conversion to roth ira now for 2001

[Guest ellen20]

I hope somebody will help me

I read publ. 590 but could not find definite answer. I have traditional IRA in stoks and its value is way down. The income for the 2001 is also down so i get all paid taxes back. I thoght its a good time to convert my IRA into ROTH IRA and avoid paying a lot of taxes. Can i do it before April 15, 2002? Do i treat it as rollover

Thanks

[John G]

Making a conversion during a period of low income helps you two ways: meeting income qualifications and potentially keeping your tax rate low. It is not a "rollover" but a Roth conversion... although the transaction is similiar to a rollover in that you move all the assets from the existing IRA to a Roth account (new or existing).

However, you must convert during a calender year for the year in which you qualify. You want to do this before the last 2-3 weeks in December to make sure it happens.

You missed 2001, maybe the math will work for you this year.