Thanks for your reply. This is interesting to know. You do not sound like a hypocrite, but I would like to inquire further. You say that you don't like Roths because the high income taxpayers give up a current year tax break. However, I don't know which tax break you are talking about. I maximize my 401k/403b, but that's it right? Technically, beyond that tax break, these high income earners aren't qualified for ROTH contributions anyways. So there really was never an option to contribute to a ROTH because they wouldn't qualify. So high income earners don't even need to think about ROTHS. Unless, of course, you are referring to the option of a ROTH 403b which some institutions are now offering. Does what I say make sense? Any thoughts?

Thanks!

Rick

Hi,

Here are some of the articles I've written over the past 3 years about how high-income taxpayers can finally get some money into a Roth IRA without giving up too much of a tax break, or paying too much in taxes:

Memo on Roth Conversions - http://www.mdtaxes.com/news0110.html#1

Minimize Taxes On 2010 Roth Conversion With IRA Roll Out - http://www.mdtaxes.com/news1209.html#1

The Re-emergence of Non-deductible IRAs - http://www.mdtaxes.com/news0307.html#1


I hope these three article help explain this unique opportunity available to high-income taxpayers in 2010.

Zip Code: 01801

Andrew,

Interesting point. If my traditional IRA is worth 150000, and I have been contributing for sometime, with a nondeductible basis of 30000, can I not just designate 30000 to converto to ROTH this year? Is it not that simple? then i would avoid paying taxes because i have already done so?

Zip Code: 10020

Unfortunately, the Roth conversion rules do not work like that. The value of your post-tax IRA contributions needs to be allocated evenly over all of your IRA money. So with $30k of basis and $150k of IRA value, you'll shield 20 percent of each dollar converted from taxes, and pay taxes on 80 percent of the converted amount.

Check out the Form 8606 to see what I'm talking about:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8606.pdf

Zip Code: 01801

And please call me Andrew.

Zip Code: 01801