Following up on my first question - if short term gains count towards

[John G]

Rules? You expect Congress to write rules that make sense? You must be young!

First, make sure you have the right income threshold for your circumstances. The threshold changes for conversions vs contributory Roths and for married/single. Why? Beats me. I am not sure why there should be any income limit since these restrictions probably only impact about 2% of the population. Gee, are they afraid Bill Gates will open a Roth?

Second, if you still don't qualify for a contributory Roth IRA this year you may qualify for a regular IRA. If so, you can reclassify the 1999 Roth to regular, then if your income is under 100K next year, convert it back to a Roth. Lots of paperwork to get you from point A to .... point A again.

Maybe you should email your Congressman and Senators and tell them you prefer simple rules with fewer restrictions. You get the biggest laughs from a CPA when you talk about tax simplification.

[Guest andrewg]

Thanks for prior answers, but I am a bit surprised that essentially my Roth account is invalid due to large short term gains. It is unlikely that my wife and I will exceed that threshold in 2000 - so do bascially have to go through the pains of flip flopping my Roth this year and then going back to a Roth account next year? This ruling doesn't make a lot of sense to me. Thanks again for any replies