Spouses and Roth Conversions
The question revolves around a joint tax return . . .where one person wants to opt for declaring all of their Roth conversion money in 2010 . . . while the other person wants to spread their income over the years 2011 and 2012. Is this possible? Or will the two Roth conversions funnel down onto one tax form that will require an “either / or” decision?
We have been systematically converting IRA money to Roth over the past several years. This year is my wife’s turn. However, it occurs to us that in a “double-dip” economic scenario, it may be advantageous for BOTH of us to convert money this year.
Permalink Submitted by Edward Czapor on Thu, 2010-02-11 14:37
Yes it is possible fpr each of you to make a different election, amd these are entirely separate even though you file jointly.
Each of you would file your own Form 8606. Making separate elections could be an advantage since you will get more funds into the Roth earlier. With the deferral option you would convert twice as much as you normally would, so that all three years can take up a conversion. You also will have up to 10/17/11 to change this decision or recharacterize all or part of either conversion.