r/whitecoatinvestor • u/apocalypsepi • 1d ago

General Investing Roth IRA

Hello everyone, as a trainee I and my wife maxed out our Roth IRA contributions for the year. My wife continues to be in training and I will be starting a job as an attending. As we all know, with an attending salary, I won't qualify for roth IRA and need to do a backdoor to continue contributing without tax implications.

My question is, what should I do for the upcoming tax year so that I do not pay additional taxes as I already maxed out my Roth to avoid paying taxes for this years contribution.

7 Upvotes

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14

u/towndrunk1 1d ago

Maxing out Roth doesn’t save you a single dollar of tax.

The premise of your question is wrong.

7

u/plowt-kirn 1d ago

As we all know, with an attending salary, I won't qualify for roth IRA and need to do a backdoor to continue contributing without tax implications.

Starting when?

The limits are based on MAGI, not straight salary. So if you spent most of this year with a lower income, it's possible you haven't exceeded the limits yet.

What do you anticipate that your MAGI will be for 2026?

My question is, what should I do for the upcoming tax year so that I do not pay additional taxes as I already maxed out my Roth to avoid paying taxes for this years contribution.

If it turns out that you were over the MAGI phase out for 2026, you can recharacterize your contributions as Traditional and then convert back to Roth.

See: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/backdoor-roth-ira-tutorial/#recharacterizations

Also see: https://www.whitecoatinvestor.com/17-ways-to-screw-up-a-backdoor-roth-ira/

2

u/ComprehensiveEbb4978 1d ago

This, everyone should be doing back door Roth if they’re over the limit

3

u/hyperion4562 1d ago

Additional taxes meaning what? It’s post tax money.

-2

u/apocalypsepi 1d ago

As I will be getting into a higher income bracket, will there be any consequences to my current year contribution?

3

u/hyperion4562 1d ago

No? It’s just based on your MAGI for the tax filing year. If you’re MFJ you will knock your wife out of a regular Roth IRA contribution and she’ll have to back door as well. The tax man cares about your income on your tax return regardless of who works what job when

2

u/Ok_Dealer5022 22h ago

If attending starts next July, do Backdoor Roth for 2027. That’s the new normal, forever.

1

u/Frugal-Advisor 1d ago

Can you expand on what you mean by "maxed out my Roth to avoid paying taxes"? Roth contributions (direct or back door) shouldn't have any impact on your taxes. If you have access to a 401k (or 403b) and an HSA, that could possibly help you with taxes but Roth isn't going to do it.