529 to Roth IRA Rollover Calculator
What is left in the 529, and who it belongs to
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Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter what is left in the 529 once education is finished and how long the account has been open. The example uses $30,000 in an account opened sixteen years ago, which clears the fifteen-year test with a year to spare.
- 02
Enter the contributions made in the last five years, together with the earnings on them. That money is ineligible however old the account is — the example's $6,000 is what turns a $30,000 balance into $24,000 that can actually move.
- 03
Enter the beneficiary's earned income for the year and anything they have already put into their own IRAs. The example uses $20,000 of earnings and nothing contributed, so the full $7,500 Roth limit is available.
- 04
Set how many years you would keep rolling money across — six in the example. The table then shows each year's rollover, what has moved, what is left in the plan and how much of the $35,000 lifetime cap remains.
- 05
Read the headline, which is what can move this year, then check the stranded figure at the bottom. In the example $24,000 clears over four years and $6,000 stays behind, which is the number that tells you whether this route alone will empty the account.
Formula
A rollover from a 529 to a Roth IRA is allowed only where five conditions hold at the same time (26 U.S.C. 529(c)(3)(E)). 1. ACCOUNT AGE. The qualified tuition program must have been maintained for the 15-year period ending on the date of the distribution. 2. SEASONING. The distribution must not exceed the aggregate contributed to the program, and the earnings on it, before the 5-year period ending on the date of the distribution: eligible balance = total balance − contributions and earnings from the last 5 years 3. THE ANNUAL CAP. Each year's rollover is limited to the amount applicable to the beneficiary under section 408A(c)(2) — the Roth IRA contribution limit, $7,500 for 2026 — reduced by contributions made that year to all IRAs maintained for the beneficiary: annual room = Roth limit − other IRA contributions 4. EARNED INCOME. Because section 408A(c)(2) points to section 219, whose limit is the lesser of the dollar amount or compensation includible in gross income, the beneficiary needs earned income at least equal to the rollover: annual maximum = the smaller of annual room and earned income 5. THE LIFETIME CAP. Distributions of this kind for the beneficiary, across this year and all prior years, may not exceed $35,000. Putting them together: movable in total = the smaller of the eligible balance and the lifetime cap movable this year = the smaller of the annual maximum and what remains movable years to move it all = movable in total ÷ annual maximum, rounded up stranded = total balance − everything moved The transfer must be made directly from the plan to the Roth IRA, trustee to trustee.
Example
A family finishes paying for college and $30,000 is left in a 529 opened sixteen years ago. Of that balance, $6,000 was contributed within the last five years. The beneficiary, now working, earns $20,000 a year and has put nothing into an IRA of their own. The account clears the fifteen-year test, so rollovers can start now. The five-year seasoning rule, though, parks the $6,000 of recent contributions: only $24,000 is eligible to move. The annual maximum is $7,500 — the 2026 Roth IRA contribution limit, with nothing deducted because the beneficiary has made no other IRA contributions. Their $20,000 of earnings comfortably exceeds it, so earned income is not the binding constraint here. Rolling for six years, the money moves like this. Year one, $7,500, leaving $22,500 in the plan and $27,500 of lifetime cap. Year two, another $7,500, leaving $15,000 and $20,000. Year three, another $7,500, leaving $7,500 and $12,500. Year four, only $1,500 moves, because the eligible balance runs out — $24,000 has now gone and $11,000 of the $35,000 lifetime cap is still unused. Years five and six move nothing at all. So $24,000 reaches the Roth IRA over four years and $6,000 remains stranded in the 529. The lifetime cap was never the binding constraint; the five-year seasoning rule was. For the $6,000 left behind, the alternatives are changing the beneficiary to another family member, spending it on up to $10,000 of student loan repayment, or taking it out and paying ordinary income tax plus 10% on the earnings portion alone.
Definitions
- Fifteen-year rule
- The requirement that the 529 has been maintained for fifteen years ending on the date of the rollover. The statute does not say what a change of beneficiary does to this clock and the IRS has not issued guidance.
- Five-year seasoning
- Contributions made in the five years before a rollover, and the earnings on them, cannot move. It is the rule that most often limits how much leaves the plan, rather than the lifetime cap.
