401a to 403b rollover Q

[resident_1]

My current employer has a nice 403b through Fidelity.  Does anyone have experience with rollovers of a 401a plan into a 403b plan.
My understanding this is allowed.
I'm double checking whether this will impact backdoor Roth?  Should I rollover before end of this year or wait until 2017?

 

[Bott1637]

The 401a is presumably from prior employment? If your current qualified retirement plan, the 403b, accepts rollovers then it would be allowed. It is not a taxable event so it doesn't matter when you do it. The money would never pass to an IRA so this would do nothing to mess up future backdoor ROTH. Are you a resident now as your user name suggests? If so I'd favor rolling the 401a to an IRA and then converting it to ROTH while a resident. Pay the government their portion of that account now while the percentage is lower.

[jfoxcpacfp]

resident_1 wrote:

My current employer has a nice 403b through Fidelity.  Does anyone have experience with rollovers of a 401a plan into a 403b plan.
My understanding this is allowed.
I’m double checking whether this will impact backdoor Roth?  Should I rollover before end of this year or wait until 2017?

 

Click to expand...

Unless something has changed that I am not aware of, the IRS prohibits rollovers from 401a plans to 403b plans. You can roll to another 401a that accepts rollovers (apparently not an option for you) or to an IRA. I agree with @Bott1637 that you should roll directly to a Roth (don't have to roll to TIRA first) if you are still a resident and you are otherwise in a relatively low tax bracket.