Question about IRA and filing an amendment

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
August 4, 2020
1 reply
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I filed my return in April as I was under the impression that I had all the paperwork I needed, wasn't planning on contributing any more to my Roth IRA, and knew the total amount I'd contributed.

On July 27th I got the final form 5498 from my broker and I realized that I'd made a mistake in how I filed. The overall amounts were the same but I'd accidentally lumped a Roth IRA conversion and the total Roth IRA contributions into one instead of classifying them separately which is what I was supposed to do.

I did the amendment in TurboTax and when I was done it said something to the effect of "We don't detect any differences between your original return and amended return Are you sure you need to amend?"

I tried calling the IRS to find out if I should file an amended return even though the dollar amounts are identical with the only difference being the way it was entered but I have not been able to get through even though. I've tried calling several times but always get the message that they are too busy and to try again later. So I thought I'd ask here and see what the recommendation is in this situation.

Thank you for the help and advice!

fanfare

Level 15

roth contributions don't change your tax if you are eligible for that.

Roth conversions don't change your tax if you do a backdoor roth conversion.

Otherwise, a roth conversion will change your tax.

Sam78Author

Level 4

Right.

There was no change to the refund and/or amount owed. I'm guessing it might be best to file the amendment just to be safe as you don't want to mess with the IRS.

But on the other hand, if it's really not necessary then I'd be happy to avoid standing in a long line for a very long time at the Post Office and paying for the shipping, etc.

fanfare

Level 15

i don't know what "lump together" even means since they are different events.

your conversion is taxable so if you added a contribution into that amount you are paying more tax than you should be, or, your original return was not correct.