Form 5498 IRA Contribution Information is information for your personal records and is not required to prepare your tax return. Taxpayers should retain this information for their personal records, but there are no tax consequences to the taxpayer until the funds are distributed from the account. When distributions are made, they are then reported on Form 1099-R Distributions from pensions, annuities, retirement or profit-sharing plans, IRAs, insurance contracts, etc.

TaxAct® does not support Form 5498, but the information below will help you understand the purpose of the form and how the information can be entered in TaxAct, or why it should NOT be entered in TaxAct. Form 5498 is used for various purposes.

Form 5498 should be mailed to you by May 31st to show traditional IRA contributions made for the prior year between January 31st of the prior year and the tax filing deadline of the current year (typically April 15th, but the deadline is April 18th for 2016 due to Emancipation Day). For example, if you made contributions to a traditional IRA for the 2016 tax year between January 31, 2016 and April 18, 2017, you should receive a Form 5498 in May of 2017. (If FMV/RMD is involved the deadline is January 31.)

Form 5498 reports the Fair Market Value (FMV) of your IRA account as of year-end. This information should be entered on Form 8606, Line 6 ONLY IF you took distributions from a Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA during the current tax year AND you made nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA in the current tax year or an earlier year.

Do not make entries on a Form 1099-R in the program unless you received a 1099-R from the payer. If you rolled money from a 401(k) to an IRA, you may receive a Form 5498 from the NEW trustee, and a 1099-R from the OLD trustee. Just enter the 1099-R data, not the 5498 data, in the Retirement Income section of TaxAct. The Q&A will prompt you to enter the data from the Form 1099-R and the amount of the distribution that was rolled over.

The information on Form 5498 is submitted to the IRS by the trustee or issuer of your individual retirement arrangement (IRA) or Coverdell education savings account (ESA) to report contributions, including any catch-up contributions, and the fair market value of the account.

You may (or may not) be able to deduct a contribution reported on the 5498. To access the questions on IRA contributions click on the Federal tab and choose IRA Contributions.

Form 5498 IRA Contribution Information:

Box 1. Shows traditional IRA contributions for 2016 you made in 2016 and through April 18, 2017. These contributions may be deductible on your Form 1040 or 1040A. However, if you or your spouse were an active participant in an employer's pension plan, these contributions may not be deductible.

If no reportable contributions were made for the year, only boxes 5 and 7 (and 11 if applicable) will hold values. This box does not include amounts in boxes 2-4, 8-10, 13a and 14a.

For more information about IRAs, see IRS Publication 590-A Contributions to Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs), and IRS Publication 560 Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans).