Recharacterizing a 1998 Roth because of poor stock performance

[Guest Bill Ward]

I opened a Roth IRA in 1998 with $32,000 and amortized tax payment over four years. With the 2000 taxes, I have paid taxes on $24,000. Because of poor stock performance, the Roth is now worth $24,000. I would like to avoid paying the fourth tax installment but would like to maintain the Roth. Can I recharacterize as a regular IRA and then convert back to a Roth without incurring additional tax liability? If I need to ask for an IRS ruling, how do I contact them? Thanks!

[BPickerCPA]

The answer is that it's too late to do a recharacterization of a 1998 conversion, unless you get a specific ruling from the IRS granting you permission.

The process to get a ruling is a lot more complicated than just "contacting them". There is a user fee to the IRS for the request, and the request has to be in a specific format.

Most people hire pros to handle ruling requests. For the value of IRA you are talking about, it probably does not pay.