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Educational planning tool — not personalized financial, tax, or investment advice. Consult a licensed professional.
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Your Profile & Marital Status
Tell us a bit about yourself so we can personalize your strategy.
Marital Status & State
Marital Status
State Residence
State income tax rate?Your state income tax rate applied to Adjusted Gross Income. Select a state to auto-fill, or enter a custom rate. Some states partially or fully exempt SS or retirement income.
0%15%
Local (city / county) income tax?A few places charge their own income tax on top of the state, and it applies to a Roth conversion too. It's common in Maryland (every county), New York City / Yonkers, and Indiana (every county) — roughly 1%–4%, which can add hundreds to a couple thousand dollars on a large conversion. Most people leave this at 0%. Note: many city "wage taxes" (e.g. in Ohio and Pennsylvania) only tax paychecks, not IRA or retirement income — so leave this at 0% if that's your only local tax.
Most people: 0%. If your city or county has an income tax (mainly Maryland, New York City, and Indiana), enter that rate — the easiest place to find it is last year's state tax return, or see this list of local income taxes ↗. Not sure? Leave it at 0% and check with a tax pro.
Profile Details
Your date of birth?We use your birth date to work out your current age, your Social Security Full Retirement Age, and the age your Required Minimum Distributions begin. Both the FRA and RMD rules are set by the year you were born, and the cutoffs fall on exact year boundaries — so entering the real date keeps you on the right side of them.
Filing status details?Your filing status is based on your marital status as of December 31 of the tax year. If married, you can typically choose "Married filing jointly" or "Married filing separately" — jointly is almost always better unless there's a specific reason (like separating liability) to file separately.
Spouse
Spouse date of birth?Your spouse's Full Retirement Age and RMD start age are set by their own birth year, independently of yours — so the two of you may hit these milestones in different years.
Enter Income Sources
Provide details about your income sources to build an accurate retirement plan.
W-2 Income & Retirement
You
Spouse
Pension Income
You
Spouse
Social Security
You
Eligible for SS? ?Not everyone qualifies for Social Security.

You may not be eligible if:
• You worked for a federal, state, or local government covered by a pension instead of SS (e.g. some teachers, police, firefighters)
• You worked for the railroad (covered by Railroad Retirement instead)
• You are a non-citizen who hasn't met work requirements
• You haven't accumulated 40 work credits (roughly 10 years of SS-covered employment)
• You worked only in jobs exempt from SS withholding

If unsure, check your Social Security statement at ssa.gov.
yr (62–70)
Your SS benefit (at claimed age)
$
I know my current amount instead
Annual gross SS used in calculation: $38,004
Spouse
Eligible for SS? ?Not everyone qualifies for Social Security.

You may not be eligible if:
• You worked for a federal, state, or local government covered by a pension instead of SS (e.g. some teachers, police, firefighters)
• You worked for the railroad (covered by Railroad Retirement instead)
• You are a non-citizen who hasn't met work requirements
• You haven't accumulated 40 work credits (roughly 10 years of SS-covered employment)
• You worked only in jobs exempt from SS withholding

If unsure, check your Social Security statement at ssa.gov.
yr (62–70)
Spouse SS benefit (at claimed age)
$
I know my current amount instead
Annual gross SS used in calculation: $18,000
Other Income Sources
You
Spouse
Expected windfall / inheritance
Do you expect to receive an inheritance or other windfall in the next 20 years? ?Includes: inheritance from a parent, a home sale, a business exit, a legal settlement, life insurance payout, or any other one-time cash event that isn't ongoing income. Skip if you don't expect one — most people can leave this off.
Enter Account Balances
Tell us what you have saved and where it sits, so we can model conversions accurately.
Traditional IRA / 401(k)
You
Non-deductible IRA basis? ? Do you have non-deductible IRA contributions?

You have non-deductible basis if you made IRA contributions and did NOT receive a tax deduction for them — typically because your income was too high or you were covered by a workplace plan. These contributions are tracked on IRS Form 8606.

Most people with a rollover IRA from a 401(k) have zero basis — those contributions were pre-tax. Only after-tax IRA contributions (not Roth) create basis.
RMD age ?What is an RMD?

