Trying to do a back door IRA. Made traditional, non-deductible IRA contribution and immediately rolled to Roth. Turbotax is calling it taxable distro. Is this right?

[DawnC]

Only if you had taxable earnings.   From the side menu, select Preview my 1040.

• Your backdoor Roth IRA amount should be listed on Form 1040, Line 4a as IRA distributions.
• Taxable amount on Form 1040, Line 4b should be zero unless you had earnings between the time you contributed to your Traditional IRA and the time you converted it to Roth IRA, in which case the earnings would be taxable.
• If you have a Schedule 1, then Schedule 1, Line 20, IRA deduction should be blank.

It is a two-step process; use this link to confirm you did the steps correctly.  

[rjrsurge]

Dawn,

I did all that.  The number is 4b is not zero and I don't know how to make it zero.  Could it be because I have another Traditional IRA and a basis for non-deductible IRA contributions?

[fanfare]

If you already had a basis before starting this adventure,

you cannot do a tax-free Roth Backdoor Contribution. unless your IRA value was less than the basis.

@rjrsurge 

[rjrsurge]

Thank you.  It would be nice if that was more obvious.