- Lifetime cap
- $35,000 of 529-to-Roth rollovers per beneficiary for life, across all years (26 U.S.C. 529(c)(3)(E)). It is not indexed for inflation.
- Earned income
- Wages or self-employment income includible in gross income. The beneficiary must have at least as much of it as the amount rolled over; investment income does not count.
- Trustee-to-trustee transfer
- A direct transfer from the 529 plan to the Roth IRA, without the money passing through the beneficiary's hands. A rollover must be made this way to qualify.
Good to know
Five conditions, all at once
The 529-to-Roth rollover was created by SECURE 2.0 and sits in a single paragraph of the tax code, 26 U.S.C. 529(c)(3)(E). It answers the oldest objection to these accounts — that money saved for an education that never happened is stuck behind a penalty — but it answers it narrowly, and every one of its five conditions must hold at the same moment. The plan must have been maintained for the fifteen-year period ending on the date of the distribution. The amount moved must not exceed what was contributed to the plan, and the earnings on it, before the five-year period ending on that date. Each year's rollover is capped at the amount applicable to the beneficiary under section 408A(c)(2) — the Roth IRA contribution limit, $7,500 for 2026 — reduced by anything already contributed that year to any IRA maintained for the beneficiary. The beneficiary must have earned income at least equal to the rollover. And the aggregate of all such distributions for that beneficiary, across this year and every prior year, may not exceed $35,000. Miss any one and the distribution is not a rollover at all; it is an ordinary non-qualified withdrawal, with the earnings taxed as income and charged the additional 10%. Two further mechanical requirements matter in practice. The transfer must be made directly from the plan to the Roth IRA, trustee to trustee, rather than passing through the beneficiary's bank account, and the plan is required to report the transfer to the receiving Roth IRA's trustee. The $35,000 ceiling is per beneficiary for life and is not indexed for inflation, which means it quietly buys less every year that passes. None of this makes the provision unattractive — tax-free retirement money is an excellent destination for savings that would otherwise be penalised — but it does mean the rollover is a useful escape hatch rather than a reason to overfund a 529 deliberately.
Why the seasoning rule bites before the lifetime cap
Most people reading about this provision fix on the $35,000 figure, and then discover that a quite different rule is what actually limits them. This page's example shows the pattern clearly. A family finishes paying for college with $30,000 left in a 529 opened sixteen years ago, comfortably clearing the fifteen-year test. But $6,000 of that balance was contributed within the last five years, and the seasoning rule excludes recent contributions and the earnings on them absolutely. Only $24,000 is eligible to move. At the annual cap of $7,500 that $24,000 takes four years to clear: $7,500 in each of the first three years and $1,500 in the fourth, at which point the eligible balance is exhausted. The lifetime cap was never reached — $11,000 of the $35,000 allowance is still sitting unused — and $6,000 remains stranded in the plan. The seasoning rule, not the headline ceiling, was the binding constraint throughout. This has a straightforward planning implication for anyone who anticipates leftover money. Contributions made in the final years before college are the ones that will be trapped, so a family that expects to overfund is better off front-loading earlier and easing off in the last five years, which also happens to be when tuition bills are arriving and contributions naturally slow. It also means the clock starts on money, not just on accounts: each contribution has its own five-year wait, and a parent still topping up a 529 during a child's senior year is creating a pool that cannot be rolled for another half-decade. The annual cap deserves one further observation, because it is shared rather than additional. A rollover consumes the beneficiary's own Roth IRA contribution room for the year, so every dollar they put into an IRA themselves is a dollar that cannot roll over. A beneficiary already maximising their own Roth contributions gains no extra sheltered space at all from this provision — though having the 529 fund it instead frees up the same amount of their own cash, which is a real benefit even if it is a different one from what the headline suggests.
