The basis is the total basis for all traditional IRA accounts combined. Theoretically, your contribution account has a basis of $1,250 and your rollover account has a basis of zero. But basis is not tracked for accounts individually, but for all accounts combined. If you take a distribution from the rollover account, the basis to use is $1,250, not zero. So, if you take a distribution from a traditional IRA, it does not matter which account the distribution comes from, the basis is still the A Roth IRA can be an excellent way to stash away money for your retirement years. Like its traditional IRA cousin, this type of savings account allows your investments to grow tax-free. However For a traditional IRA, though, most accountholders don't have any cost basis as such. That's because nearly all IRA contributions are deductible at the time they're made, and so when the