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My wife opened a Traditional IRA in late 2017, and then funded it with $5,500 after-tax (nondeductible) dollars in January 2018. We made sure to tell Vanguard that the contribution was for 2017.

We proceeded to fund the same traditional IRA with another $5,500 for tax year 2018.

We converted the entire Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 2018.

Box 1 of 1099-R form that Vanguard provided has $11,000 in it (which makes sense). When I put this into TurboTax though, it views it as an overcontribution (I think) and my refund numbers go down significantly both in Federal and in State. My federal number stays the same if I change Box 1 to $5,500.

Any ideas what I should do?

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    One fellow posited that faking the moon landing would be so hard, it would be easier to just go to the moon. I‘m starting to get that impression about TurboTax. It seems like you're spending more learning and effort wrestling the software platform into helping you fill out the forms your way, than it would take to just... fill out the forms. Feb 17, 2019 at 20:12
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    @Harper: you're not wrong. More & more I'm starting to think that. I'm one (small) issue from being done with my filing though [see commend to the accepted answer], so I'm going to stick it out for now.
    – David
    Feb 17, 2019 at 23:19

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$11,000 is correct. It shouldn't change the amount of tax or refund if you correctly answered all the questions (some are counter-intuitive, but you have to answer them literally as asked), entered that you have a $5,500 basis from 2017 or before (which you should have also reported when filing your 2017 tax return last year), and entered that you have a $5,500 nondeductible Traditional IRA contribution for 2018. Make sure you also complete the "Traditional and Roth IRA Contributions" section in Deductions and Credits to enter the $5,500 contribution for 2018. If you post your answers for each question here we can see if anything is wrong.

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  • you're exactly right! I forgot my wife's basis was $5,500 for 2017. When I put that in, everything is fixed. One more question: in the State section, it says "Your wife's federally taxable IRA distributions received $11,000 during 2018." Then one option is "Other contributions previously taxed by state:" and a blank box. Should I put $11,000 there?
    – David
    Feb 17, 2019 at 17:08
  • @David: Yes, I believe so
    – user102008
    Feb 17, 2019 at 23:51

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