A Roth IRA conversion is one where a customer takes pre-tax funds from a Traditional IRA and moves them into a Roth IRA.
The amount of funds moved into the Roth IRA are added to the customer's tax return as taxable income in the year of the conversion. Assuming relevant legal requirements are met, Roth conversions are generally not subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty, only income tax. Normally, after conversion, at least 5 years must pass from the conversion date before the funds can be withdrawn without penalty.
If you're considering performing a Roth IRA conversion, consult your accountant, financial advisor, or other tax professional about the tax implications for your situation.
What you’ll need:
- An Unchained Roth IRA with a vault.
How to perform a Roth Conversion if the funds are with another custodian:
- Contact your current custodian to perform a Roth conversion.
- Complete the steps for a Roth IRA-to-IRA transfer.
- Once the funds arrive in your account, you can use them to purchase bitcoin.
How to complete an in-kind Roth conversion for your Unchained Traditional IRA:
Note: There is a $250 service fee for an in-kind (BTC) conversion.
How to submit a funding form for the conversion:
- Sign in to your Unchained account and navigate to your Roth IRA dashboard.
- Select the IRA cash balance tab and click FUND.
- Click the IRA-to-IRA Transfer option.
- Enter your Unchained email address and name.
- Select IRA-to-IRA Transfer (BTC In-Kind Transfer).
- Select Roth as your Unchained IRA Account Type and whether it will be a full or partial transfer.
- Enter Fortis Bank as the Releasing Custodian Name.
- Select Traditional for the tax status of the funds being sent.
- Submit Form.
- Our IRA team will receive your responses and send you a funding form via DocuSign, typically within 1 business day.
- Depending on your personal email settings, you may need to check your spam folders for the DocuSign form.
- Enter the exact amount of bitcoin to be converted to Roth and return the form unsigned.
- Once approved, the IRA Operations team will email you a confirmation to proceed with moving your requested amount of bitcoin from your Traditional IRA vault to your Roth IRA vault.
How to perform the on-chain transaction from the Traditional vault to the Roth vault:
- Navigate to your Roth IRA vault page, click on the blue Deposit button then select show deposit address and copy that address shown on the screen.
- Navigate to your Traditional IRA vault page and select the blue Withdraw button. Proceed through the warning screen, and paste your Roth IRA deposit address that you just copied.
- Proceed with the platform's guiding steps to enter the amount of bitcoin, select and sign with keys, and then finally broadcast the signed transaction. If you need help with this step, please review our article How do I withdraw from my vault?
- Unchained will email you the form via DocuSign for your final e-signature to confirm the amount and value of the bitcoin that was sent. This completed document will be provided to Fortis Bank for tax reporting purposes.
- Done!
Note: No contents of this article may be relied upon as tax, legal, or financial advice, as they have not been tailored to you and have not been reviewed by any attorney, financial advisor, or tax professional. For any questions related to your own specific situation, please consult with your own attorney, tax professional, and/or licensed financial advisor.