I have a strange one here that I am not sure how to handle. I opened a Roth IRA in 2007 and contributed to the Roth IRA in 2007,2008, and 2009 when my income was lower and filed the taxes in those years as contributing to a Roth. I did not contribute to an IRA again until 2014 when I contributed into this Roth IRA. However, I had forgotten that it was a Roth and thought it was a traditional IRA. I contributed to it and took the deduction on my taxes as a traditional IRA. I was not eligible for a Roth IRA contribution. I continued to do this for 2015, 2016, and 2017 making it 4 years total that I put it in the Roth account while all along thinking this was a traditional account. Now I am trying to figure out what options I have. Can I just reclassify this and pay the penalty? What options do I have available?
This is not an uncommon problem. Discuss with your account custodian the steps you need to take to transform your error into a "Back Door Roth IRA." The link below discusses how you will make the resulting entries in TurboTax next year.