Question

Roth IRA excess contribution backdoor to traditional IRA

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
October 6, 2020
1 reply
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On Jan 2019, I contribute full $6,000 to my Roth IRA, and realize that I have a MAGI within the range between $122,000 and $137,000. I have similar situation for 2020 tax year.

I started Roth IRA contribution on April 2019 ( where I deposit $5,500 for 2018), June 2019 $6,000 for 2019 and deposition $6,000 for 2020 on 2020 Jan.

My current account still has around $2,300 of cash, for the rest I hold ~$11,000 for unrealized gains ( and I would like to hold them for long term investments).

I would like to adjust my 2019 and 2020 using backdoor solution ( that is, convert or recharacterize to tradition IRA then convert back). What should I do ?

(I plan to use TurboTax Premier for service but I don't know how to start. thank you!)

Thanks!

TurboTax Premier Online

macuser_22

Employee

Your post and time lines are very unclear since to seem to say you contributed $6,000 to a Roth in Jan 2019 and then you say "I started Roth IRA contribution on April 2019 ( where I deposit $5,500 for 2018), June 2019 $6,000 for 2019". Did you contribute $6,000 in Jan for 2019 and $6,000 again in June 2019?

In any event it is too late to either have the excess returned as a "return of excess contribution" or recharactorized to a Traditional IRA since the July 15, 2020 due date has passed unless you filed a timely extension to file by Oct 15, 2020. However, if total 2019 contributions exceeded the yearly $6,000 limit the excess cannot be recharacterized, but must be removed.

**Disclaimer: This post is for discussion purposes only and is NOT tax advice. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy of any information in this post.**