Why am I being asked to "Enter Prior Year Roth IRA Contributions". I have been retired over 15 years and haven't made a contribution since there. I have no records.

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
February 15, 2021
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TurboTax Premier Online

AnnetteB6

If you are being asked to enter your prior year Roth IRA contributions, you must have taken a distribution from a Roth IRA in the current year. The prior year Roth IRA contributions are needed to determine whether any of your current year contribution is taxable.

If your distribution is less than your Roth IRA basis (the amount you contributed), then there will be no income tax imposed. If it is greater than your basis, then the distribution may or may not be taxable depending on other circumstances that would make it a qualified distribution (your age and how long you have had a Roth IRA account for example).

There is not really a good solution to overcome not having records showing the contributions. It is possible that your IRA custodian would have that information.

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frusfsAuthor

@frusfs I did take a distribution in 2020 but like I said I haven't contributed to my Roth in over 10 years. So if I say I contributed nothing in the prior year (I presume this means only the one year prior to the distribution?) then my distribution will be greater than my basis (if basis means only the prior year). However, there were many years prior that I contributed before quitting work. Your response seems to imply that because my distribution is more than my contribution (basis) I might be taxed. Doesn't make sense.

DaveF1006

Yes it makes sense because if your distributions exceed then this excess can be construed as earnings. Earnings are taxable income if not a qualified distribution. The main qualifier is that you own that Roth at least five-years otherwise known as the five-year holding period.

In your case, it sounds like you have owned your Roth more than five years thus you should not be taxed on additional earnings. I would suggest however you obtain a ballpark figure of all your contributions you made while you contributed to the plan so we can make Turbo Tax happy just so you don't receive these confusing messages.

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