For years, the Roth conversion pitch came with a countdown: convert before the tax cuts expire at the end of 2025. Then the expiration got cancelled. The clock everyone was racing simply stopped.
In 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the current federal tax brackets permanent. The sunset that drove a decade of “convert now, before rates jump” urgency isn’t coming. For a lot of people, that lands as a reason to stop thinking about Roth conversions. It’s closer to the opposite — because the deadline was never really the point.
The deadline that disappeared
The old argument was simple and time-bound. The 2017 tax law lowered the brackets temporarily and set them to snap back at the end of 2025. A Roth conversion means moving traditional IRA or 401(k) money into a Roth — paying income tax on it now in exchange for tax-free growth and withdrawals later. So the pitch wrote itself: lock in today’s lower rates before they revert. The calendar was the whole story.
Then the law changed. The brackets were made permanent. There’s no scheduled jump left to race. If beating the sunset was your only reason to convert, that reason is gone.
The window was never on the tax calendar
Here’s what the countdown obscured: the most valuable time to convert usually has nothing to do with federal rate changes. It has to do with your own income.
For most people there’s a stretch — roughly from when work income stops to when required withdrawals begin — where taxable income falls to the lowest point of their adult life. Retired, not yet claiming Social Security, not yet forced to take distributions. That low-income gap is the real conversion window, and it’s defined by your life, not by Congress’s calendar. Convert during it and you’re paying tax at unusually low rates by your own standards — whatever the statutory brackets happen to be.
What actually drives the timing now
With the rate deadline off the table, three durable forces decide when a conversion earns its keep.
Your own bracket is going up. Required minimum distributions begin at 73 — 75 for younger savers. A large traditional IRA left untouched eventually forces out sizable taxable withdrawals every year, often pushing a retiree into a higher bracket and keeping them there for life. Converting earlier shrinks that future balance and flattens your lifetime tax rate, shifting dollars out of the high-RMD years and into the low-income ones.
Filling the bracket, not blowing past it. The craft of conversion is converting just enough to reach the top of your current bracket without spilling into the next one. Done by rule, year after year, it’s a deliberate way to use low-rate room you’d otherwise leave on the table.
The Medicare trip-wire. Conversions raise the income figure Medicare uses to set your premiums, and those surcharges jump at hard thresholds. A conversion sized without watching them can trip a premium increase that quietly offsets the benefit. Manageable — but only if it’s planned.
The part that doesn’t show up on this year’s return
Two things stretch beyond the current tax year. First, legacy: a Roth passes to your heirs income-tax-free, and you’re never forced to take distributions from it yourself — which makes it one of the cleaner assets to leave behind. Second, for Californians, the state comes to the table too. California taxes a conversion as ordinary income in the year you do it, on top of the federal bill, so the upfront cost here is higher than the federal math alone suggests. Neither changes the logic — both change the sizing.
It’s a decision you size, not a button you press
A conversion isn’t a one-time move you make and forget. It’s a multi-year sequence: convert a measured amount in each low-income year, watch the bracket and the Medicare thresholds, and adjust as your income and the balance change. And it’s unforgiving in one specific way — a conversion can’t be undone. Once you convert, the tax is owed, which is exactly why the amount is a decision to size carefully, in coordination with your CPA, rather than a number to guess.
That’s the same discipline that governs the rest of a good plan: deliberate, maintained year over year, and integrated rather than improvised.
Where this leaves you
The headline event — the expiring tax cuts — turned out to be a non-event. But the opportunity it was attached to didn’t go anywhere. It just went back to where it always lived: in the quiet, low-income years of early retirement, where a well-sized conversion can reshape decades of future tax bills.
The rate deadline was never the real reason to convert. Your own future bracket is.
The deadline was external. The window is personal — and for many people, it’s open right now.
Key takeaways
• The 2025 One Big Beautiful Bill Act made the current federal tax brackets permanent, so the old “convert before rates rise in 2026” urgency is gone.
• The real conversion window is personal: the low-income gap between when work income stops and when required withdrawals begin.
• RMDs start at 73 (75 for younger savers); a large traditional IRA eventually forces income up, so converting earlier can flatten your lifetime tax rate.
• The technique is bracket-filling — converting up to the top of your current bracket without spilling into the next — repeated by rule over several years.
• Conversions raise the income Medicare uses for premiums (IRMAA), so they have to be sized with those thresholds in view.
• A Roth passes to heirs income-tax-free; in California, the state taxes the conversion as ordinary income up front, which affects sizing, not the logic. Conversions can’t be undone — size carefully with your CPA.
Common questions about Roth conversion timing
Did the 2025 tax law kill the case for Roth conversions?
No — it removed one reason (beating the scheduled rate increase) and left the stronger ones intact: managing your own future brackets, reducing future RMDs, and tax-free growth and legacy.
When is the best time to convert?
For most people, the low-income years between leaving work and the start of required withdrawals. Income is temporarily low then, so conversions are taxed at relatively low rates by your own standards.
What’s the downside?
You pay the tax now, the conversion can’t be reversed, and it can raise your Medicare premiums if not sized carefully. That’s why amounts are planned, not guessed.
Do Roth conversions have income limits?
No. Anyone can convert regardless of income — that’s different from the income limits on direct Roth contributions.
How do RMDs factor in?
Required minimum distributions begin at 73 (75 for younger savers) and can’t themselves be converted. Converting before RMDs begin reduces the balance that drives them.
Does California change the math?
Yes. California taxes the converted amount as ordinary income in the year of conversion, so the upfront cost is higher than the federal bill alone. It’s a sizing consideration, best worked through with your CPA.
This article is for educational purposes only and is not tax advice. Roth conversion decisions depend on your individual tax situation, including current and expected future tax brackets, Medicare considerations, and state taxes; consult your CPA or tax advisor before acting.
Traditional IRA account owners have considerations to make before performing a Roth IRA conversion. These primarily include income tax consequences on the converted amount in the year of conversion, withdrawal limitations from a Roth IRA, and income limitations for future contributions to a Roth IRA. In addition, if you are required to take a required minimum distribution (RMD) in the year you convert, you must do so before converting to a Roth IRA.
Brent Rupnow is a Registered Representative with, and Securities and advisory services are offered through LPL Financial (LPL), a registered investment advisor and broker-dealer (member FINRA/SIPC). Insurance products are offered through LPL or its licensed affiliates. Via Luce Capital is not registered as a broker-dealer or investment advisor. Registered representatives of LPL offer products and services using Via Luce Capital, and may also be employees of Via Luce Capital. These products and services are being offered through LPL or its affiliates, which are separate entities from, and not affiliates of Via Luce Capital.