What is the Roth IRA 5-year rule?

Clock one: the qualified distribution test

A qualified distribution from a Roth IRA is tax free and penalty free. The publication gives it two requirements. It is made after the 5-year period beginning with the first tax year for which a contribution was made to a Roth IRA set up for your benefit. And it is one of the following: made on or after the date you reach age 59½, made because you are disabled, made to a beneficiary or your estate after your death, or meeting the first-home requirements (up to a $10,000 lifetime limit). The clock starts once, with your first Roth IRA contribution, and covers all your Roth IRAs. Opening a second Roth IRA years later does not start a new qualified-distribution clock.

How to count it

The period begins with the first tax year for which a contribution was made. A calendar-year taxpayer whose first contribution was for 2021 starts the period on January 1, 2021, so the five tax years are 2021 through 2025 and a distribution on or after January 1, 2026 is after the period. The calculator above shows this: enter 2021 and it returns the date the period ends and the first date a distribution can satisfy the 5-year test. The publication’s own illustration of start dates is a taxpayer who makes a conversion on February 25, 2025 and a regular contribution for 2024 on the same date: the conversion period begins January 1, 2025 and the regular contribution period begins January 1, 2024.

Clock two: conversions and rollovers

If, within the 5-year period starting with the first day of the tax year in which you convert an amount from a traditional IRA, or roll over an amount from a qualified retirement plan to a Roth IRA, you take a distribution from a Roth IRA, you may owe the 10% additional tax. The tax falls on the part of the conversion or rollover that you had to include in income, which the publication calls the recapture amount. A separate 5-year period applies to each conversion and rollover. You pay the tax in the year of the distribution even if you reported the conversion income in an earlier year, and you also pay it on any portion of the distribution attributable to earnings on contributions.

Why the two clocks can differ

The publication states plainly that the period for the 10% additional tax on a conversion is determined separately for each conversion and is not necessarily the same as the period used to decide whether a distribution is qualified. Take someone who opened a Roth IRA with a 2018 contribution and converted a traditional IRA in 2024. In 2026 the qualified-distribution clock has run (it ended after 2022), but the 2024 conversion’s period runs through 2028, so a withdrawal that reaches the converted amount while she is under 59½ and without an exception could still draw the 10% tax on the taxable part of that conversion.

The exceptions to the 10% tax inside the window

The 10% tax on a conversion withdrawal is subject to the Roth exceptions list: reaching age 59½, total and permanent disability, a terminal illness certification, being a beneficiary of a deceased owner, a first home, substantially equal payments, medical expenses over 7.5% of AGI, health insurance while unemployed, corrective distributions, higher education, an IRS levy, qualified reservist distributions, qualified birth or adoption distributions, qualified disaster recovery distributions, domestic abuse victim distributions and certain emergency personal expenses. The detail for each is in the exceptions page.

Worked example

Raj opened his first Roth IRA with a contribution for 2020, so his qualified-distribution period began January 1, 2020 and ended December 31, 2024. In 2023 he converted $30,000 from a traditional IRA and included $30,000 in income. Now it is 2026 and he is 52. He withdraws $40,000. By the ordering rules, his regular contributions come out first, then the conversion amount; suppose $35,000 is contributions and conversions, $5,000 is earnings. Because he is under 59½ and no exception applies, the $5,000 of earnings is taxable and carries a $500 additional tax. If the withdrawal had reached $12,000 of the 2023 conversion, that $12,000 would add $1,200 of 10% tax because the conversion’s own five years end after 2027, even though the earnings clock has run. Use the ordering rules page to run the buckets.

Practical notes

Keep a record of the year of your first Roth contribution and of every conversion. Roth 401(k) accounts follow related but separate rules in Pub. 575. If you inherit a Roth IRA, the publication’s beneficiary rules also turn on whether the owner died inside these five-year periods. For planning conversions in the first place, the Roth conversion calculator shows the tax cost.

Sources

• IRS Publication 590-B, Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs) (2025): Roth IRAs: What Are Qualified Distributions?; Additional Tax on Early Distributions (distributions of conversion and certain rollover contributions within 5-year period); Exceptions. Read November 2, 2026.

Edition read: Publication 590-B (2025), for use in preparing 2025 returns. Dollar limits and dates in this publication are for 2025; check the current publication and form instructions for your tax year. This page summarizes the publication and does not replace it.