Switching 2014 IRA contributions from Roth to Traditional

[schimt]

A friend of mind is a union carpenter, and he was laid off for a significant portion of the year and his adjusted gross income is under $60,000, the limit to have a tax deduction with a traditional IRA. At the beginning of the year he thought he would make more then the limit so he contributed to a Roth IRA via Vanguard. Is it possible for him to switch the account to a traditional IRA and before April 15th?

I searched the forums for this topic with no luck, although i can't imagine it hasn't been covered already

[skyrefuge]

You were missing the secret search term, which is "recharacterization". The short answer is "yes". Here are the detailed references:

http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/investor-alley/changing-%28reducing%29-your-ira-contribution-for-the-tax-year/msg528871/#msg528871

[dandarc]

He does need to get on that (so do I) - deadline is tax filing deadline or April 15th without filing for an extension.

[terran]

Yep, just did this. Just call them up and they'll take care of it.

They told me I'd have to file form 8606, but that didn't end up being quite true -- You'll need to add a statement to your 1040. See example 2 here http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8606/ch01.html#d0e465