Partial Roth Conversions and 5-year Rule – conflicting answers from custodians
Michael is 55, and wants to move around $1M+ from traditional to Roth IRA over the next 5 years. He will pay the taxes from another bucket. He has $700K in a current Roth IRA.
Do each years’ conversions have a 5 year hold or can he start withdrawal at 60 and be 100% tax free?
I’m getting conflicting answers on this from Fidelity who says each conversion year and new IRA starts a new 5 year clock even after 59.5. Charles Schwab says it’s a qualified distribution if he’s 59.5 yrs old and it occurs at least 5 years after the Roth IRA owner established and funded their first Roth IRA; not each subsequent one. His first Roth was established in 1998.
I trust we can clarify this.
TIA
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Tue, 2024-04-09 23:16
His Roth will be qualified on the day he reaches 59.5, after which all clocks can be disregarded.
Until then each taxable conversion must be held 5 years to avoid a 10% recapture tax (penalty) if that particular conversion is withdrawn. Until 59.5 all distributions follow the Roth IRA ordering rules, regular contributions out first, then conversions starting with the oldest first. Earnings come out last and would be taxable and subject to penalty. All this bookeeping and reporting can be avoided if no distributions are taken until 59.5, at which time Form 8606 will no longer be needed to report distributions.
If a conversion is done at 55.5 that conversion effectively has a 4 year holding period since all the open holding periods are erased at 59.5.
Both custodians are correct but Fidelity is mainly addressing the conversion holding penalty and Schwab is addressing the ordinary income taxes, two separate issues.
Permalink Submitted by Jeff Woodard on Sat, 2024-04-13 20:33
Thank you for your reply.
So to be clear:
Michael is 55, and wants to move around $1M+ from traditional to Roth IRA over the next 5 years.
He will move about $200K annually until age 60.
He will pay the taxes from another bucket. He has $700K in a current Roth IRA, established in 1998.
Do each years’ conversions have a 5 year hold or can he start withdrawal at 60 and be 100% tax free?