Tax Savings with IRA-to-Roth Conversions 2012

Both earnings within and distributions from a Roth IRA are tax free therefore providing maximum tax savings. This remains true for your Roth beneficiary although he'll need to make minimum needed distributions. If that beneficiary is very young, the tax free growth provides a substantial benefit of a Roth IRA and massive tax savings of his lifetime. But converting your Individual retirement account to a Roth forces you to pay revenue tax plus a big conversion can increase the tax prices on it. Here's a tax strategy of how to keep that conversion tax low.

Early retirees who're living off taxable accounts and not working produce very little income tax once you consider their exemptions and standard deduction. Making an IRA to Roth transformation in this instance subjects the transformed money to the lower tax brackets. In case you have a very big quantity to transform, split it up and convert all of it over 2 or three years to pay reduced taxes.

The table shows that for 'married filing jointly' (for 2012), the lowest two tax brackets, 10% and 15%, cover the first $70,700 of taxable income and generate $9,735 of tax. So that'll be the least taxation for converting $70,700 from an Individual retirement account to a Roth if all of it was subject to the tax brackets and the taxpayer had no orther taxable income.

Let's take an instance of a couple that converted a portion of their Individual retirement account in 2012. As an example, presume a retired couple's income consists only of $14,500 in taxable interest income in 2012. But they'll incur no taxable income until their AGI exceeds their individual exemptions and standard deduction. For 2012 the regular deduction for a husband and wife filing jointly is $11,900 and their individual exemptions are $3,800 each. So until their gross income exceeds $19,500 (= 11,900+3,800+3,800), they've no 'taxable' income. Then, on tThe couple may absorb an additional $5,000 of income, over and above their interest income of $14,500, and nonetheless pay no tax within their current tax bracket. Now that is significant tax savings!

For our couple above, they currently have $5,000 leftover for tax free income before they are subject to the greater tax brackets and forfeit tax savings from their modest income. If they choose to convert significant amounts to a Roth IRA, they can convert $56,200 of their Individual retirement account to a Roth Individual retirement account at a tax expense of only $9,735. That's a 17% effective tax on their $56,200 conversion.

Over just 3 years they could convert almnost $170,000 of an IRA to a Roth for just over $29,000 in taxes without jumoting into the next tax bracket. Without such planning for wisely using their tax brackets, they would most likely pay much more and lose the available tax savings from pre-planning. You can see that if you can lower your other taxable income, you can make these conversions affordable.

Don't overlook that if you have made non-deductible contributions to a traditional Individual retirement account, then those contributions - not the earnings they created - can be converted to a Roth Individual retirement account without taxation. That's because without the deduction, you already paid tax on those dollars in the year you contributed.

Most of your financial dealings have a tax impact and if you understand those tax effects, or find some good professional guidance, there's likely some tax savings accessible.

Total Tax for Taxable Income (income after deducitons and personal expemptions) Over the 10% and 15% Tax Rates for Married Filing Jointly (MFJ) Filing Status (2012)
Tax rate MFJ	Bracket Range	Range Income	Tax on Range income
10%	$0 to $17,400	$17,400	$1,740
15%	$17,400 to $70,700	$53,300	$7,995
Total 10% and 15% taxable income and tax:		$70,700	$9,735