Roth IRAs are a great tax saving vehicle. The reason: Investments held in a Roth IRA are allowed to build up federal-income-tax-free. Later on, you can take federal-income-tax-free withdrawals. Obviously, a zero tax rate is the best rate going.
In addition to being great tax saving tools for retirement, Roth IRAs also provide tremendous estate planning advantages - especially if you can get a large portion of your wealth into an account.
Unfortunately, getting lots of money into a Roth IRA is not so easy. It can take many years of annual contributions. However, there's also one very quick way - by converting an existing traditional IRA or SEP account into a Roth IRA. There are no limitations on the size or number of converted accounts. Naturally, under tax law, there is a price for allowing you to jump start your Roth IRA savings program with a conversion. Even so, it may be worth the price.
Roth Conversion Basics
A Roth conversion is treated as a taxable distribution from your traditional IRA. In other words, you're deemed to receive a taxable cash payout from your traditional IRA with the money going into the new Roth account. So the conversion triggers a current income tax bill. In most cases, however, this negative factor is outweighed by the following positive factors.
* You don't have to pay the 10 percent premature withdrawal penalty tax on the deemed distribution that results from the Roth conversion transaction. This is true even if you're under age 59 1/2 when the conversion takes place.
* Your conversion tax bill is significantly lower, thanks to the individual income tax rate cuts made in the 2003 tax law. Some people believe the tax rates we have today could be the lowest rates we'll see for the rest of our lives. No one knows, of course, but now could be a good time for a Roth conversion.
* The value of the traditional IRA (or IRAs) you want to convert may still be down because of poor investment performance in recent years. However, a lower account balance means a lower conversion tax bill, which is a good thing.
(See below for an important future change regarding an income limit for Roth conversions.)
Under prior law, an individual with modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) above $100,000 could not convert a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. But the income limitation was eliminated beginning in 2010. For Roth conversions that occur in 2010 only, half of the taxable income triggered by the conversion generally can be reported in 2011 and the other half in 2012. For conversions in 2011 and beyond, all the income must be reported in the conversion year -- as under prior law.
There are only two requirements for tax-free withdrawals. You must:
1. Have a Roth account that's been open for more than five years.
2. Be age 59 1/2 or older.
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