Business Solo 401k contributions vs. day-time job 401k contributions

QUESTION: I realized that I made Roth contribution to my previous 401K plan from
my employment in 2012. Does this mean that my limit to contribute to
Roth Solo 401K is $17000 minus other contribution? Or my personal
contribution and my business Solo 401K contribution are separate?

I already made $17000 transferred to Roth retirement account. I might
have to take that exceeded amount back to my personal account
($4325.50)

Thanks, Dana AZ

ANSWER: The 401k employee contribution rules call for aggregation to all 401k plans. Therefore, because only employee (salary deferral) contributions may be applied to the Roth portion of the 401k, if you contributed above the 2012 employee contribution limit of $17,000 to all 401k plans combined you will need to remove the excess amount.

The other type of 401k contribution is referred to as profit sharing or employer and cannot be deposited as a Roth contribution but instead a pretax contribution. When added up together, the profit sharing and the employee contributions cannot exceed $50,000 for tax year 2012. Not that the annual contribution limits usually change each year (referred to as COLA).