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Benefits of an IRA Rollover to Roth IRA

By: Audry Peterson

The benefits of an IRA rollover to Roth IRA are what attract many investors to open a Roth IRA in the first place. An IRA rollover to Roth IRA has surpassed a rollover to Traditional IRA because more people are realizing the tax benefits that accompany a Roth IRA.

A Roth IRA is a type of individual retirement account that investors can open in the same way as the traditional IRA. However, while an investor can qualify for a traditional IRA with just earned income, the amount of earned income matters when opening a Roth IRA. Some investors do not qualify to make an IRA rollover into Roth IRA and have to just open traditional IRAs.

The major benefit of making an IRA rollover to Roth IRA is the fact that with a Roth IRA contributions and earnings are tax free when withdrawn according to Roth IRA rules. Withdrawal amounts from a Roth IRA after 5 year at retirement are tax free. In contrast, withdrawals from a traditional IRA are taxed as ordinary income. This makes investors who care about paying taxes in the future prefer opening Roth IRA.

Roth IRA contributions, unlike other types of IRA contributions, are made with after tax money. That means you pay taxes on the money you contribute to the Roth IRA. If your 401k has both after tax money and pertax money, when you make an IRA rollover into Roth IRA, you will have to pay tax on the income rollovered that has not been taxed. This can be a headache when rolling over into Roth IRA.

In the same way as a Traditional IRA, the contribution to a Roth IRA is restricted by the Internal Revenue Code such as $5,000 in 2008. If an investor has more than one IRA, then the total amount of contribution to all IRA including Roth IRA cannot exceed the Internal Revenue Code's limit.

While there are many benefits of making an IRA rollover into Roth IRA, some investors prefer to pay taxes later than now. With a traditional IRA, contributions are tax free whereas with a Roth IRA contributions are taxed like other income. Paying taxes later is usually a great incentive for investors. However, investors who think that the will be in higher tax bracket later on prefer to pay taxes on contributions to the Roth IRA now instead of later when they would have to pay at a higher rate.

Article Source: http://www.avidarticles.com

Managing IRAs is not an easy job, but you do have plenty of help. For free information on how to do an IRA Rollover to a Roth IRA, visit us at the free information site, Rollover IRA today.

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