The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) rates are now permanent. But the case for Roth conversions didn’t go away, the reason just changed. Here’s the argument that still holds, and who it matters for.
For two years, one of the main arguments for Roth conversions was straightforward: convert now, before the 2026 tax sunset. When Congress made the TCJA brackets permanent in July 2025, that argument disappeared overnight.
A lot of people heard that and thought: Fine, I’ll wait.
That’s a potential mistake. The case for Roth conversions didn’t go away. The reason changed and the new reason may actually be more compelling than the old one.
The Narrative Shift
The old argument was about rates going up. Convert at today’s rates before they get worse.
The real argument is about your own future income and specifically, required minimum distributions.
If you’ve spent 30 years contributing to a 401(k) or traditional IRA, you’ve built a significant pre-tax balance. When you turn 73, the IRS requires you to start withdrawing from it whether you need the income or not. For a high earner with $2 million in pre-tax accounts, that’s roughly $75,000–$80,000 a year in forced taxable income.
Stack that on top of Social Security, investment income, and any other sources, and you may find yourself in the 22%, 24%, or even 32% bracket in retirement years when you expected to be in something far more manageable.
You can’t prevent RMDs, but you can reduce them. The time to do that is now, while the window is still open.
The Conversion Window
For many high earners, there’s a low-income stretch that most people don’t recognize until it’s already passing: roughly ages 60 to 72.
You’ve retired or stepped back. Social Security hasn’t started yet. RMDs are still years away. Taxable income is at its lowest point since you were in your 30s.
That’s the Roth conversion window. It’s temporary, it’s predictable, and it closes.
A strategic conversion during this period means paying tax at 12% or 22% now to avoid paying something higher later. The math is straightforward once you run the projection. The challenge is that most people don’t run the projection until they’re already in RMD territory.
What a Strategic Conversion Actually Looks Like
This isn’t about converting everything in one year. A large one-time conversion can push you into a high bracket, trigger Medicare IRMAA surcharges, and negate the benefit.
Instead, the approach is annual conversions that ‘fill up’ a target bracket — taking income up to the top of the 12% or 22% bracket each year, consistently, for a decade or more. Done well, you reduce future RMDs, increase the tax-free balance available to your heirs, and create more flexibility in retirement income design.
But this requires coordination. Your CPA needs to know what your advisor is doing. Your advisor needs to see the full tax picture. When they’re operating separately, multi-year conversion planning rarely happens — because no single person is holding the full view.
The Bottom Line
The tax sunset urgency was real. But it was never the best argument for Roth conversions. The better argument has always been about managing your future income, reducing RMD exposure, and using a predictable low-income window while it’s available.
That window exists whether or not Congress changes tax rates again. And for most high earners with large pre-tax balances, the question isn’t whether a Roth conversion makes sense. It’s whether anyone is running the numbers to find out.
Let’s keep moving forward, together.