What are ramifications of immediately rolling an IRA into a Roth IRA?
I did an online exchange in my mutual fund portfolio and made a mistake. I moved $6000 from my non-retirement fund into my traditional IRA, but I meant to move it into my Roth IRA. The exchange is pending because Wall Street is closed, but I apparently can't cancel the transaction.
If I just go online again tomorrow and exchange the $6000 from my traditional IRA to my Roth, is there any penalty or anything I have to worry about? Should I wait for 3 months instead? Or should I indefinitely leave it where it is?
Elaine M2021-01-28T15:25:59Z
I would wait until it completely rolls into the IRA first and lands there. Then shift it to the Roth after a week.
Call the bank in the morning and ask them to cancel the transaction for you.
If you do move the money twice, you'll have to report it on your taxes that way: as a tax-deductable contribution plus a taxed rollover. If the contribution was for tax year 2020 but the conversion is in 2021, they won't cancel each other out.
The only other consequence I can think of is that you wouldn't be able to withdraw the converted amount for 5 years. Whereas you can withdraw a Roth contribution 5 years after the account first opened.
Moving money from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA is called a "conversion". It is allowed. You have to pay tax on the money (although this is probably offset by the deduction you get for having contributed to the traditional IRA, so your tax for the year will be about the same as if you had done what you meant to do).
Moving money out of a traditional IRA into a Roth is called "Roth conversion" and it's a taxable event. You're going to owe income tax on the $6k you withdrew from the pre-tax IRA.
BUT....you're also going to get a $6k tax deduction for the pre-tax IRA contribution (unless you make too much money), so unless I'm missing something, it's a wash tax-wise. Converting a pre-tax IRA to Roth requires you to file a form 8606 with your tax return.
The mutual fund company may be able to correct this if you call them - the benefit being that you won't have to bother with the form 8606.