@hnk2 this section in the IRS page specifies that a 'conversion' can either be done as a 'rollover' (where the check comes to you, but needs to be deposited into the Roth within 60 days), or a 'transfer' directly between accounts at the same trustee, or between trustees.
How do I convert my traditional IRA to a Roth IRA?
You can convert your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA by:
- Rollover – You receive a distribution from a traditional IRA and contribute it to a Roth IRA within 60 days after the distribution (the distribution check is payable to you);
- Trustee-to-trustee transfer – You tell the financial institution holding your traditional IRA assets to transfer an amount directly to the trustee of your Roth IRA at a different financial institution (the distributing trustee may achieve this by issuing you a check payable to the new trustee);
- Same trustee transfer – If your traditional and Roth IRAs are maintained at the same financial institution, you can tell the trustee to transfer an amount from your traditional IRA to your Roth IRA.
The 'conversion step has no deadline' referred to in the Morningstar article is referring to, for backdoor Roth conversions specifically, the time between making the non-deductible contribution to the IRA and then executing a conversion using these methods above; it's not referring to the time gap between taking a distribution and then deciding later it was for a Roth conversion.
As the name implies a 'backdoor' Roth process is a workaround for contribution limits on Roth IRAs for high earners by flowing the money through a zero-balance traditional IRA first, which used to come with concerns about 'how soon' this could be done to be considered legitimate (which I think was clarified in the 2017 TCJA to be a non-issue); but there is no time limit between making a Trad IRA contribution and then deciding to do a Roth conversion whether it's considered 'backdoor' or not - for a 'backdoor' conversion the issue with waiting is the earnings growth in the Trad IRA is taxable whereas it could have been growing tax free in a Roth.
I'm not a CPA but from what you've described I think the answer to your original question is 'no' since more than 60 days have passed since you took the distribution.
