topic Re: Roth IRA in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Roth IRA

ArielA77 — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 07:09:37 GMT

This question is for my girlfriend. Does she have to file taxes if she earned much less than half of the standard deduction last year? She does have a Fidelity account and had some taxable gains from the stock market. But as I said she well under the standard deduction for earned income.

She also contributed to a Roth IRA with her money earned income from previous years.

Is it fine if she doesn't file this year?

Re: Roth IRA

DMarkM1 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 22:31:08 GMT

I didn't see anything in your post that would require her to file a tax return for this tax year. You should verify any other items in Table 1 and Table 3, Publication 501.

Re: Roth IRA

ArielA77 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 22:50:16 GMT

Thank you so much for your reply.

So even though she had $3500 in stock market gains, which should ordinarily be taxable, it is fine if she doesn't file?

She is also worried because she didn't know that Roth IRA contributions are supposed to come from earned income from the same year. She contributed $6000 to the Roth IRA in 2023 from her savings she had accumulated in 2021.

Re: Roth IRA

PatriciaV — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 23:03:51 GMT

If you want to confirm this, you can start a free return in TurboTax Online and enter all the information for the activity you've listed. Then see what TurboTax says about any tax liability. Obviously, don't register or pay for the return unless you find that she does need to file.

Re: Roth IRA

Bsch4477 — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 23:20:04 GMT

She can’t contribute to her IRA based on earned income from a prior year. She should withdraw that contribution.