ira contributions on money already paid tax on.

[David4145]

all of your answers dance all around this and none come close to answering this at all.  I paid money into an IRA at my credit union. the money has already paid income tax upon it how do I enter the contributions with out paying more tax? and how do I show this versus the pretax dollars  that went on before? I have the turbo tax premier. my uncle who for 30 years did my tax and took care of this. and you all do not seem to know what I am talking about. none of the places where I worked had 401k or iras . when I left work at my first employer in 2006 I did a roll over then. and  had for several years recently added money to the ira at the credit union. so how do I enter it?

[DoninGA]

If the IRA contributions were made with after tax dollars then just enter your contributions.

To enter a IRA contribution -

• Click on Federal Taxes (Personal using Home and Business)
• Click on Deductions and Credits
• Click on I'll choose what I work on (if shown)
• Scroll down to Retirement and Investments
• On Traditional and Roth IRA Contributions, click the start or update button

Or enter ira contributions in the Search box located in the upper right of the program screen. Click on Jump to ira contributions

[VolvoGirl]

You never pay tax on contributions so that part is confusing.  When you make a Traditional IRA contribution you can take a deduction for it or make it non-deductible.   When you enter the contribution it should ask if you want the deduction.  

You can't use pretax dollars to make a contribution.  You can rollover pretax money like from a 401K plan.  That is not a contribution but a Rollover.  

Or are you asking about when you take a distribution?

You can type ira contributions in the search bar at the top and it will give you a JUMP TO link to go right to it.

OR Enter IRA contributions under

Federal On left

Deductions and Credits

Then scroll down to Retirement and Investments

Traditional and ROTH IRA Contributions - Click the Start or Update button

[David4145]

People in the tax trade use words to clarify each item. the problem is it is a foreign language to everyone.  as an example its like saying enter blue in the box. only you never ever say what blue or blew or blu or any other similar sounding phrase or word .  then you wonder why its confusing if there are multi meaning for each word or phrase .  when your wrapped up into the accounting language you cannot see why there is confusing interpretations on the same page.

 I have money I earned and paid income tax upon. it was direct deposited to my checking account. I had transferred some money to my IRA. since I had already paid tax I wanted to know on my tax forms how to enter my amount so I don't  wind up paying more tax on money I already paid tax upon.  there is absolutely zero reference  on how to do this or what happens when I enter this data. does this make any since?

[VolvoGirl]

When you make a IRA contribution you can either deduct it from your tax return which will wash out the tax you paid on it originally.  It will grow tax deferred.  Then in the future when you take a distribution you pay tax on the distribution.  

Or you can make a non deductible contribution to a Traditional IRA or to a ROTH IRA.  You do not get a tax deduction for it and it grows tax deferred or tax free in a ROTH.  Then in the future when you take a distribution the non deductible part will come out tax free and you only pay tax on the growth.  Or not pay on the growth in a ROTH IRA account.

See IRS pub 590 A for IRA contributions

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590a.pdf 

And 590 B for IRA distributions

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590b.pdf