Inherited Roth IRA from my mother. 1099-R box 7 lists distrib code T. If I call it an inheritance, TurboTax asks when she first opened the Roth. What if I don't know?

[labrat]

I don't know if she opened the Roth before 2014 or not. If I answer that she opened it after 2014, Turbo Tax needs more info about her initial contributions that I don't have. I *AM* supposed to say that it's an inheritance, right?

[dmertz · Accepted solution]

Yes, you must indicate that it's an inherited Roth IRA.

If her Roth accounts have met the 5-year holding requirement because she made her first contribution to any Roth IRA for a tax year before 2014, all distributions you receive from this account are qualified distributions, entirely tax free.  If her first contribution to a Roth IRA was for 2014 or later, distributions follow the ordering rules for nonqualified Roth IRA distributions, with taxable earnings coming out last.

If you did not received a distribution of substantially less then the full balance of the Roth IRA, it's likely that that you received a distribution allocable only to original contributions, tax free.  But ideally you'll want to answer TurboTax's questions accurately.

[labrat]

Thank you! The "T" distribution code threw me a bit. Every other inheritance related question I saw referred to a different distribution code, so I wasn't quite sure how to proceed. Now, I guess I need to dig for some info.

[dmertz]

Distributions from an inherited Roth IRA are reported with either code T or code Q.  Other codes are used only for other types of retirement accounts.