Right after the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed, I wrote about how Roth IRAs are looking better than ever thanks to lower tax rates. One downside, however, is that Roth IRAs have income limits: The amount you can contribute begins to phase out if your modified adjusted gross income is $120,000 in 2018, and you’re completely ineligible at $135,000 (for single tax filers). All in all, that’s not a bad problem to have—and as with most tax rules, there’s still a way for high income earners to contribute to a Roth.
You can do so by what’s known as a Backdoor Roth, where money is converted from a traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. There are no income limits on conversion. It can happen one of a few ways: You can make nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA (in other words, you already paid taxes on the contributions), and then convert that account into a Roth, or you can pay taxes on the money when you convert.
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There’s no limit on how much money you can convert, either. So if you’ve contributed the max to your IRA (currently, $5,500 per year for those under 50, and $6,500 for those 50 and older) for several years, you can roll it over all at once. You’ll want to be careful, though: The money you convert will be counted as income, which means you could risk elevating yourself to a higher tax bracket the year you convert. (As Kiplinger notes, “the additional income could also affect the taxes on your Social Security and what you pay for Medicare” if you’re already in retirement.) In that case, you may consider spacing out the amount you rollover over multiple years to keep your tax bill manageable.
What’s the benefit? Your money and any gains then grow tax-free. So when you reach retirement age, you can take out funds without worrying about a major tax headache. (Remember that you’ll need to leave the converted money in the Roth for at least five years, however, or you’ll owe taxes on the gains.) Roths also don’t have required minimum distributions like traditional IRAs, making them convenient vehicles for passing on wealth to your heirs, assuming you don’t need the distributions to live (traditional IRAs, on the other hand, have RMDs beginning at age 70½).
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Typically, rolling the money over won’t be a problem if you open your Roth with the same financial institution as your traditional IRA. However, if you choose a 60-day rollover, you’ll have just that much time to convert the money, or you’ll face a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty if you’re younger than 59½.
One more thing to note: As I wrote before, the tax bill got rid of your “recharacterization” option, meaning once you convert the money, you can’t convert it back. So that makes timing the conversion even more crucial—you don’t want to do it when it’ll bump you into a higher tax bracket.
Whether this is right for you varies, of course—there are a lot of tax considerations to take into account, and if you’re thinking about doing it you should ask a tax professional for individualized guidance.
from Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com
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