how do you recharacterize an individual retirement account ira contribution 
to recharacterize an individual retirement account ira contribution you ll need to use an existing ira or open a new one to accept the withdrawn funds next notify your financial institution s that you want to recharacterize a contribution if the same ira provider maintains both iras you can just notify that one institution otherwise inform the custodian holding the ira contribution in question and the institution that will accept the recharacterized contribution you can generally do the recharacterization online or with your ira custodian s standard form you must report the recharacterization on your tax return for the year when you made the original contribution using internal revenue service irs form 8606 3