Effective January 1, 2010, the income limitation preventing people from converting their IRAs and other qualified retirement accounts to a Roth IRA disappears.

Is this a wise financial move to make?

Are you thinking about taking advantage of this tax planning opportunity?

Zip Code: 01801

I am completing training this year and starting as an attending. I have been maxing out a Roth for the past 4 yrs of residency but haven't opened one for this year.

My plan was to just max out my 403b through my employer once i get that attending salary since I would be over the limit for Roth contributions this year.

So, you are saying I could open a regular IRA before the end of 2009 (I don't already have one), put in $5000 for this year and then next year convert it into a Roth?

I'm liking the idea of that. Is there a downside to that?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. It's a great opportunity for people whose income is too high to allow them to contribute to a Roth IRA.

I wrote about this opportunity last month in an article called: Should You Convert to a Roth in 2010? available at www.mdtaxes.com/news0509.html.

I'm also not a huge fan of people in the higher tax brackets going with the Roth 403b. I wrote about that topic last April in an article called A Rant About Roths available at www.mdtaxes.com/news0408.html.

I was reading the paper today, and an article stated that the President should explore implementing a Value Added Tax (VAT) like they have in Europe, and then reducing the current income tax rates. If that happened, that would cause the Roth strategy to completely backfire.

Zip Code: 01801