Amount of after-tax basis not available

[Guest Sieve]

Following a number of TPA/provider changes, the employer discovers that the amount of old after-tax basis--for the few participants with after-tax contributions--is not known, and may not now be determinable. What alternative is there to treating everything as pre-tax upon distribution?

[Bird]

Educated guess?

Get the participant to sign a statement saying "I contributed X dollars on a pre-tax basis?"

[GMK]

Participants may still have their account statements, which would list after-tax contributions and any distributions that reduced basis. There could also be some after-tax contribution information in old W-2's and pay stubs. (There are pack rats amongst us, you know.)

It's a long shot and a lot of digging, but corporate copies of payroll records and/or W-2's may help.

Bird's suggestion keeps looking better all the time (but check for previous distributions that may have reduced basis).

In any case, some effort to find at least some of the after-tax amount would be better than just throwing it all into pre-tax.

[david rigby]

If you find one pack rat with all his/her old W-2's, it may be possible to combine this information with educated guessing for other participants.

[Guest Sieve]

Are you saying that after-tax contributions are entered on the W-2? Where? What Code?

[GMK]

You can try to sort out voluntary after-tax contributions entered in Box 14 back at least several years.

[Guest Sieve]

I odn't see a Code for after-tax employee contributions in the Instructions. Was there one in past years?

[GMK]

Sorry, Sieve. I iddn't see one either, back to about 1993. Before that, I think the information went in a different box, if it was required at all.

I think one would have to find out from the employer whether the employer remembers whether they might possibly have listed anything other than voluntary after tax contributions in Box 14 ... assuming they listed something.

I think participants' account statements offer a better chance of finding useful information.

Did I mention that it seems like a long shot and a lot of digging.

[masteff]

It's a weak fallback and it will generate as many questions as it avoids but... Form 1099-R box 2b "Taxable amount not determined"

[Guest Sieve]

Wasn't even aware of that box. Thanks.

Instructions say: "Generally, you must enter the taxable amount in box 2a. However, if you are unable to reasonably obtain the data needed to compute the taxable amount, leave this box blank."

Later: "Enter an "X" in this box [2b] only if you are unable to reasonably obtain the data needed to compute the taxable amount. If you check this box, leave box 2a blank . . ."