IRA tax document?

[Murf2]

Hi all, I’m a little confused. Should I get any tax documents for my roll over IRA and my wife’s Roth IRA, if there have been no withdrawals?

My roll over is with Fidelity and it states online that they will not be sending any tax documents for this account.

I have received my 1099 from Vanguard for my brokerage account and my Roth IRA. Both of these have had withdrawals. No documents yet for my roll over IRA or my wife’s Roth IRA which had no withdrawals.

I would swear we got something on them last year. Anyone know if Vanguard has changed things or am I just getting in too big a hurry?

Thanks
Murf

 

[cathy63]

What activity did you have related to those accounts in 2017? If you added money to them, then you should have gotten 5498s. If you removed money then you would have gotten 1099-Rs. If neither, then you probably just got a year-end summary that gave the account balance as of 12/31.

If you didn't add or remove money in 2018, then you won't get any tax docs. You probably did still get a year-end summary though.

 

[RunningBum]

You don't have to go on memory, login to your VG account and check the 2017 tax year documents and see what you got. I got a 1099-R for my tIRA and 5498 for my Roth, for a partial conversion. I think I've done a conversion every year that I had my roth, but in 2012 it looks like I had a tIRA and no Roth, no conversion, and got no tax documents on the tIRA.

You probably got an end of year statement but maybe not a tax document.

If you didn't have any withdrawals or contributions, what kind of tax document are you expecting?

 

[Murf2]

Thank you for the quick reply.
I don’t know why I didn’t think to look at last years stuff. [emoji4]

I guess I just assumed I needed something showing whether there had been any distributions or not.

As you can probably tell, this stuff is kinda new and confusing to me.

Thanks again!
Murf

 

[Sunset]

If you took money out of an IRA or coverted some of it to ROTH, then you would need to know the balance of all IRA's and how much was contributed as post-tax, so you don't pay tax again on that percentage.

 

[Souschef]

The 5498 just tells the IRS how much is in each of your IRA's at year's end. If you are under 70 1/2 it means nothing. Past that age, they can check to see if you are taking your RMD's.

 

[gauss]

Don't forget that the 5498's are issued mid-year (ie May-June timeframe), unlike most other tax forms.

 

[Murf2]

Thank you all for the responses! I think I’ve got it.

Murf

 

[kaneohe]

The 5498 just tells the IRS how much is in each of your IRA's at year's end. If you are under 70 1/2 it means nothing. ...................................................

Looks like the 5498 is a record of contributions, conversions, recharacterizations, etc. In that case it could be very useful if you take early withdrawals since you need that basis info.

 

[steelyman]

Looks like the 5498 is a record of contributions, conversions, recharacterizations, etc. In that case it could be very useful if you take early withdrawals since you need that basis info.

I’ve always wondered about those things and their intended purpose.

For filing (like in a filing cabinet or digital records folder) purposes, I’ve been sticking them in the tax year folder in which they were received. Would it be cleaner just to keep a single 5498 folder containing them all?

I don’t foresee needing them but am leery of shredding anything along those lines.

 

[kaneohe]

...........................
For filing (like in a filing cabinet or digital records folder) purposes, I’ve been sticking them in the tax year folder in which they were received. Would it be cleaner just to keep a single 5498 folder containing them all?

..........................................

Yes , your idea is a good one. Then everything would be at your fingertips instead of searching 20-40 folders.

 

[steelyman]

Yes , your idea is a good one. Then everything would be at your fingertips instead of searching 20-40 folders.

Thanks, you learn something new pretty often in this joint!

This comes along at a time when I’m digitizing many records of tax returns (also prompted by e-r threads), so I’ll be rooting around in those folders anyway.