Should a Recharacterization of part of a 2020 Roth contribution in early 2021 to a traditional IRA before April 15th be included in the total of all my traditional IRA's?

[lg171]

Because a Recharacterization to a traditional IRA of a Roth contribution made in 2020 must be considered a traditional IRA contribution for 2020 it seems  to me this should be included in the total traditional IRA accounts total that Turbotax asks me to enter.

[DanaB27]

Yes, it will be included but please follow these steps below to report the recharacterization. Do not enter it as a contribution to a 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 “Roth 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.

You will get a 1099-R 2021 in 2022  for the recharacterization with code R-Recharacterized IRA contribution made for 2020 and this belongs on the 2020 return. But a 1099-R with code R will do nothing to your return. The box 1 on the 1099-R will report the total recharacterized amount (contribution plus earnings) but it does not separately report the earnings and box 2a must be zero.

[lg171]

Thanks for replying.   I should never have gotten to that point in the interview where it asked about the total value of my IRA. Because of some question I answered in error it was looking at reducing the taxable amount of my inherited IRA distribution using the basis from my traditional IRA accounts. From what I know now this should not be done. 

So I deleted a couple of the IRA worksheets and answered the questions again. This time  the IRA distribution appears correctly at its full value on my 1040. The calculations trying to reduce taxes on the IRA distribution above disappeared and th e 8606 shows the proper amount of my non-deductible traditional IRA contribution.