what is the deadline to set up a new roth ira account for the 2000 tax year? My husband has been told that it must have been set up by December 31, 2000, in order to be counted in the 2000 tax year. I recently read an article that stated it must be set up by the taxpayer's normal tax filing deadline (minus extensions), or April 15,2001.

Actually, you have until April 16 to set up a Roth.

It depends.
if you want to make a Participant contribution for year 2000, then it must be done by April 16 ,2001 ( usually April 15 but this date falls on a weekend this year)

Roth conversions , however, for year 2000 should have been completed by December 31,2000.

For individuals who took a distrbution from a traditional IRA and rolled to a Roth IRA as a conversion ( the rollover can be done within 60-days after the distribution), for the conversion to be applied to year 2000, the asses must have been distributed from the traditional IRA ( this inludes SEP and SIMPLE IRAs) by December 31, 2000