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The IRA rollover chart: what can roll where

One table answers most rollover questions — and every trap lives in its footnotes. This page reproduces the IRS rollover chart in full, then walks the conditions that quietly turn a "yes" into a taxable distribution: the SIMPLE IRA two-year rule, the once-per-12-months limit, the Roth one-way doors, after-tax basis, and the accounts the chart leaves out entirely.

By Casmir Mason — family-office CFO
Updated August 2026 · 2026 tax year
Educational — not tax advice
The short version

The IRA rollover chart is an eight-by-eight grid: rows are where the money is now, columns are where you want it to go, and each cell is yes, no, or yes with a condition attached. Four rules produce nearly all of the "no" answers. Roth IRA money only moves to another Roth IRA — it cannot go back into any employer plan, or into a SIMPLE IRA, or into a traditional IRA. A designated Roth 401(k) can roll to a Roth IRA but never the reverse. A SIMPLE IRA is locked to other SIMPLE IRAs for two years from the date you first participated, and breaking that lock costs a 25% additional tax rather than the usual 10%. And anything pre-tax landing in a Roth IRA is taxable in the year it lands. The chart also has a blind spot worth knowing about: it does not cover inherited accounts, and for a non-spouse beneficiary the answer in almost every cell would be no.

In this guide

  1. How to read the rollover chart
  2. The IRA rollover chart
  3. Roth IRA money only goes to a Roth IRA
  4. The SIMPLE IRA two-year rule
  5. The designated Roth 401(k) one-way door
  6. The once-per-12-months rule
  7. After-tax money and how basis reaches a Roth IRA
  8. What the chart leaves out
  9. Direct versus indirect: the 20% trap
  10. Before you move anything

How to read the rollover chart

The IRS publishes the master grid as a single-page PDF — the IRS Rollover Chart — and it settles whether a transfer is legal before anyone starts arguing about whether it is wise. Read it in one direction: find your money in the left-hand column, run across to the destination, take the answer in the cell.

Three things about the format matter. The grid is not symmetrical — many pairs work in one direction and not the other, and that asymmetry causes most of the expensive mistakes. A yes means the transaction is permitted, not that it is tax-free; footnote 3 marks the cells where the amount must be included in income, which is to say the cells that are Roth conversions. And a permitted rollover can still be refused by the receiving institution — employer plans are never obliged to accept incoming money.

One row that people look for is not there. There is no "rollover IRA" line, because a rollover IRA is a traditional IRA under a different label — use the traditional IRA row.

The IRA rollover chart

Scroll the table sideways to see every destination.

Rollover chart — reproduced from the IRS Rollover Chart. Rows are the source account; columns are the destination. Numbers are the IRS footnotes, listed below the table.
Roll from ↓  ·  Roll to → Roth IRA Traditional IRA SIMPLE IRA SEP-IRA Governmental 457(b) Qualified plan1 (pre-tax) 403(b) (pre-tax) Designated Roth account
Roth IRA Yes2 No No No No No No No
Traditional IRA Yes3 Yes2 Yes2,7, after two years Yes2 Yes4 Yes Yes No
SIMPLE IRA Yes3, after two years Yes2, after two years Yes2 Yes2, after two years Yes4, after two years Yes, after two years Yes, after two years No
SEP-IRA Yes3 Yes2 Yes2,7, after two years Yes2 Yes4 Yes Yes No
Governmental 457(b) Yes3 Yes Yes7, after two years Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes3,5
Qualified plan1 (pre-tax) — includes 401(k) Yes3 Yes Yes7, after two years Yes Yes4 Yes Yes Yes3,5
403(b) (pre-tax) Yes3 Yes Yes7, after two years Yes Yes4 Yes Yes Yes3,5
Designated Roth account (401(k), 403(b) or 457(b)) Yes No No No No No No Yes6
  1. Qualified plans include, for example, profit-sharing, 401(k), money purchase and defined benefit plans.
  2. Only one rollover in any 12-month period.
  3. Must include in income.
  4. Must have separate accounts.
  5. Must be an in-plan rollover.
  6. Any nontaxable amounts distributed must be rolled over by direct trustee-to-trustee transfer.
  7. Applies to rollover contributions after December 18, 2015.

