How to find out my basis in my Roth

[Kiki Gavilan]

I haven't had a chance to contribute to a Roth in a long time, but I do have one sitting around that I probably contributed to about 15 years ago at an employer about 3 jobs ago.  That account has been rolled over a couple times and I don't have any of the old paper statements from the early days.  So I have no idea how much of that is my contribution vs. gain.  How can one find that out now if, say, I wanted to count my basis toward my Roth Conversion Ladder that (I just realized today) I've already started!

[secondcor521]

The only way I can imagine trying to do it is to contact the custodian who held the Roth while you were making contributions to it and ask them for their records.  This is what I did.

The "proper" way is to save all of your Form 5498's.  I'm guessing you didn't.  Most people don't.

I suppose it might be possible to estimate and hope you don't get audited.  I wouldn't feel comfortable with that, but I don't know of any other decent options.

[Indexer]

I don't know of any easy way.

Start tracking it down. Get the old statements.

[appleshampooid]

Your old W2s should have the amount you contributed to retirement accounts, including a split for Roth/non-Roth. It's possible you saved these over the other more obscure forms? I have all my old W2s with my old tax returns.

[appleshampooid]

Also you can get old forms from the IRS, including 1099-Rs for any rollovers if those data points would help. I don't think they have form 5498s though.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

[Kiki Gavilan]

Thanks everyone.  I might try the IRS, but haven't kept most of the other records - shred them after 7-10 years.  Maybe I should start scanning things before I shred.  In any case, I guess I'll just go back to what I was planning before it really hit me that I could take those contributions out any time - building my Roth Conversion ladder from scratch and not counting on any of that basis so I don't mess up!