Contributed by: RachelR, FreeTaxUSA Agent, Tax Pro and Henry, FreeTaxUSA Agent, Tax Pro
This article applies to 2024 and later.
The basic example assumed both the traditional IRA contribution and the Roth conversion step happened in the same year (for example, both events happened during 2024, for the 2024 tax year). However, it’s possible both of those steps did not take place during the same tax year. The transaction could be spread across two different years.
For example, you could contribute to the traditional IRA during 2024, but then not do the Roth conversion step until March of 2025 when you are preparing your 2024 tax return. If this situation applies to you, here’s how to report the backdoor Roth in the software for the year of the contribution (2024):
Enter the IRA Contribution
- Follow this menu path: Deductions/Credits > Common Deductions/Credits > IRA Contributions. Answer “Yes” to the question, “Did you make any traditional or Roth IRA contributions during the year?” Answer for both you and your spouse, if applicable. Then answer the “Excess IRA Contributions” question on that page. It’s fairly rare to have something to enter there. Save and Continue.
- Next, enter the amount of your original IRA contributions for the year. In this example, $6,500. Enter the amount in the box for the type of IRA you originally contributed to, even if the money is no longer in that type of account. In this example, our first contributions were to a traditional IRA. Later we converted them to a Roth. So we’ll enter the original contribution in the box for traditional contributions.
- will probably all be “No”. If you recharacterized your IRA contributions before doing the backdoor Roth, you’ll want to see our article for Reporting a Backdoor Roth Plus a Recharacterization (clickable link to that article). Save and Continue.
- The next page asks if you withdrew any contributions. Answer according to your situation. If all you did was the backdoor Roth strategy (contributed to a traditional IRA and then converted that to a Roth), this would be “No”. Withdrawing is removing the contribution and treating it as though it was never made, which is not the same as converting. Save and Continue.
- If your income is within the limits for taking a deduction for the contribution, go to step 6. On the other hand, if your income is too high for your IRA contributions to be deductible, you’ll come to the IRA Basis and Value page. Here you’ll enter any basis information you have in your IRA from prior tax years. If this is your first year contributing to a Roth, that will be $0. If you do have IRA basis from prior years (probably from contributions to a traditional IRA that you couldn’t deduct), you’ll get that information from Form 8606 from your prior tax returns and enter it here. You’ll also need to fill out the other boxes on the screen according to your situation. Save and Continue. Now skip step 6 and go to step 7.
- If your income is within the limits for taking a deduction, the next page will ask “Do you want to take your IRA deduction?” You’ll want to answer “No” for a backdoor Roth and enter the nondeductible amount, which will generally be the full amount of the contribution. Save and Continue.
- You should be at the IRA Deduction Summary. If you’re employing this backdoor Roth strategy, that is probably $0 as well.
- If your income is too high for the contribution to be deducted from your taxes, this is what you’ll see:
That’s it for entering the IRA contribution.
As for the Roth conversion step – in this example, you will not get the 1099-R for this until early 2026, because the conversion occurred in 2025. The 1099-R conversion will need to be reported on your 2025 tax return, essentially completing the other half of the reporting for this backdoor Roth.
Now let’s look at the forms, to make sure this turned out like it should have. On almost any screen in FreeTaxUSA, click on the 3 buttons at the top right, then choose “Preview Return” from the drop-down menu.
If your traditional IRA contribution was nondeductible, you will not see anything related to this backdoor Roth on your main 1040 form. Included with your tax return, you should see Form 8606, with the title Nondeductible IRAs. Line 14 of this Form 8606 shows the basis in your IRA.
Next year when you’re doing your taxes, you’ll report the other half of the transaction. You’ll get a Form 1099-R showing the conversion that you did. You’ll report that Form 1099-R on your 2025 tax return. You’ll also need to enter the $6,500 “basis” amount that carries over from Line 14 of the 2024 Form 8606. This will make it so that $6,500 of the conversion amount won’t show as taxable to you.
