As you read this and say to yourself that I’m stupid for not dealing with this sooner, let me begin by saying yes, you are right.
In December of 2013, I realized we were going to make too much money to qualify for a Roth IRA, which I had been contributing to all year I contacted the entity that held my Roth, and asked them to recharacterize my 2013 contributions to a traditional IRA so I could do a back door Roth. Instead, they recharacterized THE WHOLE ACCOUNT! I fought with them for a while, and after getting nothing but a runaround (they say they did exactly as I asked, which was not true), I transferred the whole account to Vanguard, essentially locking in my mistake. Neither the IRA rep at Vanguard nor my CPA know what I should do from here. My tIRA, which should be a Roth, continues to grow in value, and with each dollar gained my tax liability is increasing. My understanding under IRS rules is that they were not allowed to recharacterize past years contributions or growth (nor can I fathom why anyone would want to). Is that correct? Where do you suggest I go from here? When I tried again to contact the company that originally held the Roth and recharacterized the whole account, they said the best they could do was send me a letter saying they did exactly as asked, and even then, they failed to follow through and do that.