If you grew up in my generation, you probably remember Al Stewart's 1976 hit, "Year of the Cat" from his platinum album with the same name. Well, 34 years later (boy, am I getting old!), 2010 is being dubbed by the financial community as the "Year of the Conversion" in reference to the removal of the income threshold in connection with Roth IRA conversions.
Although the Roth IRA and the Roth IRA conversion technique were both established by the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 for taxable years beginning in 1998, like a lot of tax legislation that provides for potentially favorable benefits, the ability to take advantage of the latter until now has been dependent on one's income level. From 1998 through 2009, only taxpayers with modified adjusted gross income of less than $100,000 were eligible to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.
