To complete a Roth IRA conversion, you fill out your custodian’s internal conversion or distribution form, choose a transfer method and a withholding percentage, and then report the converted amount on IRS Form 8606 with your tax return. There is no single government-issued Roth conversion form. The paperwork lives with the brokerage or bank holding your Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA, and the IRS side of the transaction happens at filing time.1Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs Anyone can convert regardless of income, but the amount you move counts as taxable income for the year the transfer settles.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 309, Roth IRA Contributions
Check These Rules Before You Submit Anything
A conversion completed in 2018 or later cannot be reversed. The old recharacterization option is gone, so a few pre-flight checks matter more than they used to.
The deadline is December 31, not April 15. Unlike a regular IRA contribution, a conversion has to settle inside the calendar year to count for that year’s taxes. If your custodian processes the transfer on January 2, the taxable event lands in the following year.
SIMPLE IRAs have a two-year lockout. If the source account is a SIMPLE IRA and you have participated in the plan for less than two years, converting it is not treated as a rollover at all. The IRS calls it a taxable distribution, and the early-withdrawal penalty rises from 10 percent to 25 percent.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding SIMPLE IRA Plans Wait for the two-year anniversary.
Take your RMD first. If you have reached the age at which required minimum distributions apply (73 for those born between 1951 and 1959, 75 for those born after 1959), pull the full RMD before converting anything else. The IRS treats the first dollars out of the account as the RMD, and an RMD cannot be rolled into a Roth. Converting without taking it first creates an excess contribution subject to a 6 percent excise tax each year the excess remains.4Internal Revenue Service. Roth Conversions/Retirement Planning for Life Events
Income is not a barrier. There is no adjusted-gross-income limit on conversions, so high earners who cannot contribute to a Roth directly can still convert existing IRA balances.
Direct Transfer or Indirect Rollover
The form will ask how you want the money to move. A direct trustee-to-trustee transfer sends the funds straight from the Traditional IRA custodian to the Roth IRA custodian, or into a Roth account at the same firm. You never handle the money. This is the cleanest route.
An indirect rollover means the custodian sends you a check or deposit, and you have 60 days to get the full amount into a Roth IRA. Miss the window and the entire distribution becomes taxable, plus a possible 10 percent penalty if you are under 59½. Roth conversions are exempt from the one-rollover-per-year rule that applies to other IRA rollovers, so you can do more than one in a year without a problem.5Internal Revenue Service. Rollovers of Retirement Plan and IRA Distributions
Filling Out the Custodian’s Conversion Form
Every brokerage uses its own version, often labeled “IRA Distribution Request” or “Roth Conversion Election.” You can usually download it from the firm’s online portal or request it by phone. If you do not already have a Roth IRA at the receiving institution, the custodian will bundle a new-account application with the conversion paperwork.
Identifying Information
The form asks for your full legal name, Social Security number, date of birth, and current address. You also need the account number of the source IRA and the account number of the destination Roth. A single transposed digit stalls the transfer, so verify both.
Amount to Convert
You can convert the whole balance or specify a dollar amount or number of shares. A partial conversion spreads the tax hit over multiple years instead of forcing it into one return. If you hold both deductible and nondeductible balances across your IRAs, factor in the pro-rata rule discussed below before picking a number. You cannot cherry-pick only the after-tax dollars.
Cash or In-Kind
Most forms let you choose between liquidating the holdings and transferring cash, or moving specific securities in kind so the stocks, bonds, or fund shares transfer without being sold. An in-kind transfer keeps your market position and avoids transaction costs.
The Withholding Election
This is where people lose money. The form asks whether you want federal (and sometimes state) tax withheld from the conversion. If you make no election, the default federal withholding is 10 percent.6Internal Revenue Service. Pensions and Annuity Withholding You can pick any whole percentage from 0 to 100.
The trap: anything withheld does not go into the Roth. Convert $50,000 with 10 percent withholding, and only $45,000 arrives at the Roth account. The $5,000 sent to the IRS counts as a distribution, and if you are under 59½ it may also carry the 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty. The usual approach is to elect zero withholding on the form and pay the tax separately through estimated payments or with your return.
Signature and Submission
Your signature must match the one on file, and the date field is not optional. Missing either often triggers immediate rejection. Many custodians accept electronic signatures through their portals or DocuSign. For paper submissions, certified mail gives you a delivery record. High-value transfers may require a Medallion Signature Guarantee, with thresholds that vary by institution and commonly start around $100,000.
Processing runs from a few business days to a couple of weeks. You will get a confirmation showing the amount transferred and the recorded date.
The Pro-Rata Rule Affects How Much Is Taxable
If every dollar in your Traditional IRA came from deductible contributions, the whole conversion is taxable. If you have ever made nondeductible contributions, only part is taxable, and you cannot isolate the after-tax dollars by moving them from a specific account.
The IRS treats all your Traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRA balances as one pool. The taxable share of a conversion equals the total value of those accounts as of December 31 of the conversion year, minus your after-tax basis, divided by the total value, times the conversion amount. Employer plans like 401(k)s and inherited IRAs sit outside this calculation.7Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B, Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements
If your combined IRA balances total $100,000 and $20,000 came from nondeductible contributions, 20 percent of any conversion is tax-free and 80 percent is taxable, no matter which physical account the money leaves from. Part I of Form 8606 walks through this calculation.
Reporting the Conversion on Form 8606
Form 8606, “Nondeductible IRAs,” is what you file with your tax return to report the conversion and calculate the taxable amount. The custodian does not file it for you.8Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs
Part II handles Roth conversions.9Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
- Line 16 is the total you converted from Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs during the year.
- Line 17 is the portion allocable to your basis (the tax-free piece).
- Line 18 subtracts line 17 from line 16. The result is the taxable amount that flows to your Form 1040.
If you have never made nondeductible contributions, line 17 is zero and the full line 16 amount is taxable. If you do have basis, complete Part I first to determine the nontaxable share under the pro-rata method. Keep every Form 8606 permanently. It is the only running record of your after-tax basis, and losing it can mean paying tax twice on the same dollars.
Forms Your Custodian Sends You
Two information returns arrive after a conversion. You do not fill them out, but you need the numbers from them.
Form 1099-R comes from the custodian of the original IRA and reports the distribution. Box 7 carries a distribution code: code 2 if you are under 59½, code 7 if you are 59½ or older.10Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 Box 2a shows the taxable amount. You should receive the 1099-R by January 31 of the year after the conversion.11Internal Revenue Service. General Instructions for Certain Information Returns
Form 5498 comes from the Roth IRA custodian and reports the incoming conversion as a rollover contribution, along with the year-end value of the Roth account. It is due to you by May 31 because it also has to capture contributions made up to the April filing deadline.12Internal Revenue Service. Form 5498 – IRA Contribution Information You do not attach 5498 to your return. Keep it as proof the funds arrived.
The IRS cross-references the two forms. If the amounts differ because of withholding, that is expected and gets sorted out on Form 8606.
One More Boundary: The Five-Year Clock
Moving money into a Roth does not make it immediately accessible without penalty. Each conversion carries its own five-year period starting on January 1 of the conversion year. If you withdraw the converted amount before that period ends and you are under 59½, the taxable portion of the conversion is subject to the 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty. Once you reach 59½, the clock on converted principal no longer matters for penalty purposes. Earnings need both the five-year period and age 59½ (or another qualifying exception) to come out fully tax- and penalty-free.7Internal Revenue Service. Publication 590-B, Distributions From Individual Retirement Arrangements