ira rollover to roth

[Guest nab420]

I am retired and would like to rollover some of my ira into roths. Can I do so without regard to income?

I have very little income, so would this be a limiting factor.

[Appleby]

Yes. You can convert your traditional IRA assets to a Roth IRA, as long as your tax filing status is not married-filing separately.

The other requirement is that your MAGI does not exceed $100,000. But it appears this is not an issue for you at this time

[GMK]

Although it may not be relevant to nab420 ...

Is it not true that you can use married filing separately status if you lived apart from your spouse for the entire year?

[Appleby]

Generally, you can use single or ‘head of household’, whichever applies, if you did not live with your spouse for the entire year

[John G]

Let me add three things:

<> You can do partial conversions each year to keep from having bracket creep, as long as you meet the general requirements in each year for a conversion.

<> Roths do not have mandatory distribution schedules - which may be one of the reasons you are considering a conversion. But, depending upon your age, you may have a distribution that needs to be satisfied before you can roll over all/part of the IRA. (I'm not accountant, but I remember this issue came up previously.)

<> Do check your benefitiary designations and if you do a conversion, make sure that your benefitiaries are correct in the new account!