A Roth IRA conversion form is the paperwork your brokerage or custodian uses to move money from a traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRA into a Roth IRA. There is no single IRS version. Fidelity, Schwab, Vanguard, and every other custodian each publish their own, and most now handle the whole thing as an online workflow inside your account. What they ask for is largely the same, and the decisions you make on the form determine how much tax you owe and whether the money lands cleanly in the Roth.1Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs
Where the Form Comes From
The IRS does not issue a conversion request form. Your custodian moves the money using its own paperwork, and you separately file IRS Form 8606 with your tax return to report what happened.2Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8606, Nondeductible IRAs Two documents, two purposes.
Most major brokerages host the form inside the online account portal, usually under a “transfers” or “retirement” menu. If you can’t find it, the retirement desk at the firm will email it, mail it, or walk you through it on the phone. Some custodians skip the standalone form entirely and use a guided online workflow with digital signature. The information you provide is the same either way.
What the Form Asks For
Have your most recent account statements open before you start. The form needs specific numbers, and guessing slows things down.
Account Details
You’ll enter the account number of the source IRA (traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE) and the account number of the destination Roth IRA. If you don’t already have a Roth at that custodian, most firms let you open one as part of the same paperwork. The form will ask whether you want a full conversion of the entire balance or a partial conversion of a specific dollar amount.
Tax Withholding Election
This is the section people rush through and regret. The form asks how much federal (and sometimes state) income tax to withhold from the conversion. The default federal rate on IRA distributions is 10%, but you can elect a different percentage or opt out.
Many tax professionals suggest electing zero withholding on a direct conversion so the full balance actually reaches the Roth. Anything the custodian withholds is money that doesn’t get converted, and if you’re under 59½, that withheld amount can be treated as an early distribution subject to a 10% additional tax.3Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions Plan to pay the conversion tax from outside funds, not from the IRA itself.
Your Social Security number and mailing address round out the personal information. The custodian needs those to issue a Form 1099-R reporting the conversion at year’s end.
Check These Before You Sign
There is no income limit on Roth conversions. Even if you earn too much to contribute directly to a Roth, you can convert any amount from a traditional IRA. A few other rules do apply, and three of them cause most of the mistakes.
The SIMPLE IRA Two-Year Rule
If you’re converting from a SIMPLE IRA, you cannot convert those funds until at least two years after your first contribution to the plan. Converting inside that window triggers a 25% penalty rather than the usual 10%.4Internal Revenue Service. SIMPLE IRA Withdrawal and Transfer Rules
Required Minimum Distributions Come First
If you’re at RMD age, take that year’s RMD out of the traditional IRA before converting anything. RMD amounts are not eligible for conversion.
The Pro-Rata Rule
If you have any pre-tax money in traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs, the IRS won’t let you convert just the after-tax portion and leave the pre-tax dollars behind. The taxable share is calculated proportionally across all your non-Roth IRA balances combined.5Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8606
Suppose you have $95,000 in pre-tax traditional IRA money and you make a $5,000 nondeductible contribution, giving you $100,000 total. You might think you can convert the $5,000 after-tax piece tax-free. You can’t. The IRS treats 95% of any conversion as pre-tax and only 5% as after-tax. On a $5,000 conversion, $4,750 is taxable income. The aggregate is measured as of December 31 of the conversion year, so rolling pre-tax IRA balances into an employer 401(k) before year-end is one common workaround.
Direct Transfer or 60-Day Rollover
The form usually offers two methods for moving the money. The distinction matters more than it looks.
Direct Trustee-to-Trustee Transfer
The safer path. The custodian moves the funds directly from the traditional IRA to the Roth IRA, often inside the same institution, sometimes between two firms. You never touch the money. No withholding is mandatory. There’s no deadline pressure. If both accounts are at the same brokerage, the transfer often settles in one to three business days.
Indirect Rollover
The custodian sends you a check or deposits the distribution into a non-retirement account, and you have exactly 60 days from receipt to deposit the funds into a Roth IRA.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 408 – Individual Retirement Accounts Miss the window and the entire amount becomes a taxable distribution. If you’re under 59½, the 10% early withdrawal penalty applies on top of the income tax.7Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 557, Additional Tax on Early Distributions From Traditional and Roth IRAs The custodian will also withhold 10% for federal taxes by default on the distribution, so you’d have to come up with that amount from other funds to roll over the full balance. A direct transfer avoids all of this.
Submitting the Form
Most brokerages handle conversions entirely online. Log in, open the conversion workflow, confirm the details, sign digitally. The platform typically uses multi-factor authentication before processing. Some institutions still require a paper form, uploaded through a secure message portal or mailed to a designated retirement-transactions address. If you mail it, verify the correct department address; sending it to a general intake center adds processing time.
Processing windows vary. Online submissions at large brokerages often complete in one to three business days. Paper submissions or conversions between two different institutions take longer. Save the confirmation the custodian issues once the funds settle in the Roth.
Year-End Deadlines
A Roth conversion counts for the tax year in which it is processed, not the year you file your return. To have the conversion hit your 2026 taxes, the transaction must be completed by December 31, 2026. Unlike IRA contributions, which can be made up to the April tax-filing deadline, conversions have no grace period past year-end.
Plan ahead if you’re converting in late December. Brokerages impose their own internal cutoffs. Some require submission by 4 p.m. Eastern on December 31, and if that date falls on a weekend the deadline shifts to the last business day of the year. Submitting a conversion form on December 30 and assuming same-day processing is a gamble during high-volume periods.
What You File at Tax Time
Two documents track the conversion.
Your custodian will send Form 1099-R in January or February following the conversion year. It reports the distribution from the traditional IRA, shows the taxable amount, and carries a distribution code indicating whether you were under or over 59½.8Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 You don’t file it yourself, but you need it to complete your return.
You do file Form 8606 with your federal tax return to calculate how much of the conversion is taxable. Part II is the conversion section. Line 16 is the net amount converted, Line 17 is your basis from nondeductible contributions already taxed, and Line 18 is the taxable difference that flows to your Form 1040 as ordinary income.9Internal Revenue Service. Form 8606 – Nondeductible IRAs
If you’ve ever made nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA, accurate basis tracking on Form 8606 is critical. Failing to file it, or filing with the wrong basis, can leave you paying tax twice on the same dollars. Keep every year’s Form 8606 for as long as you hold the Roth account.
What the Form Locks In
Two consequences begin the moment the custodian processes the conversion.
First, each conversion starts its own five-year clock. Withdraw the converted amount within five tax years while you’re under 59½, and the 10% early withdrawal penalty applies to the portion that was originally taxable.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 U.S. Code 408A – Roth IRAs Once you turn 59½, the penalty disappears regardless of when the conversion happened. The clock starts on January 1 of the conversion year, so a conversion done any time in 2026 opens its window on January 1, 2026, and closes on January 1, 2031. Each conversion has its own separate window. Roth conversion ladders in early retirement live and die by this rule.
Second, the conversion cannot be undone. Recharacterization was eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and any conversion completed on or after January 1, 2018, is irrevocable.1Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Plans FAQs Regarding IRAs Convert only what you can afford to pay tax on this year. If the balance is large, spreading conversions across multiple tax years can keep a single one from pushing you into a much higher bracket. Once the custodian processes the form, the tax bill is locked in.