Didn't say 20% of what? I thought we were talking Roth conversion. I apologize, I thought that was intuitive. When you convert a $$ amount to Roth it needs to be done in pro rata (equal proportions of before tax money and after tax money. 100-100...50-50..20-20..what ever percent you want. Very simple. I also stand by my previous statement on percentage calculation. I again apologize as I didn't fully read Daisy's post...my bad. I assumed the 10697 was his /her total IRA balance...before and after tax....before the conversion.... it wasn't. so again..to find the portion that is not taxed..it is a simple pro-rata (proportional calculation). Before tax money divided by the total before and after tax money. (before the conversion) It this case...11000/(160697+7947) or 11000/168644 = 0.0652. This is the portion that is not taxed of the conversion 0.0652*7947 = 518. a very simple calc..In fact as dmertz indicates as simple as form 8606...because it IS the exact same calculation. in 2019 line 6 was the value of ALL IRA's as of 12/31/2019...this is after the money to be converted has been taken out...that is line 8..put that back in....that gets you to the number you had before your decided to convert..IE to line 9....160697 (line 6) put back in 7947 (line 😎 line 9 is 168644. that is the denominator. the numerator is the pretax money...IE 11000..line 5..the basis. divide 11000 by 168644 you get .0652...the pro rata...or proportional amount of the conversion that has already been taxed and will not be..518. the rest is taxed.. if you take the 518 and divide it by the 11000..you get .0471 or 4.71 percent of the conversion is already taxed money....if you take the pretax money...IE the total 168644...less the already taxed...11000...you get 157644. this is the amount before the conversion that is pretax....multiple that by the same 4.71% and you get 7425...wow 7425 plus 518...gets you to your conversion amount....(less the small error due to rounding.) math is a cool thing..now going forward if Daisy or anyone wants to know what amount will be taxed..all one needs to do is take the amount of ones IRA's that has already been taxed and divide it by the sum of all of their IRA's...pre and post tax and you get a percentage. Multiple that by what you want to convert and that is what will not be taxed..simple
