Back Door Roth plus IRA Partial Conversion to Roth plus Rollover IRA to Solo 401(k)

Submitted by Mike Smittle on Sun, 2020-01-26 23:15

I would like to do the following to take advantage of the Back-Door Roth strategy while also doing a partial Roth conversion and avoiding the Pro-Rata Rule:

1. Make a non-deductible $6,000 contribution to my existing Rollover IRA that has pre-tax funds in it.
2. Convert that $6,000 to my Roth IRA.
3. Later in the year, perform a partial Roth conversion of pre-tax funds from my Rollover IRA into my Roth (and pay taxes on the amount converted)
4. Roll the remaining pre-tax balance in the Rollover IRA into my Solo 401(k) before the end of the year.

My questions:
1. Can I perform the back-door Roth conversion strategy with the $6,000, AND make a partial pre-tax IRA to Roth conversion in the same year?
2. If I roll the remaining IRA balance into my Solo 401(k) before the end of the year, does this avoid the Pro-Rate rule?

All three accounts are at the same institution and they have confirmed I can transfer my pre-tax IRA into my Solo 401(k).

Thank you for your help!



Submitted by William Tuttle on Mon, 2020-01-27 00:30

  • You can do 1 and 2, but if there is a problem with 3 (the rollover) and it does not complete by 12/31, you can no longer recharacterize Roth conversions. That would result a pro-rata treatment of the non-deductible Roth conversion amounts.
  • It would be safer to do the pre-tax Roth conversion first, rollover the reaining pre-tax IRA assets next to the one-participant 401k and then do the non-deductible traditional IRA contribution and Roth conversion.


Submitted by Mike Smittle on Mon, 2020-01-27 23:22

Thank you very much for your input.  I like your “order of operations” better.  I agree that is the safer approach and will proceed accordingly.



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