Source: IRS Rollover Chart (PDF), supported by Publication 590-A and Rollovers of retirement plan and IRA distributions.

Roth IRA money only goes to a Roth IRA

The top row is the shortest in the chart and the most absolute. From a Roth IRA there is exactly one legal destination — another Roth IRA — and it carries footnote 2, the once-per-12-months limit. Every other cell is no.

So a Roth IRA cannot be rolled into your employer's 401(k), even into its Roth side, and not into a 403(b) or a governmental 457(b) either. It cannot go into a SIMPLE IRA; the IRS says so directly on its SIMPLE IRA transfer rules page — SIMPLE IRAs may not accept rollovers from Roth IRAs or from designated Roth accounts. And it cannot go into a traditional IRA, because that would undo tax already paid.

The practical consequence surfaces in backdoor Roth planning. People with a large pre-tax IRA balance often clear it into a 401(k) so the pro-rata rule stops taxing their conversions — the traditional IRA row shows yes into a qualified plan. The same tidying-up is impossible once the money has been converted. A dollar that reaches a Roth IRA stays in the Roth IRA system, and getting it back out is a distribution rather than a rollover, priced by the ordering rules in the Roth IRA early withdrawal guide.

The SIMPLE IRA two-year rule

The SIMPLE IRA row is the most conditional in the chart, and its condition is the most expensive one to get wrong. The clock starts on the date you first participated in your employer's SIMPLE IRA plan — the date of the first contribution to your account, not the date you opened it and not January 1 of anything. For two years from that date, a SIMPLE IRA can only move to another SIMPLE IRA. Every other destination in that row is gated behind "after two years."

Break the two-year lock and it is not a failed rollover — it is a distribution. The IRS is explicit: transfer money out of a SIMPLE IRA to anything other than another SIMPLE IRA inside the two-year window and you are treated as having withdrawn the amount. You include it in gross income and pay an additional 25% tax, not the usual 10%, unless you are at least 59½ or another exception applies (IRS — SIMPLE IRA withdrawal and transfer rules).

The SIMPLE IRA column has its own history. A SIMPLE IRA could once only receive money from another SIMPLE IRA; a 2015 change opened it to traditional IRAs, SEP-IRAs and employer plans — that is footnote 7, "applies to rollover contributions after December 18, 2015." The two-year condition governs on the receiving side too, so nothing can be rolled in until the participant's own two years have run.

Two smaller points. Roth SIMPLE IRAs now exist, and a Roth SIMPLE balance follows Roth rules rather than the pre-tax cells above. And the clock runs per employer plan, so a new job and a new SIMPLE starts a fresh window.

The designated Roth 401(k) one-way door

The bottom row of the chart is the mirror image of the top one. A designated Roth account — the Roth side of a 401(k), 403(b) or governmental 457(b) — can roll into a Roth IRA, or into another designated Roth account under footnote 6, and nowhere else. Roth 401(k) money cannot go to a traditional IRA, a SEP, a SIMPLE, or the pre-tax side of any plan.

The door only swings one way: reading up the Roth IRA row, a Roth IRA cannot come back into a designated Roth account. The move is therefore irreversible, and one detail catches people. The holding period does not travel with the money. Years in a designated Roth account do not count toward the five-year clock on your Roth IRA; the receiving Roth IRA's own clock governs, running from the first year you funded any Roth IRA. Someone with a ten-year-old Roth 401(k) and a Roth IRA opened last month inherits the new clock.

The classic reason to move has gone away. Designated Roth accounts used to carry lifetime required minimum distributions while Roth IRAs did not, and rolling out was the standard fix; SECURE 2.0 ended pre-death RMDs from designated Roth accounts in 2024. What remains are ordinary reasons — investment menu, fees, consolidation — against the counterweight that plan money generally enjoys stronger federal creditor protection. If the money is still pre-tax and you want it on the Roth side without leaving the plan, that is a different transaction: an in-plan Roth conversion, footnote 5 in the chart.

