Check income eligibility, project tax-free growth, quantify the Roth advantage, and analyse Roth conversions
| Filing status | Phase-out range | Your status | Allowed contribution |
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| Projected balance | Category | What it means |
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| Metric | Value | Notes |
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Founder & CEO, Toolraxy
Faiq Ur Rahman is a web designer, digital product developer, and founder of Toolraxy, a growing platform of web-based calculators and utility tools. He specializes in building structured, user-friendly tools focused on health, finance, productivity, and everyday problem-solving.
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Roth IRAs have a reputation for being simple: pay tax now, withdraw tax-free later. The reality has more moving parts. Income limits change with filing status. Contribution caps adjust for age. Conversions trigger a tax bill today in exchange for tax-free growth tomorrow. Whether that trade works depends on numbers most people never run.
This calculator runs them for you. It combines contribution-eligibility math, a year-by-year growth projection, and a conversion comparison in one pass. Enter a MAGI of $120,000 as a single filer and it shows your full $7,000 contribution is allowed. Push that MAGI to $155,000 and the allowed amount drops. Cross $161,000 and the answer is zero. The math is linear and unforgiving, and the tool applies it the way the IRS does.
Select your currency. Every money field follows the symbol you pick, from USD to EUR to INR.
Enter your age, filing status, and modified AGI. These three inputs determine whether you can contribute, and how much.
Add your current Roth IRA balance. Zero is fine if you’re just opening one.
Set your annual contribution. The 2026 cap is $7,500 under 50 and $8,600 with the catch-up. Anything above your MAGI-allowed amount gets capped automatically.
Enter your expected annual return. A 7% default reflects a stock-heavy portfolio before inflation.
Set your retirement age. The gap between it and your current age is the compounding window.
Fill in current tax rate, retirement tax rate, and withdrawal rate. These drive the tax-free advantage and the income estimate.
Add a conversion amount if you want to model one. The tool compares converting now against leaving the money in a Traditional IRA.
The compounding engine adds each year’s contribution to the balance, then multiplies the total by the return rate.
Formula: Balance (Year N) = (Balance (Year N−1) + Contribution) × (1 + Return Rate)
Contributions happen at the start of every year, so each one earns a full twelve months of growth. The deposit grows if you enter a contribution growth rate.
Formula: Contribution (Year N) = Contribution (Year N−1) × (1 + Contribution Growth Rate)
Eligibility applies a linear phase-out. Inside the phase-out range, the allowed contribution shrinks proportionally to your income.
Formula: Allowed Contribution = Base Limit × (Phase-out End − Your MAGI) ÷ (Phase-out End − Phase-out Start)
The IRS rounds that figure down to the nearest $10. The tool follows the same convention. Above the phase-out ceiling, the allowed amount is zero, and the projection uses zero contributions.
The tax-free advantage measures what you avoid paying at retirement.
Formula: Tax-Free Advantage = Final Balance × Retirement Tax Rate
A $900,000 Roth balance against an 18% assumed retirement tax rate produces a $162,000 advantage, because that’s what a Traditional IRA of the same size would owe. The Roth owes nothing on qualified withdrawals.
The conversion analysis compares two futures for the same pre-tax dollars.
Formula: Roth Future Value = Converted Amount × (1 + Return Rate)^Years
Formula: Traditional Future Value = Roth Future Value × (1 − Retirement Tax Rate)
Formula: Net Conversion Advantage = (Roth FV − Traditional FV) − Tax Paid Today
Edge cases: if the retirement age is below the current age, the projection returns blank. A conversion amount of zero hides the conversion table entirely. A MAGI in the phase-out zone produces a reduced allowed contribution, and the projection uses that reduced figure, not the raw input.
You’re 29, single, earning $128,000. You have $14,200 in a Roth IRA, contribute $7,000 a year, and expect 7.5% annual returns. You plan to retire at 64, which gives 35 years of compounding. Current tax rate: 24%. Expected retirement rate: 22%. Withdrawal rate: 4%.
Step 1: Your MAGI is below the 2024 single-filer phase-out start of $146,000, so the full $7,000 is allowed.
Step 2: Total contributions over 35 years: $245,000.
Step 3: Projected balance at 64: $1,096,800.
Step 4: Tax-free growth above contributions and starting balance: $837,600.
Step 5: At a 4% withdrawal rate, that’s $43,872 in annual income. Zero federal tax owed. A Traditional IRA with the same balance would owe $9,652 a year at a 22% retirement rate.
Step 6: Lifetime tax-free advantage at retirement: $241,296. That’s the balance multiplied by the assumed retirement rate. It’s what a Traditional IRA of equal size would hand to the IRS and the Roth keeps.
For single filers the phase-out runs from $153,000 to $168,000. Married filing jointly: $242,000 to $252,000. Married filing separately: $0 to $10,000. Above the upper threshold, direct contributions aren’t allowed.
$7,500 if you’re under 50 and $8,600 if you’re 50 or older. The cap covers all IRAs combined, and your allowed amount shrinks inside the phase-out range based on your MAGI.
It depends on your tax rates. Roth wins when your retirement rate is higher than today’s. Traditional wins when today’s rate is higher. The calculator’s tax-free advantage figure quantifies the Roth side of that comparison.
No. The original owner never has to take an RMD. Traditional IRAs force withdrawals starting at age 73. The difference matters if you want to let the balance compound untouched for heirs or charity.
You need to wait five tax years from your first contribution before earnings can come out tax-free. The clock starts January 1 of the year you made your first Roth contribution. Separate 5-year clocks apply to each Roth conversion. Contributions themselves come out any time without tax or penalty.
Yes, contributions can be withdrawn at any age with no tax and no penalty since you already paid tax on them. Earnings are a different story. Early earnings withdrawals trigger income tax and a 10% penalty unless an exception applies.
It’s a two-step workaround for high earners. You contribute to a non-deductible Traditional IRA, then convert it to a Roth. The pro-rata rule means any pre-tax IRA balances you already have get pulled into the taxable portion of the conversion.
Your MAGI falls inside the phase-out range for your filing status. The tool calculates the allowed amount with the same proportional formula the IRS uses, then rounds down to the nearest $10.
When your current tax rate is lower than your expected retirement rate, when you have a low-income gap year, or when you expect to leave a large IRA to heirs in higher brackets. The conversion table compares the tax bill today against the future tax-free advantage.
No. All figures are federal-only. State income tax treatment of Roth contributions and conversions varies, and a few states tax Roth conversions differently from the federal system. Check your state’s rules separately.
Yes. The $7,500 Roth IRA limit and the $24,500 employee 401(k) limit are separate. You can contribute the full amount to both in 2026, subject to the Roth IRA income phase-out.
A $7,500 annual contribution at 7% for 30 years lands near $708,000. A higher return or contribution growth rate pushes that higher. Run your own numbers with the calculator for a projection based on your actual inputs.
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