[10808]
March 17, 1999
TO: PENSION MEMBERS No. 15-99
PENSION OPERATIONS ADVISORY COMMITTEE No. 16-99
RE: IRS RELEASES INSTRUCTIONS TO 1999 FORMS 1099-R AND 5498
______________________________________________________________________________
The Internal Revenue Service has released instructions to 1999 Forms 1099-R and 5498. The
instructions to 1999 Form 1099-R, Distributions from Pensions, Annuities, Retirement or Profit-Sharing
Plans, IRAs, Insurance Contracts, etc., includes four changes to Form 1099-R. First, the IRS changed
Code J to “[d]istribution from a Roth IRA.” Therefore, financial institutions must use Code J to indicate
distributions from both Conversion Roth IRAs and Roth IRAs. Other changes include the elimination
of Code K, addition of Code R, “[r]echaracterized IRA contribution” to be used to report
recharacterization transactions, and elimination of Codes B and C, because the death benefit was
eliminated for taxpayers who died after August 20, 1996.
The IRS revised 1999 Form 5498, IRA Contribution Information, in order to identify
recharacterization transactions. The IRS deleted the “Roth conv.” checkbox and added a new
checkbox, “Rechar.” to recognized recharacterization transactions.
A copy of the instructions is attached.
Kathryn A. Ricard
Assistant Counsel
Attachment
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