Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA
I’m at the point of taking RMDs from my traditional IRAs. Can I take my yearly RMD, pay the taxes owed, and then make a custodian to custodian transfer of the balance, or a portion thereof, to my Roth IRA, thereby avoiding future taxes on any future gain from the principal? I’m retired so I don’t have any “work related” income. It seems to me that this would be tantamount to converting a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, only in increments.
Permalink Submitted by tomd37 on Tue, 2014-10-21 12:29
After taking your annual RMD, you can transfer the balance to another custodian. However, the remaining balance goes to the new custodian as a traditional IRA. Once there, it can be converted to a Roth IRA but that is considered as a distribution from the traditional IRA and you must pay tax on the distributed/converted amount. Unless you have a particular reason for leaving your current custodian you could just as well leave the traditional IRA at your current custodian and do a taxable conversion in increments that would best suit your particular situation. The regular RMD and any converted amounts might increase the taxability of any social security benefits in a given year. In summary there is no real benefit in transferring your traditional IRA to a new custodian unless you just want to get away from your old custodian for some reason. Tom D.