When turbotax asks for the value of my Roth IRA, do I enter the total amount from my mutual funds? When I do that, I get an error that I've earned too much for the Roth.

[mbk123]

I don't ever remember having to add how much money is in my accounts. When I do, TurboTax tells me that I make too much money to use a Roth IRA, which results in me getting a penalty statement, and that we have excess. Being in the military, I'm pretty sure we don't make enough to not qualify for a Roth IRA.

[dmertz]

TurboTax asks this question because it has already determined that you have made an excess Roth IRA contribution and needs to determine the amount that is subject to the 6% excess accumulation penalty (6% of the lesser of the excess or the total year-end value of your Roth IRAs).

You can obtain the year end values of your Roth IRAs from the year-end statements from these accounts.

The question is, "Why has TurboTax determined that the Roth IRA contribution is an excess contribution?"  The reasons are that the amount contributed exceeds the permissible amount for your age and filing status, or the compensation that you have entered is insufficient to support the contribution.  If Married Filing Separately, eligibility to contribute to a Roth IRA phases out between $0 and $10,000.  Married Filing Jointly has a much higher phase-out range.

[fanfare]

If you have an excess you must take corrective action before upcoming  tax day.

You have two choices.

if the excess is less than your earnings, you can ask the custodian to recharacterize.

This turns it into a Traditional IRA contribution. You may or may not be able to deduct it so that effects yuur decision.

You can ask the custodian to send the excess back to you  by submitting the "excess plus earnings" removal form

You must have a) filed by tax day, or b) requested an extension of time to file by tax day to take advantage of the Oct 15 deadline for corrective action. Otherwise the deadline is April 15th.

Reporting is less complex if you take corrective action before filing.

@mbk123