I have a new client that is self-employed (1099 Income) and does not have a business retirement plan (no 401k, SEP, etc…) and his spouse does not have an employer retirement plan. The client made max 2019 Roth Contributions in mid-2019 for both he and his wife and now has been told by his CPA that their MAGI is too high to make a direct Roth contribution for 2019. The CPA instructed him to re-characterize the contribution and move the money back to an IRA before they file his 2019 return and that they would treat it as a “deductible” IRA contribution on his 2019 return. The client ask the CPA if the re-characterization of the contribution could be treated as a “non-deductible” IRA contribution and his CPA told him “no it could not”. The CPA stated that since he nor his wife have access to a employer based retirement plan that their only option was conducting a “deductible” IRA contribution — they could not make a “non-deductible” IRA contribution. Is this correct? (Note: their 2019 contributions were invested in individual equities.)