To find your Roth IRA contribution history, gather Form 5498 from your custodian for every year you contributed, pull IRS Wage and Income transcripts to fill any gaps, and add up the annual amounts (plus the taxable portion of any traditional-to-Roth conversions reported on Form 8606). The IRS does not track this running total for you, so the records you assemble are the only reliable source.
Start With Form 5498 From Your Custodian
Financial custodians are required to report yearly IRA contribution data to both you and the IRS on Form 5498. The form is issued by May 31 each year so it can capture contributions made through the tax filing deadline for the prior year. Box 10 shows the total Roth IRA contributions made for that tax year. Collect one for every year you contributed and you have a year-by-year record of the money you put in.
The fastest way to retrieve these is through your brokerage or bank’s secure online portal. Look for a section labeled “Tax Documents” or “Statements,” filter by year, and download each Form 5498 or year-end summary. Most digital platforms keep tax documents available for seven to ten years.
For anything older, call customer service and ask for archived records. Some institutions charge a research fee, so giving them specific date ranges helps hold down the cost and turnaround. Federal recordkeeping rules only require financial institutions to retain records for five years, so the older the request, the less likely a copy still exists on their side.
If formal tax forms are missing, monthly brokerage statements and wire transfer confirmations can fill the gap. They show the cash actually moving from your bank into the IRA and serve as backup evidence, even though they lack the formal reporting status of a 5498.
When Your Original Custodian No Longer Exists
If the institution has closed or merged, the FDIC’s BankFind Suite tool lets you search for the successor by name or location. The acquiring bank or brokerage typically inherits the original institution’s account records, so contact the successor to request historical documents. For an investment firm that was not an FDIC-insured bank, FINRA’s BrokerCheck can help trace the firm’s history and identify a successor.
Fill the Gaps With IRS Transcripts
When your custodian cannot produce what you need, the IRS offers free transcripts that reflect what custodians filed on your behalf. The one to ask for is the Wage and Income Transcript, which pulls data from information returns including Form 5498. It is available for the current year and the nine prior tax years.
Access transcripts through the IRS Individual Online Account portal. You will verify your identity through ID.me by uploading a photo of a government-issued ID and taking a selfie. If online verification does not work for you, ID.me offers a live video call option that does not require a selfie.
A Tax Account Transcript is worth pulling as well. It shows whether a Form 8606 was processed for a given year, which confirms that any conversions or distributions were reported. For records older than ten years, you can submit Form 4506 with a $30 fee to request a full copy of a prior return, though the IRS generally only keeps copies of Form 1040 for seven years from the filing date before destroying them.
Include Any Traditional-to-Roth Conversions
If you ever converted funds from a traditional IRA into your Roth, that money adds to your basis too, and it is tracked separately from regular contributions. Form 8606 is where conversions get reported: the taxable amount you included in income at the time of the conversion appears on Line 16 of the form for that year. Part III of Form 8606 is also where you would have reported any Roth distribution and the basis figures behind it — Line 22 for total regular contribution basis and Line 24 for total conversion basis.
Pull every Form 8606 you filed. If you cannot locate copies, the Tax Account Transcript will at least confirm which years a Form 8606 was processed, and you can request older returns through Form 4506 within the retention windows above.
Add It Up
Once you have your 5498s, transcripts, and any 8606s in hand, the math is straightforward.
- Total every annual Roth IRA contribution from 1998 (the first year Roth IRAs existed) through the current year. Exclude any contributions that were returned to you or recharacterized to a traditional IRA. Excess contributions you removed by the deadline do not count toward basis either.
- Add the taxable portion of each conversion, using the amount you reported on Form 8606, Line 16 for the year of the conversion.
- Subtract any prior distributions that came out of your contribution or conversion basis rather than earnings.
The resulting number is your current remaining basis. Keep it in a simple spreadsheet alongside your tax returns and update it each year you contribute, convert, or take a distribution. Because the IRS does not maintain this total for you, your own log is the only reliable source if the question comes up years or decades from now.
Why This Number Matters
Your basis is the total after-tax money you have put into the account over its lifetime, and it defines how much you can withdraw without owing tax or the 10 percent early withdrawal penalty. Because Roth contributions were made with money you already paid tax on, you can pull that money back out at any age, tax-free and penalty-free. Earnings follow different rules.
When you take a withdrawal that is not a qualified distribution, the IRS applies an ordering rule: regular contributions come out first, then conversions (oldest first, with the taxable portion of each conversion coming out before the nontaxable portion), then earnings. As long as your lifetime withdrawals have not exceeded your total contributions, every dollar out is tax-free regardless of age or how long the account has been open. Overstate your basis and you may withdraw what the IRS treats as earnings, triggering tax and a possible penalty. Understate it and you may pay tax on money that was already taxed on the way in.
The Five-Year Clocks
Two separate five-year rules interact with your history. For earnings to come out entirely tax-free as part of a qualified distribution, you must be at least 59½ (or disabled, or the distribution must go to a beneficiary after your death) and the account must have been open for at least five tax years, counted from January 1 of the first year you contributed. Separately, each conversion carries its own five-year holding period; withdrawing converted funds before both age 59½ and the end of that conversion’s five-year window triggers the 10 percent penalty on the taxable portion of the conversion, even though income tax was already paid at the time you converted. After 59½, the conversion clock no longer matters for the penalty.
Once both conditions for a qualified distribution are satisfied, every withdrawal is tax-free and the basis figure matters less for tax purposes. Until then, the history you assembled is what stands between you and an avoidable tax bill.