Roth Conversion Tax Strategies
- When you convert a traditional IRA to a Roth, you will have to pay taxes on the amount of money in the traditional IRA. This can push you into a higher tax bracket; thus, not only will you owe taxes on your IRA conversion, but you will owe more on your regular income. Consider spreading out how much you roll over into a Roth IRA over a few years instead of doing it all at once. This will reduce your taxes, and you can control whether or not you move into a higher tax bracket.
- Don't use money from your traditional IRA to pay the taxes you owe on the conversion. This would be considered an early withdrawal from your IRA, and you would have to pay a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty on top of the taxes.
- Qualified distributions from a Roth IRA are tax free, but if you will be in a lower tax bracket once you retire, it might be better not to convert to a Roth IRA. You would have to pay taxes on the converted amount at your current higher tax rate. Let the money grow tax-deferred in your traditional IRA and pay the taxes when you make withdrawals after retirement. Then the money will be taxed at a lower rate.
- When you make taxable rather than tax-deductible contributions to an IRA, your reportable income becomes higher. You need to consider whether having a greater taxable income will make you ineligible or reduce the amount of deductions you can take. For instance, to take the medical expenses deduction, you can deduct anything over 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. If your $5,000 IRA deduction is no longer deductible, then that means you will be able to deduct $375 less in medical expenses ($5,000 x 0.075).
- The simplest way to convert your traditional IRA into a Roth IRA is to do a direct rollover. You fill out the forms with your new Roth IRA administrator and the company will handle the conversion of your account. You won't have to take possession of a check and worry about depositing it in your new account. The conversion process will become relatively seamless.