Backdoor Roth
Roth IRAs lock out high earners by income — this is the completely legal workaround that doesn’t care what you make.
What Is It
A backdoor Roth means contributing to a Traditional IRA — which has no income limit on contributions, only on deductibility — and then immediately converting that contribution to a Roth IRA. Roth conversions themselves have no income limit at all; only direct Roth contributions do. That gap is what makes this a legal way to sidestep the Roth income cap, which for 2026 phases out between $153,000–$168,000 (single) or $242,000–$252,000 (married filing jointly).
Why It Matters
The core catch is the pro-rata rule, and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than buried: if you have other pre-tax money sitting in any Traditional IRA — old 401(k) rollovers, prior deductible contributions, any of it — the IRS treats a conversion as coming proportionally from all of your Traditional IRA money combined, not just the new nondeductible contribution you just made. That means part of the conversion becomes taxable, even though your intent was to convert only new, already-taxed money.
This makes the backdoor Roth cleanest for people with $0 in other pre-tax IRA balances. If you’re carrying a meaningful pre-tax IRA balance already, the math changes substantially, and it’s worth working through with a tax professional before assuming this strategy works the way it does for someone starting from zero.
Quick Example
Contribute $7,500 — the 2026 IRA limit — to a Traditional IRA as a nondeductible contribution, then convert it to a Roth IRA within days, while it’s still worth close to $7,500. Little to no tax is owed on the conversion itself, since it was already after-tax money with no growth yet. Now contrast that with someone who already has $30,000 in other pre-tax Traditional IRA money doing the same $7,500 nondeductible contribution and conversion: the IRS treats only $7,500 ÷ $37,500 = 20% of any conversion as already-taxed basis, meaning 80% of what they convert is taxable — even though they only meant to convert the new contribution.
See how the pro-rata math plays out with your own numbers:
Try It Yourself
Weighing Roth versus Traditional is the same underlying account-type decision this strategy is built around.
⚖️Roth vs. Traditional Calculator
See which account type fits your situation better, based on your own numbers.