Reporting Roth IRA on 1040

[Guest jeni]

I have both a contributory IRA as well as a Roth IRA that I just opened. I recently made my 1998 contribution of $2000 in the Roth IRA. I will not be making any contributions to the contributory IRA. Is there anything I need to put on the 1040 in regards to either of these IRA's since my contribution is not tax deductible?

[Guest Del Rae]

If you didn't do anything to your regular IRA in 1998, they you don't have any additional filing requirements. If you made the full $2,000 contribution to a Roth IRA in 1998, there also isn't any filing requirement. Normal stuff is easy, it's the other stuff (conversions, recharacterizations) that the IRS made complicated.

[Guest rhyan]

I have recently opened a Roth IRA for 1998 and made a contribution of $250 .

The previous message in this thread indicated that you did not need to report the Roth contribution if the full amount of $2K had been made. Are the guidelines different for less-than-maximum contributions?

If I do need to report my Roth, what form do I need to report this on my taxes? Can still use the 1040EZ Telefile system?

Regards,

Rhyan

[This message has been edited by rhyan (edited 04-03-99).]

[Guest Lyric]

Rhyan,

You will already have paid taxes on whatever contribution you made to your Roth IRA by virtue of the fact that the contribution will have come from earnings declared in the normal way. You are not deducting anything with a Roth, so you don't have to declare your contributions. It's not the amount of the contribution that makes any difference from the IRS's point of view (unless your eligibility changes; if you've discovered that you earned too much to contribute at the full $2,000, or if you inadvertently contributed more than $2,000, then you can recharacterize the Roth as a traditional IRA -- but it doesn't look like that's your problem at all.)

Rest easy.

Lyric