Roth IRA Calculator: Contributions and Conversions

Yes, at any age, provided you or your spouse have earned income at least equal to the contribution. There is no age limit on Roth IRA contributions (IRS). The limit for 2026 is $7,500, or $8,600 once you are 50, and direct contributions phase out between $242,000 and $252,000 of modified AGI for married couples filing jointly, and between $153,000 and $168,000 for single filers.

The requirement that trips up retirees is earned income. A contribution needs taxable compensation: wages, salary, or net self-employment income. Pension payments, Social Security, annuity income, interest, dividends and capital gains do not count (IRS Publication 590-A). If one spouse still works, or consults, a married couple filing jointly can fund an IRA for each spouse from that one income. Once both of you have stopped working entirely, new contributions end, and conversions become the only way to add money to a Roth.

For readers in their late fifties who are still earning, a direct Roth contribution is usually worth making if your income allows it. The amount is small next to a seven-figure portfolio, but it adds tax-free growth with no required distributions, and it starts the five-year clock that governs tax-free withdrawals of earnings if you have never had a Roth before.

A conversion makes sense when the tax rate you pay on it now is lower than the rate the same dollars would face later, as RMDs or in your heirs' hands. For most retirees with large pre-tax balances, the lowest-rate years are the ones between the last paycheck and the start of RMDs, especially before Social Security begins.

RMDs start at 73, or 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. Each year's RMD is the prior year-end balance divided by a factor from the IRS Uniform Lifetime Table, 26.5 at 73 and 24.6 at 75, falling each year after (IRS Publication 590-B). In the example on the conversion tab, a $1,500,000 IRA left alone to 75 produces a first RMD of about $98,000, arriving on top of Social Security and a pension. That income cannot be deferred, and the RMD itself cannot be converted (IRS).

The usual approach is to fill a bracket. In 2026, a married couple under 65 with no other deductions stays in the 22% bracket up to about $243,600 of gross income, and in the 24% bracket up to about $435,750. Subtract your pension, interest and the taxable part of Social Security, and what is left is room to convert at that rate. The conversion tab calculates this room for you, including the extra standard deduction at 65 and the senior deduction that runs through 2028.

To plan conversions year by year, with bracket and IRMAA strategies, the widow's penalty and your heirs' tax rate, use the Roth conversion calculator. For a fuller treatment, including how to sequence conversions with Social Security claiming and withdrawals, read our guide to Roth conversions before RMDs.

It runs your plan twice, once with conversions and once without, and compares what you would have after tax at the end. In both paths the traditional IRA grows at the same return. In the conversion path, a fixed amount moves to the Roth each year until the age you choose, and the tax on it is the change in your whole federal return at 2026 rates: your other income, the extra Social Security the conversion makes taxable, and any Medicare IRMAA surcharge it triggers. From your RMD age on, both paths take RMDs from whatever remains, first, and those are taxed the same way.

To compare fairly, the model keeps track of the money used to pay the conversion tax. It comes out of a taxable account that, in the no-conversion path, would have stayed invested. After-tax RMDs flow into the same account in both paths, and its growth is taxed each year (the model assumes 15% of the return is lost to tax), while money in the IRA and the Roth grows untaxed. At the end, the model adds up the Roth, the taxable account, and the traditional IRA after the tax rate you choose for it. That last input matters: if your children will inherit the IRA during their peak earning years, their rate may be higher than yours; if a charity will, the rate is zero.

The tab uses the same model as our Roth conversion calculator, so the two pages agree, but it asks for less. It treats a married couple as the same age, both living to the plan age, with one combined Social Security figure, and it converts a fixed amount. It does not model state tax or the net investment income tax, and it assumes today's tax law continues. Use it to see the direction and rough size of the trade; the full calculator adds bracket and IRMAA strategies, a spouse's death and a sensitivity check, and your tax software or preparer should confirm the specific years before you convert.

A conversion goes wrong when the tax is paid at a higher rate than the money would face later, or when the extra income triggers costs the bracket arithmetic misses. The common cases:

• Paying the tax from the IRA. Withholding the tax from the conversion shrinks the amount that reaches the Roth, and before 59½ the withheld part is also subject to the 10% additional tax. Paying from a taxable account is what makes conversions efficient.
• Medicare surcharges. Premiums for Parts B and D rise with income through IRMAA, set from your return two years earlier. For 2026 the first tier starts above $109,000 for single filers and $218,000 for joint filers (CMS, 2026). Our Medicare and IRMAA guide lists every tier.
• Marketplace health cover before 65. Premium tax credits depend on household income, and a conversion counts (HealthCare.gov). The saving on future tax can be smaller than the subsidy you give up.
• Charitable intentions. From 70½, qualified charitable distributions of up to $111,000 a year can go from a traditional IRA straight to charity, count toward your RMD, and never appear in income. If you plan to give on that scale, or to leave the IRA to charity, there is less reason to pay tax on it now. See qualified charitable distributions.
• A move to a lower-tax state. Converting in a high-tax state the year before you move to one without an income tax pays state tax you could have avoided.
• Converting after-tax money alongside a large rollover IRA. The pro-rata rule makes each conversion a blend of all your IRA balances.

After 59½, only one: earnings come out tax-free once five tax years have passed since your first contribution or conversion to any Roth IRA. That is the definition of a qualified distribution (IRS Publication 590-B). If you opened your first Roth years ago, even with a small contribution, the clock has already run.

The second rule, a separate five-year period for each conversion, only matters before 59½. It imposes the 10% additional tax on converted amounts withdrawn within five years. For someone converting at 62 or 68, it does not apply. Your own contributions, as distinct from earnings, can be withdrawn at any time without tax.

A Roth IRA has no required distributions during your lifetime, and your heirs inherit it free of income tax, though most must still empty it within ten years. The IRS confirms that Roth IRA owners are not required to take withdrawals while alive, while RMD rules do apply to beneficiaries (IRS).

That makes a conversion partly a gift: you pay the tax at your rate so your children do not pay it at theirs. For heirs in their peak earning years, forced to take an inherited traditional IRA out over ten years on top of their salaries, the difference can be substantial. Our guide to the inherited IRA 10-year rule explains who must follow it and who is exempt. If gifting during your lifetime is also part of the plan, see gifting to children and grandchildren.