How do I report a recent recharacterization of a roth ira contribution from march 2023 (that was counted towards our 2022 taxes)?

[emailformjs]

Our joint income in 2022 and 2023 was too great to allow for roth ira contributions. We paid the 6% penalty in our 2022 taxes then forgot about the issue until recently. We recharacterized the contribution to a traditional IRA recently. How do I report the recharacterization in our 2023 taxes that are due on October 15th?

[emailformjs]

Thank you, I will check back later.

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

An excess Roth IRA contribution made in 2022 is not permitted to be recharacterized in 2024.

The only thing that I can see that could potentially be done in 2024 to correct the excess Roth IRA contribution from 2022 and move the money to a traditional IRA is to take a regular distribution equal to the amount of the excess Roth contribution and use that cash as you would any cash to make a regular traditional IRA contribution independent of the Roth IRA distribution.  However, this would not eliminate the excess and 6% penalty for 2023.  It would only eliminate the excess and penalty for 2024 and beyond.