A carryback contribution allows you to apply IRA contributions to the previous tax year, up until the tax filing deadline. This means that even if you were not able to make an IRA contribution by the end of the year, you may still be able to make those contributions and potentially benefit from associated tax advantages.
To be eligible for a carryback contribution, you must have earned taxable income during the year for which you are making the contribution. Additionally, the amount you contribute cannot exceed the IRS limit for that specific tax year or your taxable compensation for that year, whichever is lower.
How to contribute to last year’s IRA in your Guideline dashboard
Log in to your IRA account and select Contributions from the main menu. If you have more than one type of account with Guideline, select IRA in the drop-down that appears.
Select your desired IRA account (pre-tax/traditional or Roth) and your bank account information. Then, select the previous year within the Tax Year section to make a carryback contribution. Note if you would like to make both traditional and Roth IRA carryback contributions, you will need to complete this process for each account type.
Enter the date you want the contribution made and the amount. And finally, hit the "Submit" button. If your carryback contribution will push you over the year’s IRA limit, we’ll let you know.* Otherwise, it will be scheduled accordingly.
* The amount reflected for your IRA contributions for a given tax year does not take into consideration any contributions made to IRAs outside of Guideline that could count toward the IRS annual limit.