Quick question on rollover IRA forms - do I need to report transfers on my taxes?

The good news is that for properly executed direct rollovers between qualified retirement plans, you typically don't have any tax reporting requirements. The financial institutions handling the transfers will report these transactions to the IRS. However, you should receive Form 1099-R from your previous employer's plan administrator showing the distribution, and Box 7 should have a code indicating it was a direct rollover (usually code "G"). While you don't need to pay taxes on this money, you do need to report the distribution on your tax return using the information from this form. For your rollover IRA to new 401k transfer, this is considered a trustee-to-trustee transfer, which also doesn't require you to pay taxes. You should still receive documentation from both financial institutions confirming the transfer. The Roth IRA that you left at your previous institution doesn't need any reporting since you didn't move or withdraw those funds.

After struggling with a similar rollover situation that left me confused about tax reporting, I finally found a tool that helped me make sense of it all. Check out https://taxr.ai - it actually scans your rollover statements and tax forms and tells you exactly what needs to be reported. I uploaded my 1099-R and confirmation statements from both my old and new plan administrators, and it showed me exactly which lines on my tax return needed to include this info. The system even flagged that my 1099-R had the wrong code initially (my plan admin had to issue a corrected one). It's especially helpful for figuring out if your rollover was done correctly to avoid any unexpected tax bills.

Just wanted to follow up after trying the taxr.ai tool that was recommended here. It was exactly what I needed for my partial rollover situation! I uploaded my documents and it clearly separated what portion of my 401k distribution was taxable vs. what was properly rolled over. The system flagged that I was missing a certification form from my IRA provider, which I was able to request before filing my taxes. Definitely saved me from making a reporting mistake that could have triggered an audit notice.

After spending HOURS trying to get through to the IRS about a rollover issue last year (my previous employer coded my 1099-R incorrectly), I discovered https://claimyr.com which got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold for 3+ hours. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent confirmed that I needed to request a corrected 1099-R from my previous employer because they had used code "1" (early distribution) instead of code "G" (direct rollover). This would have flagged my return for additional scrutiny. Having an actual conversation with an IRS representative was so much better than trying to figure it out from their confusing website.

I need to eat some humble pie here. After being super skeptical about that Claimyr service, I actually tried it when I needed to talk to the IRS about a rollover coding issue on my 1099-R. I was desperate after trying to call for three days straight and never getting through. The service connected me to an IRS agent in about 35 minutes when I had previously been hanging up after 2+ hours on hold. The agent confirmed that my rollover was coded correctly on the form but I still needed to report it on my tax return. Money well spent for the peace of mind, and I won't be on hold for 2-3 hours next time I need to call them.

Just to add to what others have said - I worked at Fidelity for several years, and the key with rollovers is paying attention to what type of money is going where. You mentioned a rollover IRA and a Roth IRA from your old 401k, which suggests you had both traditional (pre-tax) and Roth (after-tax) money in your old plan. One thing to watch out for: make sure the Form 1099-R correctly shows the split between taxable and non-taxable amounts if you had both types. Sometimes plan administrators make mistakes with this reporting, especially if you had both pre-tax and Roth contributions.

A quick tip that nobody mentioned yet - keep ALL of your rollover documentation forever! I did a rollover in 2013 and got questioned about it during an IRS review in 2020 because there was some discrepancy in how it was reported. Having all my original paperwork saved me from a huge headache.

Great advice from everyone here! I went through a similar situation last year and want to emphasize one thing that caught me off guard - timing matters for the reporting even though the transactions aren't taxable. I received my 1099-R in January for a rollover I completed in March of the previous tax year, but I didn't get the final confirmation paperwork from my new 401k provider until February. Make sure you have all the documentation from both the distributing and receiving institutions before you file, even if you're not paying taxes on the rollover itself. Also, if you're using tax software, don't skip entering the 1099-R information just because the taxable amount is zero. The software needs that info to properly report the rollover and avoid any IRS matching notices later on. I learned this the hard way when TurboTax kept asking me about "missing" retirement distributions that I thought I could ignore.