IRA transfer - I have requested a transfer for my traditional IRA and received a check made payable to myself only. I am mailing the check to another financial institution but it won't make there until January 2018. The issuing institution coded as a premature distribution, but the check will be deposited within the 60 days allowed by law into another IRA but on two different years. How can I explain to the IRS that this was a transfer and not a premature distribution?
It's called a rollover, not a transfer. The "issuing institution" will send you a Form 1099-R for the distribution. After you enter the 1099-R in TurboTax it will ask you a series of questions. One of the questions asks whether your moved the money to another retirement account. When you say that you did, it will ask you if you rolled it over. If you say that you rolled it over, TurboTax will indicate on your tax return that it was a rollover. That is the only explanation that is needed. It's up to you to make sure that you meet all the requirements for a rollover. The fact that you complete the rollover in the next year doesn't matter. Don't rush through the questions in TurboTax. Read the questions carefully and make sure you answer them accurately.
It's called a rollover, not a transfer. The "issuing institution" will send you a Form 1099-R for the distribution. After you enter the 1099-R in TurboTax it will ask you a series of questions. One of the questions asks whether your moved the money to another retirement account. When you say that you did, it will ask you if you rolled it over. If you say that you rolled it over, TurboTax will indicate on your tax return that it was a rollover. That is the only explanation that is needed. It's up to you to make sure that you meet all the requirements for a rollover. The fact that you complete the rollover in the next year doesn't matter. Don't rush through the questions in TurboTax. Read the questions carefully and make sure you answer them accurately.
If you provided the IRA trustee with the name and account number of the new Traditional IRA then that trustee should have been able to just make a trustee-to-trustee transfer which would not be reportable on a 1099-R or your tax return. Simply moving Traditional IRA accounts from one trustee to another is not a reportable event and no check of distribution would be made to you.
What you are doing is a rollover since a distribution was made to you, in your name on a check so you are responsible for reporting it properly and rolling it over yourself. A trustee-to-trustee transfer is not a rollover, it is simply transferring the account from one trustee to another.
If you switch trustees in the future, insist that they do that as a transfer so you do not need to report it.