Traditional to Roth Conversion missed Form 8606

[madkiwis]

For TY 2023 I did a Traditional to Roth conversion. T Rowe Price handled it all in house I never received the money. They sent me a 1099R for the conversion. Was shown as Distribution code 7- Normal distribution.

It got into my tax return and I paid additional taxes. Knew that was going to happen so that's fine.

Problem was that the interview process in TurboTax didn't steer me to the correct place to say it was a conversion so a Form 8606 was never generated. I was going to do another conversion this year (2025, nothing in 2024) and in my reading something mentioned the 8606 so I looked at my 2023 return but the form was not there.

TurboTax Help was useless, had to come to the forums to find someone who explained how to get to the correct place in the interview process, I am apparently not the first person to have this issue as a lot of people were asking the question. Went into 2023 TT (still installed on my PC) to properly account for the distribution and lo and behold a form 8606 has now been generated.

So now I have a 2023 Form 8606. Can I just mail that in or do I need to reprint the entire tax return and submit it as an amended return? Is there a penalty for filing it late (I had an extension so my 2023 1040 was due and filed by October 15th 2024)?

Thanks for any help.

[DavidD66]

You can just sign the Form 8606 and mail it in by itself.  It is very highly unlikely that you will be charged a penalty.

[madkiwis]

Well after doing more reading other replies to these kinds of questions I am finding multiple things like this-

"The proper way to file missing Form 8606 is attached to Form 1040-X. Form 8606 can be mailed by itself only when you are otherwise not required to file a tax return."

and

"If you mail 8606 alone, IRS will send it back to you."

So are they wrong?

[RobertB4444 · Accepted solution]

They're not wrong.  Dealing with the IRS can be difficult and even though submitting an *606 by itself should be ok clearly sometimes it is not.  

You can generate a 1040-X in your 2023 program and type in the explanation for why you are filing and send it off with the 8606.  That will ensure it gets processed.

@madkiwis 

[fanfare]

What is the amount on 2023 Schedule 1 Line 20.?

If you took a deduction you cannot also file Form 8606 showing that contribution.

Form 8606 can be filed only if

A) you made an IRA contribution for that year.

B) you are not eligible for a deduction or'

C0 you elected to make it non-deductible.

OR

D) you made non-deductible contributions in earlier years and you have a prior years basis showing on an earlier Form 8606 Line 14 and you did a Roth conversion.

Form 8606 alone will not reduce your tax, You must file an amendment for that with all new or changed forms attached.

@madkiwis 

[fanfare]

The reason it comes up so much on the forum is that taxpayers do not know the rules applicable to Roth conversions and Backdoor Roth Contributions but go ahead anyway.

@madkiwis 

[madkiwis]

I had no deductible contribution in 2023. I already explained, I did a Roth conversion.

I also said in my original post that I paid taxes on the conversion (over $25,000), which I was not trying to avoid or reduce. I knew that was a consequence of doing a Roth conversion.

I specifically said I went back into TT and corrected the Roth conversion part of the return. What I didn't specifically say (but could be inferred) was that TurboTax generating the 8606 was the ONLY change after the process was complete. No other forms, no additional (or reduced) taxes, no line entries changed.

So at this point- what are you trying to tell me?

[fanfare]

"I went back into TT and corrected the Roth conversion part of the return. "

What is the correction that you had to make?

Does Form 8606, which suddenly appeared, properly reflect that correction.?

We can't see your tax return.

@madkiwis 

[madkiwis]

The answer you seek is in the original post. I correctly classified the 1099R for my conversion.

Form 1040-X and 8606 were mailed in a week ago.

Done playing with you. Have a nice evening.