Backdoor ROTH IRA q with history of IRA

[NY_GU]

Hi, kinda new to the forum and have a question.

I had a career (short) in pharma before going back to med school/residency/attendingship and have a IRA now with ~50k in it.
My wife has a similar situation with roughly the same amount.
Both our IRAs are in Fidelity.

We are considering starting to do the backdoor roth IRA but does the existence of an IRA with money in it change our tax implications? Should we move our IRA's into our new job 401ks to proceed with backdoor rothing.

thanks!

[Hank]

Will you be an attending this full year, or is it half a year as a resident and half a year as an attending?

No income years as a med student are a good time to convert from traditional to Roth. Low income years as a resident or fellow are decent times to convert. Full time work as an attending is high marginal tax rate, so it makes more sense to roll the traditional IRA into your 401(k) or equivalent to avoid pro rata taxation on back door Roth IRA contributions.

[NY_GU]

attending full year.
Great! thank you thats what i had thought but wanted to make sure. ironically also changing jobs so may have a lot more moving parts shortly. but appreciate the confirmation that i need to move money out of the traditional IRA before starting backdoor etc.