Final question on Roth rollover

[Guest Taj]

I understand that that to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth your income must be under $100,000. Is this correct? If it is true. How is your income determined? Is the rollover itself considered part of your income? As an example, if I have a $60,000 taxable income and wish to rollover another $60,000 my taxable income for that year would be $120,000. Hence, I would be inelgible. Is the rollover itself excluded in determing elgibility?

[Michael Devault]

One of the conditions that must be met to convert an IRA to a Roth IRA is that you modified adjusted gross (AGI) income must not exceed $100,000. Modified AGI does NOT include the income created by the conversion. Therefore, in your example, your income for determining eligibility would be $60,000.

You might be interested in reviewing IRS Pub 590, which discusses IRAs, including Roth IRAs. It can be downloaded in PDF format from the IRS' website. It's loaded with information that you might find useful.

Best of luck to you!