Balance in Traditional IRA is being treated as Taxable income

[bobji]

In the retirement and investment section under traditional and Roth IRA contributions, it is asking a question "Tell us the value of all your traditional IRA accounts". When I enter the amount ($10), it is taking that as taxable income. But the amount in the traditional IRA is due to some gains over the years and I am not taking any distributions. So why is this a taxable income when I have taken any withdrawals from this account?

[DanaB27]

If you see this question in the IRA contribution interview then it usually indicates that you have an excess contribution. Did you get a warning about an excess contribution? The 6% penalty is calculated on the smaller of excess contribution and the value on December 31, 2024, plus any contribution made in 2025 for 2024.  

If you do have an excess contribution then you need to request the withdrawal of excess contributions plus earnings by the due date to avoid the 6% penalty. The earning will be taxable in the year the contribution was made.

If you made an excess contribution in 2024 and withdrew the 2024 excess traditional IRA contribution plus earnings in 2025 before the due date, then you will get a 2025 Form 1099-R in 2026 with code P and 1. This Form 1099-R will have to be included on your 2024 tax return and you have two options:  

• You can wait until you receive the 2025 Form 1099-R in 2026 and amend your 2024 return or
• You can report it now in your 2024 return and ignore the 1099-R when it comes unless there is Box 4 Federal Tax withholding and/or Box 14 State withholding. Then you must enter the 2025 Form 1099-R into the 2025 tax return since the withholding is reported in the year that the tax was withheld. The 2025 code P will not do anything to change the income in the 2025 tax return income but the withholding will be applied to 2025.

To create a Form 1099-R in your 2024 return please follow the steps below:

1. Login to your TurboTax Account 
2. Click on the "Search" on the top right and type “1099-R” 
3. Click on “Jump to 1099-R”
4. Answer "Yes" to "Did you get a 1099-R in 2024?"
5. Select "I'll type it in myself"
6. Box 1 enter total distribution (contribution plus earning)
7. Box 2 enter the earnings
8. Box 7 enter P and 1
9. Check the "IRA/ SEP/ SIMPLE" box
10. Click "Continue"
11. On the "Which year on Form 1099-R" screen say that this is a 2025 1099-R.
12. Click "Continue" after all 1099-R are entered and answer all the questions.
13. Continue until "Did you use your IRA to pay for any of these expenses?" screen and enter the amount of earnings under "Corrective distributions made before the due date of the return".

Please be aware, code P will say in the drop-down menu "Return of contribution taxable in 2023" you can ignore that since the follow-up question will tell TurboTax that it will be taxable in 2024.

[bobji]

The answer did not help but I subscribed for Tax live expert and got the answer.