topic Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact? in Retirement tax questions

Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

trilogy1943 — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 10:41:33 GMT

my wife is 77 and on ssi. her ira account lost appox 65,000 in the equities market before she pulled the money out and put it back into a traditional ira account.

Re: Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

VolvoGirl — Thu, 19 Jan 2023 18:44:51 GMT

No. She will just have less income to pay taxes on when she takes it out. Has she been taking her RMD each year? Did she put it back within the 60 days? If there was tax withholding taken out she needed to to replace the withholding when she put it back or the withholding becomes a distribution and taxable.

Re: Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

fanfare — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 05:19:35 GMT

@VolvoGirl

' She will just have less income to pay taxes on when she takes it out. "

Are you saying her tax will be less because her account is smaller now.?

Not much consolation for a loss of $65,000.

Re: Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

VolvoGirl — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 05:30:38 GMT

Basically. You still pay tax on any distributions like the RMD but you will be taking less distributions unless the account goes back up. @dmertz

Re: Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

fanfare — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 11:48:17 GMT

the account can't go back up because the person cashed out.

This usually happens at the bottom of the market.

Re: Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

dmertz — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 13:53:17 GMT

I didn't reply previously because VolvoGirl's original reply said everything that needed to be said. Except in the case where the total value of the individual's IRAs is less than any basis in nondeductible traditional IRA contributions, IRAs contain deferred income, income on which one has not yet paid taxes. The losses in the IRAs simply reduce the amount that would otherwise be taxable in the future.

Re: Are equity based ira losses deductible and who should I contact?

VolvoGirl — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 16:44:59 GMT

@fanfare the user did say....."put it back into a traditional ira account." Sounds like she rolled it back in. So the account can go up or down.