Updated October 17, 2026. Quick answer: Box 5 is captioned for employee contributions, designated Roth contributions or insurance premiums. The recipient instructions describe it as “the employee’s investment in the contract (after-tax contributions), if any, recovered tax free this year”. The same instructions say “This box doesn’t show any IRA contributions.”
Read box by box from the IRS form text: Form RRB-1099-R boxes 3 and 4.
Form 8606 and Form 8889 for 2025, read line by line: Form 8606 lines 24 and 25a.
What box 5 shows
The box is captioned “Employee contributions/ Designated Roth contributions or insurance premiums” on the 2025 form. The recipient instructions on the back give the fuller description: “Generally, this shows the employee’s investment in the contract (after-tax contributions), if any, recovered tax free this year”. The same sentence lists the other things it can hold: “the portion that’s your basis in a designated Roth account”; “the part of premiums paid on commercial annuities or insurance contracts recovered tax free”; “the nontaxable part of a charitable gift annuity”; and “the investment in a life insurance contract reportable under section 6050Y”.
Box 1 is the gross payout (the box 1 page), and box 2a is the taxable amount (the box 2a page).
What box 5 does not show
The recipient instructions close off one common misunderstanding in a single sentence: “This box doesn’t show any IRA contributions.” Form 8606 is described on the Form 8606 page.
The payer-side instructions are equally firm about what stays out. They say “Do not include any DVECs, any elective deferrals, or any contribution to a retirement plan that was not an after-tax contribution.”
What the payer may include
The payer instructions define the entry. They begin: “Enter the employee’s contributions, designated Roth account contributions, or insurance premiums that the employee may recover tax free this year (even if they exceed the box 1 amount).” Then they list:
(a) “designated Roth account contributions or contributions actually made on behalf of the employee over the years under the plan that were required to be included in the income of the employee when contributed (after-tax contributions)”; (b) “contributions made by the employer but considered to have been contributed by the employee under section 72(f)”; (c) “the accumulated cost of premiums paid for life insurance protection taxable to the employee in previous years and in the current year”, which applies “(only if the life insurance contract itself is distributed)”; and (d) “premiums paid on commercial annuities.”
Recovered tax free during the year
Box 5 is about the current year’s recovery. The instructions say “Generally, for qualified plans, section 403(b) plans, and nonqualified commercial annuities, enter in box 5 the employee contributions or insurance premiums recovered tax free during the year”, and tie it to the way the taxable amount was figured: “based on the method you used to determine the taxable amount to be entered in box 2a.”
Two further sentences. For a total distribution: “If a total distribution is made, the total employee contributions or insurance premiums available to be recovered tax free must be shown only in box 5.” And: “If any previous distributions were made, any amount recovered tax free in prior years must not appear in box 5.” For qualified plans and section 403(b) plans, the recipient instructions add: “If your annuity starting date is after 1997, you must use the simplified method to figure your taxable amount if your payer didn’t show the taxable amount in box 2a.”
Designated Roth accounts and a worked example
Designated Roth account payouts produce box 5 amounts too. The payer is told: “On a separate Form 1099-R, include the portion of the employee’s basis that has been distributed from a designated Roth account.” The instructions then work an example in which “the participant’s account balance was $10,000, consisting of $9,400 of designated Roth contributions and $600 of earnings.” The result: “The taxable amount of the $5,000 distribution is $300 ($600/$10,000 x $5,000). The nontaxable portion of the distribution is $4,700 ($9,400/$10,000 x $5,000).”
The payer entries listed for that payout include “Box 5, $4,700 as the designated Roth contribution basis (nontaxable amount);” and “Box 7, Code B;”. Box 11 is covered on the boxes 10 and 11 page. Code B is described on the code B page. The example for a direct rollover to a Roth IRA lists “Box 7, Code H; and”. See the code H page.
When box 5 is blank, and special cases
The payer instructions say “If you are unable to reasonably obtain the data necessary to compute the taxable amount, leave box 2a blank, leave box 5 blank (except in the case of a payment of reportable death benefits), and check the first box in box 2b.” The recipient instructions say: “It’s your responsibility to determine the taxable amount.” The checkbox is covered on the box 2b page.
For reportable death benefits, the payer is told “For payments of reportable death benefits, enter your estimate of the buyer’s investment in the contract in box 5.”. Code C is described on the code C page. For a charitable gift annuity, the instruction in the box 3 material is “Report in box 5 any nontaxable amount.”, and the annuity itself is explained on the charitable gift annuity page.
The instructions also say: “If periodic payments began before 1993, you are not required, but you are encouraged, to report in box 5.” And for periodic payments from a qualified plan: “If you made periodic payments from a qualified plan and the annuity starting date is after November 18, 1996, you must use the simplified method to figure the tax-free amount each year.”
Where it goes next
The box 1 recipient instructions say where the total distribution is reported: “Report the amount on Form 1040, 1040-SR, or 1040-NR on the line for “IRA distributions” or “Pensions and annuities” (or the line for “Taxable amount”)”. The forms themselves are described on the Form 1040 page and the Form 1040-SR page. Related boxes are the boxes 9a and 9b page, which can show total employee contributions, and the box 6 page. For the other boxes on the form, start from Form 1099-R boxes explained.
Edition and box numbers
This page reads the 2025 edition of Form 1099-R and its recipient instructions, together with the 2025 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 that are written for the payer. That is the edition for tax year 2025. The 2026 edition was the one irs.gov served as current on 2026-10-17, and the two editions were compared. The box 5 number is the same in both editions.
The box 5 caption is shortened on the 2026 form. The 2025 caption was “Employee contributions/ Designated Roth contributions or insurance premiums”, and the 2026 caption is “Employee contrib./ desig. Roth contrib. or insurance premiums”. The recipient paragraph and the payer instructions for box 5 read the same in both editions, apart from a change in how a caution note is labeled.
Check the tax year printed on the form you received. The full box-by-box list is on Form 1099-R boxes explained.
Common mistakes
- Looking in box 5 for IRA contributions. The recipient instructions say “This box doesn’t show any IRA contributions.”.
- Treating box 5 as a lifetime total. The payer is told that “any amount recovered tax free in prior years must not appear in box 5.”
- Assuming a blank box 5 means there is no cost to recover. The payer may “leave box 5 blank” when it lacks data, and the recipient instructions say “It’s your responsibility to determine the taxable amount.”
Related: Form 8606, 1099-R code B, 1099-R code H, charitable gift annuity, and 1099-R box 7 codes.
Sources
- Form 1099-R (2025) with Instructions for Recipient: IRS archived PDF (irs.gov)
- Form 1099-R (2026) with Instructions for Recipient: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1099r.pdf
- 2025 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498: IRS archived PDF (irs.gov)
Read from the IRS documents linked above on October 17, 2026. General information, not tax advice. Your own facts decide the outcome, and a preparer, the account provider or the IRS is the right place to confirm anything consequential.