TaxConnections Member Barry Fowler

The tax provision that allows taxpayers to convert a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is a great tax-planning tool when used properly, and timing is everything.

To make a conversion, you must pay income taxes on the amount of the traditional IRA converted to a Roth IRA. So why would one want to do that? Well, the answer is that Roth IRAs enjoy tax-free accumulation and distributions, whereas the earnings in and contributions made to a traditional IRA are fully taxable whenever they are withdrawn. (An exception is if the contributions to the traditional IRA were treated as non-deductible. In that case, each distribution is nontaxable or partly nontaxable if only some of the contributions had not been deducted.)

So, you might consider converting during a year in which your income is abnormally low or a year in which your Read More