Dentist Has IRA to Roth Conversion Question

For someone who has maxed out their ability to invest in tax-deductible products (i.e. 401k/profit sharing/SEP), wouldn't it make sense to contribute money that otherwise would be invested in a taxable account to a non-deductible IRA and then immediately convert it to a ROTH? Now that the conversion income limits are gone, I would think this is an easy way to avoid taxes on the earnings going forward. You could invest $5000 for yourself and another $5000 for your spouse each year, unless they change the rules again.

Just make sure that NONE of your IRA accounts have pre-tax contributions or you WILL owe tax on a prorate portion of the $10,000 you want to roll over. People have asked me if they can do this and they've suggested that they'll use a different IRA account for the non-deductible contributions and just roll that over. This CAN'T be done. You MUST consider ALL of your IRA funds when considering a rollover of just ONE account.

If you do have IRA accounts with pre-tax contributions or earnings and your employer plan allows employees to roll their pre-tax IRA monies into the employer plan, you can do that leaving ONLY the after-tax contributions within your IRA and then roll to a ROTH without a tax issue.

Make sure you run this by your CPA!

This first appeared on Dentaltown.

Send your questions to Tim Lott, CPA, CVA at tlott@dentalcpas.com

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