Basis for spouse non-ded regIRA contrib not carried forward to 2019. Problem began in 2017 TT. I had to enter 2018 beg basis manually into 2018 TT.

[jameshohner2159]

TT 2017 did not carry spouse nondeduct IRA contributions basis forward to 2018.  TT 2018 asked for explanation why the carryforward basis I entered did not match its record (which was $0).  There was no basis used by spouse in 2017 or 2018 as all spouse RMD$ were covered by QCD.  On the both 2017 and 2018 "IRA Information Worksheets"  lines 1 showed the spousal beg basis amounts, but lines 3 (carryforward amount) showed $0.  Neither year required a Form 8606 filing for the spouse as no additional basis was added and none was used.

[MarianaC1]

Hi @jameshohner2159 Please be on the lookout of an email from Social We Care, thank you.

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

This is a bug in TurboTax that was reported in 2017 with regard to 2016 TurboTax but has not yet been addressed by Intuit.  It also affects those who make an HSA Funding Distribution which similarly is not reported on Form 8606.  I'll add your post to the list of those reporting this problem, but the list is small, so I suspect that this problem will remain low priority for the Product Quality folks.

I know of no workaround to prevent TurboTax from prompting you to provide an explanation for correcting your basis except to create a copy of the previous year's tax file, override on the IRA Information Worksheet the amount of basis being carried forward, then transfer in the modified file to begin the subsequent year's tax return.

[jameshohner2159]

Thanks much, dmertz!  What a disappointment with no bug fix over two years.  Does not seen like fix would be difficult.  As a CPA, I have an Excel worksheet tracking the basis in our Regular and Roth IRAs so I noticed the error.  Woe to those thinking that TT tracks basis for their spouse.

[dmertz]

This bug applies to both taxpayer and spouse (separately).

I thought of one other workaround that will cause TurboTax to carry forward the correct amount of basis and doesn't involve overrides.  Simply indicate that all but $1 was QCD.  This will cause TurboTax to properly prepare Form 8606 and to produce the correct carryforward on line 14 which will propagate to the IRA Information Worksheet.  The side-effect will be that either $1 of basis will be consumed or $1 of the distribution will be taxable, and Form 8606 will be included with the tax return.  Still not great, but it works.  Generally speaking, there is nothing wrong with not treating some amount transferred to charity as not being QCD; treating a QCD-compliant distribution as a QCD is optional.

[jameshohner2159]

Thanks for your creativity, dmertz, buy I will go the over-ride method and try to get the basis carried forward to next year.  Fortunately, no effect on this years taxes or filings.