Check for a Form 8880 being included in your amendment.

However, reporting the contribution shouldn't change your state tax liability, so it seems that you could have made a mistake on the state amendment, perhaps not indicating a balance due that you paid.

[Opus 17]

---

@dmertz wrote:

If the Roth IRA contribution qualified you for a Retirement Savings Contributions Credit, that would explain the federal refund calculated on your amendment.  Check for a Form 8880 being included in your amendment.

However, reporting the contribution shouldn't change your state tax liability, so it seems that you could have made a mistake on the state amendment, perhaps not indicating a balance due that you paid.

---

2 extra comments.

The retirement savers credit can pay you up to 50% of the amount you save for retirement, depending on your income.  The rules are here.

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

Also, make sure you are NOT entering a workplace retirement plan as if it was an IRA.  Qualified workplace plans (401k, 403b, etc.) are only reported on your W-2.  An IRA is an individual account that you set up with your own bank or broker.  If you report a workplace plan in the place for IRAs, that's wrong, and can sometimes cause other errors.