2 Forms 5498 issued at different times
I made Roth IRA conversions in 2018 and got a 1099R and a corresponding Form 5498 in February 2019. I also made a rollover contribution from my employer pension to my traditional IRA. I got Form 1099 from my employer’s bank with the correct distribution code and gave it to my accountant already, but my IRA custodian says that the corresponding Form 5498 won’t be available till May 2019, though the rollover contribution took place in May 2018. I am wondering why I am not getting one single Form 5498 with all the information since the custodian is the same institution.
Permalink Submitted by David Mertz on Wed, 2019-04-10 13:15
A Form 5498 corresponds to a single IRA account. The custodian may be the same but the accounts are different, one Roth IRA and one traditional IRA. The custodian has simply chosen to issue the Form 5498 from the Roth IRA account well before the deadline but wait until closer to the deadline to issue the Form 5498 from the traditional IRA account. Forms 5498 issued before April 15 run the risk of needing to be corrected if the participant subsequently makes a contribution to that account for the prior year, so I don’t know what prompts a custodian to issue Forms 5498 early.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Wed, 2019-04-10 16:12
A conversion 5498 would be separate from a regular contribution 5498 and conversions must be completed by year end, so perhaps they are issuing conversion or rollover 5498 forms shortly after year end and issuing regular contribution 5498 forms in May after the contribution deadline.
Permalink Submitted by Florina Chuy on Thu, 2019-04-11 05:07
In 2018, I had a Roth IRA contribution (max allowable) listed in Box 10 of Form 5498, as well as my Roth IRA conversion later in the year listed in Box 3. So they are on the same Form.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Thu, 2019-04-11 16:06
For a single IRA account, must custodians will combine all contribution types and issue a single form in May of the following year, but if they issue the form too early before the books close for regular contributions, there is a good chance the form will need to be corrected. If you already have the 5498 now for 2018 for an account, maybe you made a full regular contribution so there is no chance of additional regular contributions after the 5498 was issued, and therefore they issued it before May.