Publication 590-A
Rollover From a Roth IRA
You can withdraw, tax free, all or part of the assets from one Roth IRA if you contribute them within 60 days to another Roth IRA. Most of the rules for rollovers, described in chapter 1 under Rollover From One IRA Into Another, apply to these rollovers. However, rollovers from retirement plans other than Roth IRAs are disregarded for purposes of the 1-year waiting period between rollovers.
- A rollover from a Roth IRA to an employer retirement plan isn’t allowed.
- A rollover from a designated Roth account can only be made to another designated Roth account or to a Roth IRA.
- If you roll over an amount from one Roth IRA to another Roth IRA, the 5-year period used to determine qualified distributions doesn’t change. The 5-year period begins with the first tax year for which the contribution was made to the initial Roth IRA. See What Are Qualified Distributions? in chapter 2 of Pub. 590-B.
Note that where it says most of the same rules apply as Traditional IRAs, then notes 3 exceptions. A self-rollover is not one of the exceptions. Self-rollovers are explicitly mentioned in chapter 1 under traditional IRAs.
More important, the A in IRA doesn't mean "account", it means "individual retirement arrangement." No matter how many traditional IRA accounts you have at different brokers, you have one "arrangement", and this is why the RMD and pro rata rules work the way they do. Likewise, no matter how many Roth IRA accounts you have at different brokers you have one Roth "arrangement."
But in fact, the rollover-->recharacterize-->convert method will work even if you open a different Roth IRA account. You made your withdrawal from broker 1. You could deposit the money in a Roth IRA at broker 2 (as long as you tell them it is a rollover and not a contribution), then recharacterize it as a traditional IRA at broker 2, then convert it to a Roth IRA at broker 1 or 2 (as long as it was a direct conversion). It makes no difference if you pass the money through broker 2 or back to broker 1 since you only have one individual retirement arrangement.
