To tell whether your IRA is a traditional or a Roth account, look at the account label printed on your brokerage statement or online portal, where the type appears near your name and account number. If the statement isn’t handy, Form 5498, Form 1099-R, your prior tax return, and even whether you’re being forced to take annual withdrawals each point to the answer on their own. Start with whichever record you can reach first.
Check Your Statement or Online Portal
Every custodian labels the IRA type directly on the account. On a paper statement, the header near your name and account number will read “Traditional IRA,” “Roth IRA,” or a variation such as “Rollover IRA” (a traditional account holding money moved from a former employer’s plan). Some firms use “Contributory IRA” for a standard traditional IRA funded by your own deposits.
Online, the classification usually appears in the account summary or portfolio overview. If you hold both a traditional and a Roth at the same firm, they show up as separate accounts with different account numbers. Year-end summaries also break contributions down by tax treatment, which is a quick second confirmation.
Look at Form 5498
Form 5498 is the IRS document your financial institution files each year to report IRA contributions, rollovers, and account value. You should receive a copy by May 31 following the tax year. Box 7 contains checkboxes that identify the account type: “IRA” is checked for a traditional IRA, and a separate “Roth IRA” checkbox is used for Roth accounts. Boxes for “SEP” and “SIMPLE” appear when the account falls into those categories.1Internal Revenue Service. Form 5498 IRA Contribution Information
If the form isn’t in your paper files, check your brokerage’s document center or request a copy. Some custodians only make it available digitally.
Read the Distribution Codes on Form 1099-R
If you’ve taken money out of the IRA, your custodian issued a Form 1099-R for that year. Box 7 carries a distribution code that reveals the account type. Code J is an early distribution from a Roth IRA, and code Q is a qualified (tax-free) distribution from a Roth IRA. For traditional IRAs, the codes are numeric: code 1 signals an early distribution, and code 7 indicates a normal distribution taken at age 59½ or older. IRS instructions explicitly state that code 7 should not be used for a Roth IRA, so seeing it is strong confirmation of a traditional account.2Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498
If you’ve never taken a distribution, no 1099-R exists for this account, and you’ll need one of the other methods.
Review Your Tax Return
Schedule 1 Deduction
Your prior-year Form 1040 tells the story from the tax side. If you claimed an IRA deduction on Schedule 1, Line 20, you were contributing to a traditional IRA and reducing your taxable income.3Internal Revenue Service. Schedule 1 (Form 1040) – Additional Income and Adjustments to Income Roth IRA contributions are never deductible, so they won’t show up on that line.4Internal Revenue Service. IRA Deduction Limits
One catch: not everyone with a traditional IRA takes the deduction. If your income is too high or you’re covered by a workplace retirement plan, the traditional deduction phases out. So the absence of a Schedule 1 entry doesn’t automatically mean you have a Roth. You may have a traditional IRA with nondeductible contributions, which is where the next form comes in.
Form 8606 and Nondeductible Contributions
Form 8606 tracks after-tax money inside a traditional IRA. If you contributed to a traditional IRA but didn’t qualify for the deduction, you were supposed to file Form 8606 to report those nondeductible contributions and establish your cost basis.5Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs Finding an 8606 in your prior returns is a clear sign the account is traditional, not Roth, even though the money went in after tax in both cases.
The distinction matters. A traditional IRA with nondeductible contributions still has tax-deferred earnings that are taxed on withdrawal. A Roth delivers completely tax-free qualified withdrawals. If you completed a “backdoor Roth” conversion (contributing to a traditional IRA and then converting to a Roth), you’d see Form 8606 for the conversion year along with a 1099-R, and the resulting account is a Roth IRA going forward.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
Required Minimum Distributions as a Clue
If you’re 73 or older and your custodian is sending mandatory annual withdrawals, you almost certainly have a traditional IRA. Traditional IRA owners must begin taking required minimum distributions by April 1 of the year after they turn 73.7Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Required Minimum Distributions Original Roth IRA owners are never required to take distributions during their lifetime.8Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
Inherited Roth IRAs are a separate case. Beneficiaries of a Roth do face mandatory withdrawals, generally under a 10-year depletion window. But if the account is yours and nobody is forcing you to take money out, that lines up with Roth treatment.
Rollover, SEP, SIMPLE, and Inherited Labels
Some IRA labels obscure the underlying tax classification. Here’s how the common ones translate:
- Rollover IRA: A traditional IRA holding money moved from a former employer’s 401(k) or similar plan. It follows all traditional-IRA rules: deferred taxes, taxable withdrawals, and required minimum distributions at 73.
- SEP IRA: A Simplified Employee Pension IRA funded by an employer, often a small-business owner paying themselves. SEP IRAs have traditionally been treated as traditional IRAs for tax purposes, with pretax contributions and taxable withdrawals.
- SIMPLE IRA: A Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees IRA works like a traditional IRA in most cases. Starting with the 2026 plan year, some SIMPLE plans allow employees to designate their own salary deferrals as Roth contributions, while employer contributions remain pretax. Your statement should specify which treatment applies to your balance.
- Inherited IRA: An IRA received as a beneficiary. It keeps the tax character of the original account: an inherited traditional IRA has taxable withdrawals, and an inherited Roth IRA has tax-free qualified withdrawals. Beneficiaries face their own distribution deadlines that differ from the original owner’s rules.
In every case, the account statement and Form 5498 clarify the underlying tax treatment. If the label alone leaves you uncertain, the tax-form methods above will resolve it.
Call Your Financial Institution
When the paperwork is missing or the picture still isn’t clear, a direct call or secure message to your custodian will settle it. Have your account number and Social Security number ready. Ask the representative to confirm whether the account is registered as a traditional or Roth IRA, and whether it originated from a rollover, a direct contribution, or a conversion. Retirement specialists can pull the original account opening agreement, which specifies the tax classification chosen when the account was established.
Request written confirmation, either a letter or an updated account profile, so you have documentation on file. That’s especially useful if you’re coordinating with a tax preparer or planning a rollover to a different institution.