I made an excessive IRA contribution in 2020. In 2021, I recharacterized the contribution. TurboTax tells me I now must amend my 2019 return. Is this correct?

[tony0000]

I originally contributed to a traditional IRA, and then recharacterized the contribution as a Roth contribution.  I thought this would affect neither my 2019 return nor my 2020 return.

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

This is simply a reminder that your 2019 tax return should reflect the resulting Roth IRA contribution and not a traditional IRA contribution.  If your 2019 already shows no deductible traditional IRA contribution on Schedule 1 or nondeductible traditional IRA contribution on Form 8606, there is no need to amend.

[tony0000]

Thank you for your response. 

In case anyone is curious, this is the rest of the story: When I talked to the TurboTax advisor, she said that I must have inadvertently indicated on my 2019 return that the contribution was for 2019.  So she walked me through the amending process, which just entailed my clicking on "Continue."  She told me the correction would be made automatically.  Maybe this is accurate and maybe it's not.