Tax Forms for Retirement Accounts: 1099-R, 5498, 8606, and 5329

The tax forms for retirement accounts fall into a small set, and which ones show up in your mailbox depends on what happened in the account last year. Money leaving an account generates a 1099-R. IRA contributions and year-end values are reported on Form 5498. Workplace plan deferrals appear in Box 12 of your W-2. Nondeductible traditional IRA contributions and the basis they create are tracked on Form 8606. And Form 5329 handles the situations nobody wants: early withdrawals, excess contributions, and missed required distributions.

Form 1099-R: Money Leaving an Account

Any distribution from a traditional or Roth IRA, 401(k), 403(b), pension, annuity, or profit-sharing plan gets reported on Form 1099-R. Your custodian sends it by January 31 of the year after the distribution.¹

Box 1 is the gross distribution. Box 2a is the taxable portion. If Box 2a says “Taxable amount not determined,” you calculate that number yourself, usually with Form 8606. Box 4 shows federal tax already withheld, which you carry to the payments section of Form 1040.

What Box 7 Tells You

The distribution code in Box 7 is the most important entry on the form. It tells the IRS why the money came out, which determines whether tax, penalty, both, or neither applies.

Code 1: early distribution before age 59½ with no known exception, flagging the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
Code 2: early distribution with an exception the custodian is aware of, no penalty. This code also covers Roth conversions when the account holder is under 59½.²
Code 4: distribution paid to a beneficiary after death. No 10% penalty regardless of the beneficiary’s age.²
Code 7: normal distribution at or after 59½. Fully taxable for traditional accounts, but no penalty.
Code G: direct rollover between qualified plans, such as a 401(k) to an IRA. Not taxable, not penalized.
Code J: early distribution from a Roth IRA with no known exception. The earnings portion may still be taxable and hit with the 10% penalty if the five-year holding period isn’t met.²

Where It Goes on the Return

IRA distributions land on Lines 4a and 4b of Form 1040. Pension and annuity distributions use Lines 5a and 5b.³ For a rollover, put the gross distribution on Line 4a, zero on Line 4b, and write “Rollover” next to the line.

Roth conversions also come through on a 1099-R, with Code 2 or Code 7 depending on your age. The converted amount is generally fully taxable as ordinary income in the year of the conversion. If you have nondeductible contributions in any traditional IRA, part of the conversion is tax-free, and Form 8606 does that math.

Form 5498: What Went In

Form 5498 reports every IRA contribution, rollover, and the year-end account value. Because you can contribute for the prior tax year up to the April filing deadline, custodians have until May 31 to send it. You don’t use Form 5498 to fill out your return, but it confirms your contributions to the IRS.⁴

For 2026, the IRA contribution limit is $7,500, with a $1,100 catch-up for those 50 and older, for a $8,600 total.⁵

The boxes you’ll actually look at:

Box 1: traditional IRA contributions for the tax year. If deductible, you claim the deduction on Schedule 1. The deduction may be phased out based on income if you or your spouse is an active participant in an employer plan.
Box 3: amounts converted from a traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA to a Roth.⁴
Box 4: recharacterized amounts, where a contribution was moved between IRA types.⁴
Box 5: fair market value on December 31. Once you hit RMD age, this figure sets next year’s required distribution.
Boxes 8 and 9: employer contributions to SEP and SIMPLE IRAs.⁴
Box 10: Roth IRA contributions. Not deductible, but tracked to enforce the annual limit.⁴

W-2 Box 12: Workplace Plan Deferrals

Contributions to a 401(k), 403(b), or governmental 457(b) don’t get their own form. They appear in Box 12 of the W-2 your employer already sends in January, marked with a letter code.⁶

For 2026, the elective deferral limit is $24,500. The regular catch-up for age 50 and up is $8,000, and a higher $11,250 catch-up applies for ages 60 through 63.⁵

The codes to know:

Code D: elective deferrals to a 401(k), including SIMPLE 401(k)s.⁶
Code E: elective deferrals to a 403(b) salary reduction agreement.⁶
Code AA: designated Roth contributions to a 401(k).⁶

Pre-tax deferrals (D and E) are already subtracted from Box 1 wages, so you don’t claim a separate deduction on the 1040. The break is baked in. Those same deferrals still appear in Box 3 (Social Security wages) and Box 5 (Medicare wages) because payroll taxes apply to the full amount.⁷ Roth contributions under Code AA stay in Box 1 because you’re contributing after-tax dollars. The trade-off is tax-free qualified withdrawals later.

A defaulted 401(k) loan is not a W-2 event. The unpaid balance becomes a deemed distribution reported on Form 1099-R, taxable as income and, if you’re under 59½, subject to the 10% penalty.