The once-per-12-months rule

Footnote 2 appears on every IRA-to-IRA cell, and it is the single most misread rule in the grid. You may make only one IRA-to-IRA rollover in any 12-month period, and the limit is applied to you, not to your accounts. All of your traditional, Roth, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs are aggregated for the count. Two IRAs do not buy two rollovers.

What the rule does not reach is the more useful half of the answer. It does not apply to trustee-to-trustee transfers, where the money moves between custodians without ever passing through your hands — you can do those as often as you like. It does not apply to conversions to a Roth IRA. And it does not apply to rollovers between an employer plan and an IRA in either direction, which is why the plan rows carry no footnote 2. In practice, then, the once-per-year restriction bites only on 60-day IRA-to-IRA rollovers — the one method almost nobody actually needs. The mechanics, the 12-month counting and the late-rollover self-certification route all sit in the 60-day rollover rule guide.

A failed second rollover is unforgiving. The amount is treated as a distribution, taxable and potentially penalised, and depositing it anyway creates an excess contribution taxed at 6% a year until you remove it.

After-tax money and how basis reaches a Roth IRA

The chart is drawn in pre-tax and Roth terms and has no column for a third category that many balances contain: after-tax money that is not designated Roth. In an IRA this is nondeductible contribution basis tracked on Form 8606. In a plan it is old after-tax contributions or the voluntary after-tax bucket that makes a mega backdoor Roth possible.

The two behave very differently, and confusing them is expensive. IRA basis is not separable: under the pro-rata rule, any distribution or conversion from a traditional IRA carries a proportionate slice of basis and of pre-tax money, calculated across all your traditional, SEP and SIMPLE IRAs as though they were one account. You cannot convert "just the basis." Plan after-tax money is separable — it sits in its own source, and on a distribution you may split it, directing the pre-tax portion to a traditional IRA and the after-tax portion to a Roth IRA with no tax on the after-tax part. That is what makes the strategy work, and it depends on the plan offering after-tax contributions and permitting distributions of that source — an in-service withdrawal question.

One reconciliation point: pre-tax money leaving a plan for a traditional IRA is not taxed, while the same money going to a Roth IRA is taxed in full, which is why that cell carries footnote 3. Sequencing conversions across several years to fill low brackets is the subject of the Roth conversion guide, and you can price a specific year in the calculator.

What the chart leaves out

Four significant categories never appear in the grid, and each one has caught somebody out.

  • Inherited accounts. This is the big one. A non-spouse beneficiary cannot roll over an inherited IRA at all — there is no 60-day rollover, no rollover into your own IRA and no rollover into your 401(k). The only permitted movement is a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer into another correctly titled inherited IRA. A surviving spouse is the exception and may treat the account as their own or roll it over. Beneficiary rules and the ten-year window are covered in the inherited IRA RMD guide.
  • Non-governmental 457(b) plans. The chart's 457(b) row and column are labelled governmental for a reason. A private tax-exempt employer's 457(b) is an unfunded deferred compensation arrangement; it cannot be rolled into an IRA or a 401(k), and its only permitted destination is another non-governmental 457(b) plan.
  • 529 plans. Since 2024 a 529 beneficiary can move unused funds to their own Roth IRA, subject to a lifetime cap, a 15-year account age requirement, a look-back on recent contributions and the annual IRA contribution limit. It is a real rollover route that simply predates the chart's last revision.
  • Required minimum distributions. An RMD is never an eligible rollover distribution. If you are of RMD age, the required amount must come out first and stay out — it cannot be converted to a Roth IRA and it cannot be rolled into a plan.

Direct versus indirect: the 20% trap

The chart says whether a move is allowed, not how to execute it — and execution is where money is actually lost. There are two ways to complete a permitted rollover, and they are not equivalent.

A direct rollover sends the money institution to institution. Nothing is withheld, the 60-day clock never starts, and the once-per-12-months count is untouched. An indirect rollover pays the money to you and gives you 60 days to redeposit it. For plan money that is a bad trade, because a plan must withhold 20% of an eligible rollover distribution paid to the participant. Take $100,000 from a 401(k) as a cheque and you receive $80,000; to roll the full $100,000 you must find the missing $20,000 from your own pocket within 60 days and wait until you file to recover it. Roll only the $80,000 and the withheld $20,000 becomes a taxable distribution, with the 10% early distribution tax on top if you are under 59½.

