How much can you convert to Roth this year?
Posted on March 27, 2026
It’s a good time to consider converting Traditional to Roth. The market is down. Each dollar amount you convert buys a few more shares – a greater percentage of your Traditional IRA. You are getting a bigger bang for your buck.
This is a slam dunk: You should ALWAYS convert to Roth if you can do so in the 22% marginal tax bracket. You CANNOT LOSE when you do this: we retirees with relatively large Traditional IRAs, never pay less than 22% marginal tax on ordinary income when retired, and we’re pushed to pay more as our RMDs increase over time. We never lose after-tax dollars to spend when we convert at 22%, and we can win more by avoiding higher taxes: primarily the 24% tax bracket and IRMAA.
I enclose a sheet you can use to see how much you can convert at the 22% marginal tax bracket in 2026. The tax bill late in 2025 put a new wrinkle in the ceiling for the 22% tax bracket for folks over age 65.
• If you are under age 65, you’ll stay under the top of the 22% bracket for ordinary income.
• If you’re over age 65, you’ll stay in the 22% tax bracket until you hit the start of the senior bonus standard deduction. This is the new constraint from the recent change in tax structure. You pay more than 22% when you start to lose bonus standard deduction.
(I have some friends will have very large Traditional IRAs who should convert to Roth to the top of the 24% tax bracket; that’s really up there.)
Details: Why convert to Roth?
== More Roth is happier ==
When you are retired, you have less anguish about paying taxes on distributions from your Traditional IRA. You have less RMD and far less worry about running into IRMAA, as an example.
I’ve converted about 10% of our Traditional to Roth since the marginal tax rates dropped in 2018, I’m happier that RMD is 90% of what it would be: I’m less unhappy when I file our taxes. Patti and I both take RMD (At our ages it’s about five percent of our total Traditional.) and now lose senior bonus standard deduction and pay more than 22% if we convert. I won’t convert more now. I’d be happier if I had converted more, but I can’t get happier.
== You pay less tax ==
1. You avoid the 24% marginal tax bracket. The most obvious case is for married, joint filers now in the 22% tax bracket. That’s Patti and me. The survivor of us will be in the 24% marginal tax bracket: 24% for single filer starts at about the same point as the 22% for married, joint filers.
2. You avoid IRMAA. The first tripwire for IRMAA is a bit more than the start of the 22% tax bracket. About 10% of retirees have income that cross an IRMAA tripwire; the number paying IMRAA is estimate to increase by 70% in the next ten years. The first tripwire costs about $1,300 per year; this cost tends to increase faster than inflation.
When retired, your income is pushed toward a tripwire. Your initial RMD will roughly double in real terms in 10 to 12 years: that’s the effect of portfolio growth at expected returns for stocks and bonds and increasing RMD percentage. Ours more than doubled in ten.
Again, the chance that a survivor of married, joint filers crosses an IRMAA tripwire is greater: tripwires are half as far away for a single filer. If you’re worried about tripwire #1 as married, joint filers, the survivor will likely cross two tripwires. Two tripwires cost ~$3,200.
3. Heirs get more after taxes from Roth. Heirs can hang on to Roth IRAs longer and keep the benefit tax-free growth longer. They’ll have to distribute fairly large chunks of Traditional each year or run the risk of paying far greater tax rate in the future.
== Steps to convert are straightforward ==
The conversion steps are straightforward for those over age 59½. I’ve described this in a previous post. Convert, say, $10,000 to Roth from Traditional. Distribute $2,200 from Roth and withhold it all for taxes; report that distribution correctly on your tax return if you don’t have “five-year old” Roth. (If you are over age 59½, you could convert $7,800 to Roth and distribute and withhold another $2,200 from Traditional. You can’t do that without penalty if you are younger than 59½.)
You correctly have moved the same after-tax value of $10,000 in Traditional to $7,800 in Roth assuming 22% tax rate in the future; you’ve made money if you assume you avoid a greater tax rate in the future.
(If you already take RMD, the rule is than you can only convert your Traditional after you’ve taken your RMD for the year; that applies to both Patti and me.)
Conclusion: It’s a slam dunk: you should ALWAYS convert to Roth if you stay within the 22% marginal tax bracket. You will be happier with less RMD. You never lose financially and most likely win: perhaps $1,000s per year: you avoid the 24% tax bracket in the future; you avoid crossing an IRMAA tripwire; your heirs keep more after tax since they hold on longer to your Roth and its tax-free growth.