I asked Retirement why I received a W2 for income I never received and paid withholding on some phantom income. This is the reply i just received. I'm still not sure if I will have to pay taxes if I pull $$$ out of the IRA and start a Roth with that money. Anyone know for sure?
You will not receive a check or a future cash payout. The amount reported on the IRS Form 8935 that you recently received was included in your earnings/compensation and already paid to you in the form of certain lump sum cash payments, stock option exercises, or in the form of restricted stock between the years of 2003-2006. Since you have already received these earnings or stock options, you are eligible to roll the amount on the IRS Form 8935 into a Roth IRA from your current savings or investments. Any personal savings or investments that you have are acceptable funds for this rollover.
Please contact your tax advisor for further inquiries on the tax implications.
You may call any financial institution such as Fidelity, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Wachovia, etc… to open up a Roth IRA first and roll the amount from IRS Form 8935 out of your personal savings or investments and into a Roth IRA once it is established. A representative from one of those institutions will then instruct you on how to get this completed.
Please note that you are not required to roll the amount into a Roth IRA. You are just given the option to do so. So you may do nothing at this time if you so choose.