Form 8606: Nondeductible IRA Basis

Form 8606 is the one people forget, and forgetting it can cost real money. If you make nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA, this form is how the IRS knows you already paid tax on those dollars. Skip it, and you can end up taxed twice: once going in, again coming out.⁸

You file Form 8606 in any year you make a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution, take a traditional IRA distribution while you have basis on record, convert traditional funds to a Roth, or take a Roth IRA distribution. Missing it carries a $50 penalty per occurrence, and you lose the paper trail proving your basis.⁹

Form 8606 is where the pro-rata rule gets applied to backdoor Roth conversions. The IRS treats all your traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA balances as one pool when calculating what portion of a conversion is taxable. You cannot isolate the nondeductible piece and convert only that. The form walks the calculation line by line, and the taxable result flows to Form 1040.

Form 5329: When Something Went Wrong

Form 5329 calculates the additional tax on early withdrawals, excess contributions, and missed required distributions, then sends the result to Schedule 2 of Form 1040.¹⁰

Early Withdrawals

Distributions before age 59½ generally face a 10% additional tax. If your 1099-R shows Code 1, the IRS expects you to either pay it or claim an exception. On Form 5329, you report the distribution, subtract any portion that qualifies for an exception, and apply the 10% to what’s left.¹¹ Common exceptions include unreimbursed medical expenses above a threshold, a first-time home purchase (up to $10,000 lifetime from an IRA), and qualified higher education costs. SECURE 2.0 added exceptions for domestic abuse victims, emergency personal expenses, terminal illness, and pension-linked emergency savings accounts.¹²

Excess Contributions

Contribute more than the annual IRA limit and a 6% excise tax hits the excess for every year it remains in the account.¹³ The penalty compounds annually until you withdraw the excess or absorb it into a future year’s contribution limit. Report it on Form 5329.

Missed RMDs

Once you reach 73, you must take annual required minimum distributions from traditional IRAs and most employer plans.¹⁴ Miss one and the penalty is 25% of the shortfall. Correct the shortfall within the correction window, which generally runs through the end of the second tax year after the missed RMD, and the penalty drops to 10%.¹¹ You can also request a full waiver by writing “RC” next to the penalty line on Form 5329 and attaching a letter explaining reasonable cause. Medical emergencies and custodian errors are the kinds of explanations the IRS tends to accept.

Qualified Charitable Distributions

If you’re 70½ or older, you can send up to $111,000 in 2026 straight from your traditional IRA to a qualifying charity. QCDs count toward your RMD but stay out of taxable income.¹⁵

The reporting is where people slip. Your custodian issues an ordinary 1099-R with the full distribution in Box 1 and no special code identifying it as a QCD. You handle the tax treatment on the return itself: put the full distribution on Line 4a of Form 1040, put only the taxable portion (which may be zero) on Line 4b, and write “QCD” next to the line.¹⁶ Without the notation, the IRS may treat the whole distribution as taxable.

Inherited Accounts

Distributions from an inherited IRA or employer plan come through on Form 1099-R with Code 4 in Box 7, signaling a death distribution. Code 4 exempts the distribution from the 10% early withdrawal penalty at any age, though a traditional inherited account is still taxable as ordinary income.²

For most non-spouse beneficiaries of someone who died after 2019, the SECURE Act requires the account to be emptied within 10 years. If the original owner had already reached RMD age (currently 73), annual minimum distributions during the 10-year window may also be required, using IRS life expectancy tables.¹⁴ Surviving spouses, minor children, disabled or chronically ill beneficiaries, and beneficiaries no more than 10 years younger than the deceased have different rules and longer distribution periods.

Fixing a Wrong or Missing Form

If a 1099-R shows the wrong distribution code or dollar amount, contact the custodian and request a corrected form. If nothing has arrived by the end of February, call the IRS at 800-829-1040. The IRS will contact the custodian and send you Form 4852, a substitute for a missing or incorrect 1099-R.¹⁷

If the filing deadline is upon you and the correction still hasn’t come, file with Form 4852 using your best estimate. If the eventual corrected 1099-R shows different numbers, file Form 1040-X to amend. Calling the custodian in January instead of April is usually the difference between a small fix and a real one.

1
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-R
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498
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Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 5498 – IRA Contribution Information
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Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500
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Internal Revenue Service. Common Errors on Form W-2 Codes for Retirement Plans
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Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan FAQs Regarding Contributions
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 5329, Additional Taxes on Qualified Plans and Other Tax-Favored Accounts
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 5329
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Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 4973 – Tax on Excess Contributions to Certain Tax-Favored Accounts
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Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plan and IRA Required Minimum Distributions FAQs
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Internal Revenue Service. 2026 Amounts Relating to Retirement Plans and IRAs
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Internal Revenue Service. Seniors Can Reduce Their Tax Burden by Donating to Charity Through Their IRA
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Internal Revenue Service. Form W-2 and Form 1099-R (What to Do if Incorrect or Not Received)