Why is TT asking my year end IRA balance.

[JWM2021]

I did two ROTH conversion in 2024

1) I have never made a non-deductible contribution to an IRA so it is 100% taxable (no basis).

2) I am not old enough for RMD's.

3) We have made no IRA contribution since retirement in 2021, so it is not possible we have excess contributions.

4) Both 1099-R show the same value in 1 and 2a, so it's showing (properly) 100% taxable.  

The tax is showing up as expected.  It just makes me nervous, because I know of no reason I needed to go through and total all my year end statements (I did it; I would just like to understand why).

edit: I did respond no to "Let us know if <username> made and kept track of any nondeductible contributions to <username's> traditional IRA from 2023 or prior years."

as well as no disaster distributions.

There are no outstanding rollovers or recharacterizations.

I've never recharacterized any IRA, ROTH, 401k, 403b, 457 contribution or conversion.

[AnnetteB6]

That total account value for all Traditional IRA accounts is needed to calculate the taxable amount of the distributions.  

Since you had no basis in the account, the number was not actually needed, but it was probably still used in the background calculations once the basis in the account was also known to the program.  

[JWM2021]

Thanks for the response. 

This still makes no sense to make me go look up all my year-end account balances.  If this is just "how the software works", it is, at best, terribly ill-designed.

The question directly prior to the request for the total of all the IRA balances is

"Let us know if <user> made and kept track of any nondeductible contributions to <user's> traditional IRA from 2023 or prior years."

I answered "No, <user> did not make and track..."; and then they ask for balances.

This would be the equivalent of saying "no" to "Do you have any dependents?"  Then being asked "Please list all your children's full names, date of birth, social security numbers, and how much financial support you gave each during the tax year."  It's not only a useless waste of time, it's worrisome.  

Again, I appreciate your response, but dealing with software so poorly thought out on something as important as tax filing certainly gives me pause.  Next year I may have to look for something else.  Thanks.

[Opus 17]

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@JWM2021 wrote:

Thanks for the response. 

This still makes no sense to make me go look up all my year-end account balances.  If this is just "how the software works", it is, at best, terribly ill-designed.

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The question can also relate the fact that in the past, if you cashed out of an IRA with less than you put in, sometimes that was a miscellaneous itemized deduction. Even though that deduction was removed for 2018-2025, Turbotax left the question in, possible in case the deduction comes back in 2026.  It's hard to know for sure, we don't have contact with the developers.  Just answer or make your best guess, it won't affect your taxes.