I rolled-over a post-tax employee plan to a traditional IRA in 2012. I then converted it to Roth in 2018. I never executed a Form 8606. How should I now account for this?

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

After clicking the Continue button on the Your 1099-R Entries page in 2018 TurboTax, indicate that you made nondeductible contributions to your traditional IRAs, then on the next page can click the EasyGuide button to be able to enter this as an adjustment to basis.  Proceed to The Any of These Apply page where you can mark the box indicating that you transferred money from an employer plan in 2018 or a previous year, mark the box, click Continue and enter the amount of after-tax basis rolled over from the employer plan.  TurboTax will ask you to provide an explanation statement for this adjustment to your traditional IRA basis.

[jk1985]

Hi dmertz - After I enter the IRA Basis, TurboTax then indicates that "you should have filed Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs, for each year that you made a nondeductible contribution to your IRA...Enter the total traditional IRA basis from your most recent Form 8606."  The problem is - I don't believe I ever filed a Form 8606. If I have not, is there a way to file one now? Thank you!

[dmertz]

Unless you had basis previously reported on a Form 8606 from regular nondeductible traditional IRA contributions, you should have entered only Net Rollover Basis From Employer Retirement Plans.  You should not have entered anything in the box for IRA Basis on December 31, 2017.

[jk1985]

Hi dmertz - I'm a little lost now...are you saying that if I've entered the IRA basis rolled over from the employer plan, that I don't need to do anything more with respect to the Form 8606 message on the TurboTax page that comes up after I enter the basis? Thanks again!

[dmertz]

Correct.  If your only basis is that from the qualified retirement plan, it only gets entered once, in the box explicitly for the basis rolled over from the employer plan.  Double-check that line 2 of Form 8606 show only the correct amount of basis from years prior to 2018.

[jk1985]

Hi again - to be clear, I don't have a Form 8606 that I can find. So there's no way for me to "double-check line 2 of Form 8606" as you've suggested. Should I just proceed with the information I have? Thank you!

[dmertz]

If you entered your basis as I described and have also entered the Form 1099-R from the traditional IRA that you converted to Roth, TurboTax *will* generate Form 8606 Parts I and II.  Any Roth conversion from a traditional IRA is required to be reported on Form 8606, so TurboTax will always generate Form 8606 for such a Roth conversion.