Need help fixing my Roth IRA contributions from 2020-2022 that should have been backdoor conversions due to marriage income limits

12 You'll need to fix those excess contributions by filing Form 5329 for each affected year (2020-2022). The penalty is 6% of the excess amount for each year it remains in your account. Since you've discovered this issue now, you have a few options: 1. Remove the excess contributions plus associated earnings - this would involve contacting your brokerage to help with the calculation and withdrawal. 2. Recharacterize the contributions as Traditional IRA contributions then do backdoor conversions after the fact (though this option may be limited by timing). 3. Leave the money in and pay the 6% penalty for each year until it's corrected. Option 1 is usually the cleanest. Contact your brokerage first as they have forms for excess contribution removals and can help calculate the exact earnings portion that also needs to be removed.

7 After making a similar mistake with my Roth IRA contributions, I found an incredibly helpful tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me understand exactly what forms I needed and walked me through the correction process. It analyzes your specific situation and gives personalized guidance on fixing IRA contribution errors like this. I was confused about whether I needed to file amended returns or just Form 5329, and the tool clarified everything for me. It also showed me how to calculate the exact penalty amounts and helped with the recharacterization paperwork from my brokerage.

3 Just wanted to follow up - I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and it was legitimately helpful. I've been stressing about my similar Roth contribution issue for months but kept putting it off because it seemed so complicated. The tool broke everything down into manageable steps and even generated the letter I needed to send to my brokerage. My situation was resolved much faster than I expected. They helped me understand exactly which tax years I needed to file Form 5329 for and calculated my penalty amounts. Wish I'd known about this tool sooner instead of worrying about it for so long!

15 For anyone dealing with the IRS on these types of issues, I had a similar problem and needed clarification directly from the IRS. After spending DAYS trying to get through on their regular line, I discovered Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). They got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes instead of the hours I was wasting on hold. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c - basically they navigate the IRS phone tree for you and call you back when they have an agent on the line. The IRS agent I spoke with walked me through exactly what I needed to do to correct my excess Roth contributions and confirmed I was calculating the penalties correctly.

4 I need to apologize for my skepticism above. After more research and finding myself on hold with the IRS for over 2 hours yesterday, I gave Claimyr a shot. I honestly didn't expect much, but within about 20 minutes I was talking to an actual IRS agent who was incredibly helpful with my excess contribution issue. The agent confirmed I needed to file Form 5329 for each year and helped me understand exactly how to calculate the earnings portion that needed to be withdrawn. They also explained that I could do a late recharacterization through my brokerage even though I was past the normal deadline. This saved me a significant amount in penalties compared to just withdrawing the contributions.

18 One thing no one has mentioned yet - if you're looking to minimize penalties, you might want to consider applying excess contributions to a future year if possible. I did this for one of my excess contribution years and it saved me from having to withdraw anything.

10 Does anyone know if there's a statute of limitations on fixing these excess contributions? I discovered I had the same issue but going back to 2019-2020.