Starting at a certain age, the IRS requires you to withdraw a minimum amount from your traditional IRA / 401(k) every year — whether you need the money or not. It's called a Required Minimum Distribution.

Every dollar you take out is taxed as ordinary income. Because the required amount is based on your account balance, a large IRA can force out big withdrawals late in life, pushing you into a higher bracket and raising Medicare premiums.

Roth accounts have no RMDs. Roth IRA dollars are never forced out during your lifetime and come out tax-free — which is a large part of why converting before RMDs begin can pay off.

When RMDs start:
• Born before 1951 → age 70½
• Born 1951–1959 → age 73
• Born 1960 or later → age 75

We work this out from the birth date you entered on the Profile tab. The override is rarely needed.
Override
Spouse
Non-deductible IRA basis? ? Does your spouse have non-deductible IRA contributions?

Non-deductible basis exists if your spouse contributed to a traditional IRA without receiving a tax deduction. This is tracked on IRS Form 8606 filed under your spouse's Social Security number. The pro-rata rule applies independently to each spouse's own IRA.
RMD age ?What is an RMD?

Starting at a certain age, the IRS requires your spouse to withdraw a minimum amount from their traditional IRA / 401(k) each year — whether the money is needed or not. Every dollar withdrawn is taxed as ordinary income.

Roth accounts have no RMDs during the owner's lifetime, and withdrawals are tax-free.

Each spouse's RMD is figured separately, on their own accounts and their own birth year — so the two of you may start in different years.

When RMDs start:
• Born before 1951 → age 70½
• Born 1951–1959 → age 73
• Born 1960 or later → age 75
Override
Expected annual return & fee
Roth IRA
You
Spouse
Expected annual return & fee
ⓘ Roth growth is never taxed and has no RMDs — so many investors hold their Roth most aggressively (a higher return here).
Savings / money market
Brokerage / investment account
ⓘ Cost basis is what you originally paid for the investments (before growth). When the tool sells from this account, only the gain above your basis is taxed, at long-term capital-gains rates. Leave it at $0 to assume the whole balance is gains — the most conservative (highest-tax) assumption.
Reinvested RMD account
ⓘ RMDs not needed for expenses are reinvested here and earn this rate. Gains are taxed as ordinary income each year (like CD interest).
Enter Your Expenses
What you spend drives how much you need to withdraw — and that shapes how much room is left for conversions.
General Inflation
Time-limited expenses
These start and stop at specific times.
🏠 Mortgage ?Enter your current monthly mortgage payment (principal + interest). The projection will include this expense until the payoff age, then drop it automatically — often a significant spending reduction in retirement.
Health care & Medicare
Coverage between now and Medicare
How will you be covered in the years before Medicare Part B starts? This only affects future years — past coverage doesn't matter here.
Medicare
Usually 65 — later only if delaying Part B under an employer plan
Household Expenses
Enter ongoing baseline living expenses — not including mortgage or other time-limited payments below.
Tax Assumptions
How brackets, future rates, and your heirs' tax situation are modeled — these drive whether converting now beats paying later.
Future tax rate assumption

Choose how future tax rates are modeled in every strategy calculation. This lets you stress-test whether converting now beats waiting if rates change down the road. iWhen a non-default scenario is selected, federal tax brackets are scaled by the chosen multiplier starting at the selected year and held there for the rest of the projection. This lets you stress-test whether converting now (at today's locked-in rates) beats waiting and risking higher future rates.

Rate increase
takes effect in year
Calendar year
2031
We are near 100-year-low tax rates — and they're now locked in
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 lowered brackets across the board. For years, these cuts were widely expected to expire after 2025, reverting to higher pre-2018 rates (the top bracket would have jumped from 37% to 39.6%, and the 12/22/24% brackets would have reverted to 15/25/28%). That sunset did not happen. On July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) made the TCJA's 7-bracket structure — 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, 37% — permanent.

