What Is Form 5498? IRA Reporting, Filers, and Form 1096

There is no IRS Form 5496. If you were sent looking for it, the form you actually want is almost certainly Form 5498, “IRA Contribution Information,” which your IRA custodian files with the IRS to report the money moving in and out of your account. The number 1096 also gets confused with 5496; that one is the paper cover sheet institutions use when transmitting Forms 5498 and other information returns to the IRS.¹ Neither form is something you file yourself as an individual IRA owner.

What Form 5498 Actually Reports

Form 5498 is the annual snapshot of your IRA that your custodian sends both to the IRS and to you. It covers traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs, and deemed IRAs inside employer plans.² The boxes that matter most on your copy:

Box 1 shows traditional IRA contributions for the tax year, including anything you contributed up through the April filing deadline. It does not label contributions as deductible or nondeductible; that determination happens on your own return. SEP contributions go in Box 8, SIMPLE contributions in Box 9, and Roth contributions in Box 10.²
Box 2 reports any rollover into the IRA during the year, whether from another IRA or from a qualified employer plan.²
Box 3 shows amounts converted from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, which are generally taxable in the year of the conversion.²
Box 5 is the account’s fair market value as of December 31. The IRS uses this to check compliance with required minimum distribution rules.
Box 11 is checked if you owe a required minimum distribution for the following year. The custodian starts checking it the year you turn 73, even though your first RMD can be delayed until April 1 of the year after that.²

If your IRA holds assets without a readily available market price, the custodian also completes Boxes 15a and 15b with codes for the asset type. Those categories include stock in privately held corporations, real estate, partnership or LLC interests, non-publicly-traded debt obligations, and options not listed on an exchange. When more than two of these asset types are held, the custodian uses code “H” instead of listing each one.³

Who Files It, and When You Get Your Copy

The filing obligation sits with the financial institution named as your IRA’s trustee, custodian, or issuer. You don’t file it. Your employer doesn’t file it. A beneficiary doesn’t file it. The institution files one Form 5498 for each person whose IRA it maintained during the year, and that responsibility stays with the named custodian even if record-keeping is outsourced to a third-party administrator.²

The return is due to the IRS by May 31, later than most information returns. That later deadline exists because you can make prior-year IRA contributions all the way through the April filing deadline, and the custodian needs time to catch those last-minute deposits. When May 31 falls on a weekend or holiday, the date rolls to the next business day. For tax year 2025 filings, the deadline is June 1, 2026.² Your copy typically arrives by the end of May or early June.

What to Check on Your Copy

Even though you never file this form, the numbers on it flow into your tax return. If your custodian reports a contribution figure that doesn’t match what you actually deposited, or codes a rollover as a regular contribution, the IRS may question a deduction or flag an excess contribution on your return.

When Form 5498 arrives, compare it to your own records. Look at the contribution total in Box 1 (or Box 10 for Roth), confirm that any 60-day or trustee-to-trustee rollover shows up in Box 2 rather than Box 1, and check that the fair market value in Box 5 matches your December 31 statement. If the RMD indicator in Box 11 is checked, that is your reminder to plan the distribution for the coming year. Anything that looks wrong is worth a call to the custodian and a request for a corrected form before it becomes an IRS notice.

Where Form 1096 Fits In

Form 1096 is the paper transmittal cover sheet an institution uses when it mails Forms 5498 (and other information returns such as the 1099 series, 1098, 3921, 3922, and W-2G) to the IRS.¹ A single Form 1096 summarizes the batch of underlying returns. Only institutions filing fewer than 10 total information returns in a calendar year can still use paper; everyone else files electronically.⁴ As an IRA owner, Form 1096 will never touch your return; you will not see it, sign it, or receive a copy.

How the Numbers on 5498 Line Up With 2026 Limits

Because Form 5498 reports what went into your IRA, it also serves as a check against the annual contribution limits. For 2026, the standard IRA contribution limit is $7,500. If you are 50 or older, you can add a catch-up contribution of $1,100, for a total of $8,600.⁵ Those limits apply across all your traditional and Roth IRAs combined. SEP and SIMPLE employer contributions have their own, higher limits. If the total reported across your Forms 5498 exceeds what you’re allowed for the year, that is an excess contribution problem to fix before the IRS sends a letter.

1
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1096, Annual Summary and Transmittal of U.S. Information Returns
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498
3
Internal Revenue Service. Form 5498 – Asset Information Reporting Codes and Common Errors
4
Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 801 Who Must File Information Returns Electronically
5
Internal Revenue Service. 401(k) Limit Increases to $24,500 for 2026, IRA Limit Increases to $7,500