Ask for a direct rollover in every case the chart permits one. If a cheque arrives, make sure it is payable to the receiving custodian for your benefit rather than to you personally — that keeps it a direct rollover regardless of who carries the envelope. The wider set of choices when a 401(k) is left behind is in the guide to your 401(k) after leaving a job.

Before you move anything

  1. Find the cell. Source in the left column, destination across the top. If it says no, stop — attempting a workaround produces a taxable distribution, not a failed transfer.
  2. Read the footnotes on that cell. Footnote 3 means a tax bill this year. Footnote 2 means check whether you have already used a 60-day IRA rollover in the last 12 months. "After two years" means confirm your SIMPLE start date in writing.
  3. Confirm the receiving account will take it. Plans may decline incoming rollovers, and many decline after-tax or Roth sources specifically. That is a plan document question, not a tax question.
  4. Ask for a direct rollover and check the cheque is not payable to you.
  5. Take out anything that must come out first — an RMD for the year in particular — before the transfer is initiated rather than after.
  6. Watch the paperwork in January. A direct rollover still generates a Form 1099-R; reconcile it against the Form 5498 from the receiving custodian.

None of this decides whether a move is a good idea — only whether it is possible and what it costs to execute. Fees, investment options, creditor protection and the bracket the money eventually comes out in sit on the other side of that question, and the retirement withdrawals and taxes guide is where they are weighed.

Go deeperThe 60-day rollover rule and the once-per-year limit →

Frequently asked questions

Yes, in most cases. The IRS rollover chart shows that a traditional IRA, a SEP-IRA and a SIMPLE IRA (after two years) can all roll into a qualified plan such as a 401(k), into a 403(b), or into a governmental 457(b). Two conditions apply. Only pre-tax money moves — a Roth IRA can never roll into a 401(k), and nondeductible basis tracked on Form 8606 is not an eligible rollover amount. And the receiving plan has to accept incoming rollovers; plans are permitted to refuse them, so check the plan document before you initiate anything. Rolling IRA money into a plan is the standard way to clear a pre-tax balance out of the pro-rata calculation before a backdoor Roth contribution.
Yes. The chart marks that cell Yes with footnote 3 — must include in income. A direct rollover of pre-tax 401(k) money into a Roth IRA is a Roth conversion: the full pre-tax amount is added to your ordinary income for the year, and the plan reports it on Form 1099-R. Designated Roth 401(k) money is different — it rolls into a Roth IRA without any tax, because it was already taxed on the way in. If your 401(k) holds both kinds of money, you can split the distribution and send the pre-tax portion to a traditional IRA and the Roth portion to a Roth IRA.
Yes. A rollover IRA is a traditional IRA; the label is an administrative convention, not a separate account type in the tax code, and the IRS rollover chart has no row for it. It is taxed under the same rules, uses the same required minimum distribution table and reports on the same Form 8606. Keeping rollover money in its own account is still sometimes useful — some plans will only accept an incoming rollover from an IRA that holds nothing but plan money, and a few states draw a line between rollover and contributory IRAs for creditor protection.
Yes. Because a rollover IRA is simply a traditional IRA, you can make regular annual contributions to it — $7,500 for 2026, or $8,600 if you are 50 or older — subject to the usual compensation and deduction rules. The rollover balance itself does not count against that limit; the IRS states plainly that the IRA contribution limit does not apply to rollover contributions. The only reason to keep contributions out is practical: mixing them can complicate a later rollover into an employer plan that insists on receiving plan-source money only.
Yes. If a 401(k) distribution is paid to you rather than moved directly, you have 60 days from receipt to deposit it into an eligible retirement account or it becomes a taxable distribution. The complication with plan money is the 20% mandatory withholding: the plan must withhold 20% of an eligible rollover distribution paid to you, so to complete a full rollover you have to replace that 20% out of pocket and wait for the refund. What does not apply to 401(k) money is the once-per-12-months limit — that restriction covers IRA-to-IRA rollovers only.