Can I immediately withdraw conversion funds from a Roth to pay taxes?

[Guest rkal66]

Background: I'm over age 59.5, my AGI is less than 100K, married filing jointly.

I want to roll over a portion of my regular IRA to a Roth IRA. I need to pay taxes from funds in the IRA. If I withdraw funds from the regular IRA to pay the taxes (or have taxes withheld from the conversion) I will exceed the AGI limit and will not be eligible to convert to a Roth.

My solution is to withdraw the funds to pay taxes from the Roth right after the conversion. Since I am over 59.5, there should be no penalty on withdrawing. Does anyone see any problem with this strategy? It somehow seems too simple.

Dick

[BPickerCPA]

If you convert in '03, the taxes aren't due until '04. At that point you can take the money from the original IRA, or the Roth. Just don't withhold the taxes.

[Guest rkal66]

Thanks for your reply. In general, if I might do more conversions in 04 or later years, am I not better off always converting to a Roth, and then withdrawing the tax money from the Roth. This will keep me out of a situation where I could exceed the $100K AGI limit for conversions.