I work and my wife does not.

    Can we open a traditional IRA for her, fund it with after tax money, and then immediately convert to Roth?

    I know for a single person without earned income this is not allowed. Not sure about a married couple though.

    She currently doesn't have any IRA or 401k accounts.

    Thanks

    Roth IRA conversion for non-working spouse
    byu/Ok-Yam-6616 intax



    Posted by Ok-Yam-6616

    4 Comments

    1. DoubleLigero85 on

      If you are in a community property state yes. If you aren’t, then you can’t.

      Of course, then you can always declare $7,500 of extra earned income in her name, pay the se tax, then contribute. But this is generally a bad idea.

    2. Do you earn more than 252k? If so, this plan is fine. If not, just fund her Roth directly.

    3. Aggressive-Shine2128 on

      Hello,

      You can open an account and fund it however, yiu cannot take a tax deduction if she doesn’t have any income.

    4. Yes, you can contribute to an IRA for a non-working spouse, using the working spouse’s earnings– assuming you file a joint return. The question is, is your combined AGI over the limit for just making Roth contributions without having to use the backdoor strategy?

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