Not if he wants to retain the full conversion. However, there is still time to do a full or partial recharacterization of the conversion. The amount recharacterized would reduce his tax bill starting with the highest bracket first. A full recharacterization will wipe out the conversion bill entirely. If he has a loss on this conversion, it may be a good idea to recharacterize even without the tax bill.

If he had a Roth balance before this conversion, then he can take distributions of his full amount of regular contributions tax and penalty free. All regular contributions come out prior to conversion contributions. Only when he reaches the conversion contributions does the 5 year holding period to avoid the penalty come into play. And that period stops in November for him anyway. If this does not work, perhaps he can get a short term loan to get him to November, when he could take Roth distributions tax and penalty free to pay off the loan.

In most cases, there should be enough in non retirement assets to pay the conversion taxes, or the conversion should not be done, and this penalty is a prime reason for that.

Technically, he could set up a 72t plan on either the Roth or TIRA if he has one, but that would be an extreme solution that should only be considered in extreme circumstances. He would have to take the exact amount of distributions for 5 years under a 72t plan. However, if the plan is busted he would only actually owe the penalty on the amounts he took out prior to 59.5.

It is difficult to select the best option without considering dollar amounts involved.

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