That's genuinely good news for current taxpayers — but it doesn't mean rates are guaranteed to stay this low forever. Top marginal rates have been far higher across U.S. history: 94% in 1944, 70%+ through the 1970s, and 50% as recently as 1986. Federal deficits, entitlement funding pressure, and future legislative changes mean brackets could still rise again at any point — they're just no longer scheduled to by current law. The case for Roth conversions isn't "rates are about to expire" anymore — it's "rates are historically inexpensive right now, and converting locks in today's known cost instead of gambling on a future unknown."
Annual bracket adjustment
Heir assumptions
These fields determine how the heir legacy metric is calculated — how much your heirs ultimately receive after taxes and additional growth.
2026 Federal Income Tax Brackets
Current law — OBBBA, permanent.
Single filers
RateIncome range
Married filing jointly
RateIncome range
Historical perspective: top marginal federal rate
Top marginal federal income tax rate by era. Today's 37% top rate is among the lowest in the past 110 years of U.S. tax history — comparable only to the brief window of 1925–1931 and 1988–1992.
Choose Your Strategy
Set how conversion taxes get paid, add any charitable giving, and optionally define your own strategies to compare.
Want to customize a strategy?

Define up to two custom strategies below — they'll be included in the results alongside all the automatically generated ones so you can see exactly how they compare.

Custom Strategy A Bracket gross-up, then switch ?Custom Strategy A lets you gross-up to a specific tax bracket for a set number of years, then automatically switch to a different approach. For example: fill the 22% bracket for 5 years while still working, then stop converting at retirement. Great if you have a known income change on the horizon.
Fill a tax bracket ceiling each year for N years, then switch.
Custom Strategy B Fixed amount, then switch ?Custom Strategy B converts a fixed dollar amount each year for a set number of years, then switches to another approach. Useful if you want predictable annual tax bills — for example, convert exactly $50,000/yr for 10 years to keep taxes in a known range, then stop.
Convert a fixed dollar amount each year for N years, then switch.
How will conversion taxes be paid? ?Example: $200k conversion at 22% = $44k in taxes.

Pay from savings: Full $200k enters Roth. Savings drops by $44k. More long-term Roth growth.

Withhold from conversion: Only $156k enters Roth. No savings impact. Simpler but leaves $44k less compounding tax-free.

Split with reserve: Savings pays taxes down to your reserve floor. If taxes exceed available funds above the floor, the remainder is withheld from the conversion.
Paying taxes from outside the IRA keeps more money in the Roth and is almost always better. Withholding is simpler but less efficient. The split option protects a cash reserve.
If cash runs short, which account is spent first? ?Most years, income and savings cover your spending. But if a year's spending is more than your income — after savings, brokerage, and CDs are used — the tool taps a retirement account next. This setting decides whether it draws the Roth or the traditional IRA first. It only matters in years that actually run short; well-funded plans rarely reach this.
Spending the traditional IRA first (at today's brackets) and leaving the Roth to grow tax-free is often better — but not always. Run What-If on the Results tab to see which wins for your numbers.
Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) ? What is a QCD?

A Qualified Charitable Distribution lets anyone age 70½ or older donate money directly from your IRA to a qualified charity. The donation never touches your bank account and never appears in your AGI — it simply reduces your IRA balance.

Why this matters for Roth conversions:
• The QCD satisfies your RMD obligation for the year (up to the QCD amount)
• Since it doesn't hit AGI, it can't push you into a higher bracket, trigger IRMAA surcharges, or increase Social Security taxation
• It's almost always better to give from the IRA than from savings or a brokerage account — those after-tax dollars are worth more to you

2026 annual QCD limit: $108,000 per person (indexed to inflation)
Donating $20,000/year from your IRA instead of from savings could save thousands in federal taxes annually, lower your IRMAA tier, reduce Social Security taxation, and shrink the IRA balance that generates future taxable RMDs — all at the same time.
Plan to make charitable gifts from IRA?
These results are already well-optimized — but Deep Search tests hundreds of tweaks to your schedule to squeeze out even more. Takes about 15–30 seconds.
Tests changes outside your conversion plan — when each spouse claims Social Security, and who pays the conversion tax — re-optimizing the conversions each time, and shows which changes leave you with more. Takes about 10 seconds.
See how your plan holds up under a different year's tax law — and whether re-optimizing for that year would do better.
⚙ Exports
Admin / debug — raw data
Fill in your info and click "Calculate best strategy" on the Strategy tab to run all the strategies