While there is no official IRS guidance in the forms (or instructions and publications) that addresses IRA contributions made on behalf of a decedent after their death, there was a Private Letter Ruling (8439066) that ruled contributions made after the date of death were classified as excess contributions. Due to this, the TaxAct program is set up that once the IRA owner is deceased, no further contributions can be considered for a tax deduction.

In the program, the date of the contribution will determine if the deduction will be allowed. Any amount contributed prior to the date of death can be claimed. If, through the steps below, a contribution is entered for an individual that has a date of death entered in the program, there will be a prompt to enter the date of the contribution.

1. From within your TaxAct return (Online or Desktop), click Federal. On smaller devices, click in the upper left-hand corner, then click Federal.
2. Click IRA Contributions in the Federal Quick Q&A Topics menu to expand, then click Deductible traditional IRA contributions or Roth IRA contributions (depending on the type of contribution made).
3. Continue with the program interview questions.
4. On the screen titled IRA Contributions - Type, check the type of contribution made, click Continue and then click Continue again.
5. On the screen titled IRA Contributions - Roth/Traditional - Contribution, enter the actual contribution amounts, then click Continue.

If instead, the entry for the contribution is made through the forms entry method on the IRA Contribution Summary worksheet, there are fields prompting for the date of contribution at the bottom of the worksheet.