I lived in VA in 2014, I rolled over my IRAs. I live in PA in 2016 and had to cash out the IRAs to pay bills. How do I figure the Basis of Retirement Income for PA?

[dfkent]

PA code J

[hbl3973 · Accepted solution]

The basis, with some rare exceptions, is independent of the state in which you lived.  Most people have zero basis in their IRA because they always took a tax deduction against their contributions.  However, if you filed form IRS form 8606 in the past, the most recent one will show your IRA basis.

The rare exceptions apply when IRAs first came into existence and not all states matched the federal government in the ability to take a tax deduction in the early years.  In that case, you might have a state basis even if you have no federal basis.  (My wife and I ran into this with California.)