Forgot 1099-R forms

[The 585]

My wife and I recently submitted our first joint tax return, and in the confusion realized we each forgot a 1099-R. Fortunately, they have little to no effect on overall taxable income. Hers is a $0 taxable amount from a 401k rollover, and mine is a $8 taxable amount from mega backdoor Roth gains. That would be a $2 tax liability. The IRS and state accepted our returns that night.

So I guess my main question is, does the IRS look at the TOTAL taxable amount number -- or does each form itself matter? We had included a $7 interest income I had from a bank who did NOT report this to IRS as a 1099-INT, so technically if they are just looking at overall numbers, our return would only be $1 off in regards to taxable income... Which would be the same as a rounding error.

My second concern, would this have any effect on the record keeping for future IRA withdrawals? I would hate to try and move Roth money in the future to have the IRS say "we have no record of a prior Roth conversion".

[secondcor521]

I believe they will look at the totals for each line item.  So the taxable interest item won't offset the backdoor Roth gains in the way you're hoping it will.

I think you will need to file an amended return because I think you will need to confirm to the IRS that your wife's rollover was indeed non-taxable.  For some reason I think the IRS requires the entire rollover amount on line 4a, with a zero (or any taxable amounts you may have, as applicable) on line 4b with the word "ROLLOVER" on the tax form.  The fact that your 4a is missing that rollover amount will probably trigger a letter from the IRS if you don't amend.

They probably would not catch (or care about) the $8 backdoor Roth gain issue.

As far as future IRA withdrawals and record keeping, I'm not sure what your concern is.  Can you please clarify?

[walkwalkwalk]

I believe they will look at the totals for each line item.  So the taxable interest item won't offset the backdoor Roth gains in the way you're hoping it will.

I think you will need to file an amended return because I think you will need to confirm to the IRS that your wife's rollover was indeed non-taxable.  For some reason I think the IRS requires the entire rollover amount on line 4a, with a zero (or any taxable amounts you may have, as applicable) on line 4b with the word "ROLLOVER" on the tax form.  The fact that your 4a is missing that rollover amount will probably trigger a letter from the IRS if you don't amend.

They probably would not catch (or care about) the $8 backdoor Roth gain issue.

As far as future IRA withdrawals and record keeping, I'm not sure what your concern is.  Can you please clarify?

They mean the rollover counting as a "contribution" since contributions you take first out of a roth. Edit: I don't know the answer to the question though. I would assume no, you should just track that yourself.

[secondcor521]

I believe they will look at the totals for each line item.  So the taxable interest item won't offset the backdoor Roth gains in the way you're hoping it will.

I think you will need to file an amended return because I think you will need to confirm to the IRS that your wife's rollover was indeed non-taxable.  For some reason I think the IRS requires the entire rollover amount on line 4a, with a zero (or any taxable amounts you may have, as applicable) on line 4b with the word "ROLLOVER" on the tax form.  The fact that your 4a is missing that rollover amount will probably trigger a letter from the IRS if you don't amend.

They probably would not catch (or care about) the $8 backdoor Roth gain issue.

As far as future IRA withdrawals and record keeping, I'm not sure what your concern is.  Can you please clarify?

They mean the rollover counting as a "contribution" since contributions you take first out of a roth. Edit: I don't know the answer to the question though. I would assume no, you should just track that yourself.

Ah.  It's not clear to me if the 401k rollover was to a traditional or Roth (I assumed traditional), and the contribution OP means is the backdoor Roth, which would count as a conversion, not a contribution if I understand that correctly.

In general, OP, you are responsible for maintaining records of your contributions and conversions, which would include any tax forms showing your Roth conversions (which should be a 1099-R IIRC).  The IRS may audit you, at which point if you have the proper records you'll be fine.

[The 585]

Thanks guys. The conversions I made were after tax to Roth within 401k, which I did the following business day after the contributions were made. So only $8 in gains occurred before the conversions. We considered filing a 1040X to amend but it looks like that only adjusts the total taxable income and doesn't break it out by line item, so it appears there would be no way to report the rollover. Imay be wrong though...