Reporting IRA recharacterization happening after Jan 1st.

[apoursh]

Hi, 

I'm wondering if it's possible to report Traditional to Roth recharacterization for year X if the recharacterization happened in year X+1 before the deadline? If I need to report that in year X+1, can I still do another recharacterization in year X+1? 

Thanks,

[DanaB27 · Accepted solution]

Yes, if you recharacterized the contribution you made for 2020 (X) in 2021 ( X+1, before the due date) then you will report the recharacterization on your 2020 tax return.

You will enter the recharacterization when you enter the contribution to the traditional IRA:

1. Login to your TurboTax Account 
2. Click on "Search" on the top right and type “IRA contributions”
3. Click on “Jump to IRA contributions"
4. Select “traditional IRA”
5. Answer “No” to “Is This a Repayment of a Retirement Distribution
6. Enter the Roth contribution amount 
7. Answer “Yes” to the recharacterized question on the “Did You Change Your Mind?” screen and enter the contribution amount (no earnings or losses)
8. TurboTax will ask for an explanation statement where it should be stated that the original $xxx.xx plus $xxx.xx earnings (or loss) were recharacterized.

Yes, you can make another recharacterization of a contribution in 2021.

[apoursh]

Thanks for the response. I followed those steps. I still get an error about "Your income is too high to contribute". My understanding was that recharacterization of IRA is independent of income. 

[DanaB27]

Please be aware your Roth IRA contribution may be limited based on your filing status and income.​​​​​​ Please see 2020 - Amount of Roth IRA Contributions You Can Make for 2020 for details.

To clarify, you contributed to a traditional IRA and recharacterized it as a Roth IRA contribution?

Or are you trying to convert money from the traditional IRA to Roth IRA? This would be taxable income unless you made nondeductible contributions to the traditional IRA ,then amounts allocated to the basis would be tax free.

[apoursh]

Thanks for the quick response and the great question. I believe what I need is actually a conversion not a recharacterization. I'll open up the same question with conversion rather than recharacterization.