Roth Conversion Ladder Planner
Converting a slice each year to the top of a bracket, how many years does it take and what does it cost? Every piece below can be linked to, so it opens in a window on your reader's screen, current as of the record. No form to fill in.
2026 law · Reviewed September 4, 2026 · The full page, with methodology and sources · the terms · All tools
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The balance, other income, a bracket to fill, the years available, and a return in; the slice, the tax, and the Medicare tier for each year, the total, and what is left out. In a frame it carries no cookies, no tracking, and a visible link back to the methodology. Your site has to allow frames; most do. The link that opens it in a small window is on the professionals page.
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- In plain words.
- Moving money from a traditional IRA to a Roth is taxed as income in the year you do it. Do it all at once and most of it lands in high brackets; do a slice each year, sized to fill your current bracket and stop, and every slice is taxed at that rate. This tool takes the balance, your other income, and the bracket you want to fill, and runs the years forward until the balance is gone, showing the slice, the tax, and the Medicare tier for each year.
- Why it matters.
- The years between retiring and starting required withdrawals are when income is lowest and the brackets have the most room. The plan shows whether the balance can be moved in that window, and at what rate.
- An example.
- A couple with $600,000 in a traditional IRA and $60,000 of other income, filling the 22 percent bracket each year with the balance growing 5 percent: the conversion finishes in four years at a total tax of about $111,000, roughly 17 percent of what was moved.
- Where it stops.
- It holds today's brackets and deduction constant, which the law does not promise. It ignores state tax, capital gains, and the taxable share of Social Security, all of which take up room, and it does not decide whether converting is right at all, which depends on the rate you expect to pay later.
The facts
Six quotable sentences on converting over several years, 2026 tables.
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- A Roth conversion is taxed as ordinary income in the year it is done, so the cheapest way to convert a large balance is in slices, each sized to the room left in a chosen bracket. For 2026 the 22 percent bracket on a joint return runs from $100,800 to $211,400 of taxable income; the 24 percent bracket to $403,550.
- The window is the years between retirement and required distributions, when other income is lowest; once distributions begin at 73 or 75 they fill the brackets themselves, and once Medicare begins the tiers add a second line.
- Example: a couple with $600,000 pre-tax and $60,000 of other income, filling the 22 percent bracket each year at a 5 percent return, converts everything in 4 years and pays $111,080 of tax, 17.4% of the amount converted.
- Left alone at the same return, the same balance would be $977,337 after ten years, all of it pre-tax and all of it eventually taxed, at whatever rates then apply, to whoever withdraws it.
- Today's brackets are held constant, which is the plan's honest limit: the current rates are law only through the years the Act sets, and every year's slice is re-sized with that year's return in hand.
- The standard deduction ($32,200 joint, $16,100 single) is part of the room: income up to it is taxed at nothing, so the first slice of a conversion in a low-income year can be free.
Filling each bracket
Fill a lower bracket and it takes longer at a lower rate; fill a higher one and it is done sooner at a higher rate.
The button shows exactly what your reader sees when they click the link. Paste the link where a link goes; it opens this table in a small window, always current as of the record, with the attribution and a link to the full page. Nothing to copy out, nothing to update later.
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| Bracket filled | Room in year one | Years to finish | Total tax | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12% | $73,000 | 11 years | $89,189 | 12.0% |
| 22% | $183,600 | 4 years | $111,080 | 17.4% |
| 24% | $375,750 | 2 years | $124,747 | 20.4% |
Cite and link.
The clean address, a citation generated from the record so it can never carry a stale review date, and an address for every section so you can point a reader at the exact table or method.
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- Link
- https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder
- Citation
- Considerate Capital, "Roth Conversion Ladder Planner," reviewed September 4, 2026, https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder.
Link to a section
- The planner https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder#calculator
- The facts https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder#facts
- Filling each bracket https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder#key-numbers
- How the ladder works https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder#how-it-works
- Methodology https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder#methodology
- Sources https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder#sources
- Revision history https://consideratecapital.com/tools/roth-conversion-ladder#revision-history
Everything here reads from one reviewed record, so a copied piece carries its year and its review date. When the law moves, the embed updates by itself; a copied table or chart keeps the year in its caption. Corrections are welcome through the contact page.