The beneficiary needs a job, and other people's timing problems
The condition that most often stops a rollover has nothing to do with the 529 and everything to do with the beneficiary's circumstances. Because section 408A(c)(2) points across to section 219, whose limit is the lesser of the dollar amount or the compensation includible in the individual's gross income, the beneficiary must have earned income at least equal to the amount rolled over. Earned income means wages or self-employment income; investment income, gifts and distributions do not count. A beneficiary with no job can roll nothing at all, however old the account is, however much is sitting in it and however willing the parents are. In this page's example the beneficiary earns $20,000, which comfortably exceeds the $7,500 needed for a full year's rollover, so the constraint is invisible. For a great many families it will not be. The requirement pushes the whole exercise into the years after a beneficiary has started work, which creates an awkward sequencing problem: the money becomes movable at exactly the point the young adult is earning and might have funded a Roth themselves, and it is unavailable during the years of study when they have no income and the account is sitting idle. There is a related uncertainty that deserves a plain statement rather than confident advice. The statute requires the program to have been maintained for the fifteen-year period ending on the date of the distribution, and it says nothing whatever about what happens when the designated beneficiary is changed partway through. Does a switch to a younger sibling inherit the original opening date, or start a fresh fifteen-year clock? The IRS has not published guidance on the point, and plan administrators differ in how they treat it. Anyone contemplating moving a 529 to a younger child specifically in order to roll that child's money into a Roth later should ask the plan administrator in writing before doing anything, and should not assume the original date survives. It is the one part of this provision where a reasonable reading could turn out to be wrong, and the cost of being wrong is a non-qualified withdrawal.
What this is worth, and what to do with what will not move
It is worth being clear-eyed about the size of the prize, because the provision attracts more enthusiasm than its ceiling justifies. Moving $24,000 into a Roth IRA, as the example does over four years, buys tax-free growth for the rest of the beneficiary's life, and at a young age that is the most valuable shelter available to them: money moved at twenty-five has four decades to compound before anyone is likely to touch it. It also arrives without any of the friction a Roth conversion carries. This is not a conversion, and none of those rules apply. There is no income limit, so a high-earning beneficiary who could not make an ordinary Roth contribution at all is not shut out. There is no pro-rata rule, because no traditional IRA is involved. Nothing is added to anybody's taxable income, so it cannot push a person into a higher bracket or trigger a knock-on effect elsewhere on a return. Against that, the alternative was never a disaster. A non-qualified withdrawal taxes only the earnings, leaving contributions untouched, and adds 10% to those earnings alone. The rollover is clearly better wherever it is available; it is simply not large enough, at $35,000 across a lifetime and unindexed, to be a reason to overfund a 529 on purpose. For the money that cannot move — $6,000 in the example — three routes remain and the first is much the best. Changing the designated beneficiary to a member of the family is not a distribution at all and carries no tax cost, and the statutory definition of family is unusually wide, covering siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews, parents and even the account owner themselves. That makes a leftover balance a resource for the next child, or for a parent returning to study, rather than a problem. Failing that, a 529 can pay up to $10,000 of the beneficiary's own student loans and the same for each sibling. Only when all of those are exhausted does the taxed withdrawal become the answer, and by then it is usually a small residue rather than a substantial sum.
Frequently asked questions
How much 529 money can move to a Roth IRA?
Up to $35,000 for one beneficiary over their lifetime, and no more than the Roth IRA contribution limit in any single year — $7,500 for 2026, reduced by anything the beneficiary has already put into their own IRAs. In the example the full $7,500 can move this year. The cap is not indexed, so it buys a little less each year that passes.
What are all the conditions?
Five, all from 26 U.S.C. 529(c)(3)(E), and every one must hold at once. The plan must have been maintained for fifteen years. The money must not be a contribution from the last five years, or the earnings on one. Each year's rollover cannot exceed the Roth IRA limit less other IRA contributions. The beneficiary must have earned income at least as large as the rollover. And the lifetime total for that beneficiary must stay under $35,000. Miss one and the whole distribution is treated as a non-qualified withdrawal instead.
Why can't I move the whole balance at once?
Two separate rules bite. The annual cap means only $7,500 can move in 2026 however much is sitting there. And the five-year seasoning rule parks recent money: the $6,000 contributed in the last five years in the example cannot move at all yet, which is why a $30,000 balance has only $24,000 eligible. At $7,500 a year that $24,000 takes four years to clear, and $6,000 is still in the plan at the end of it.
Does the beneficiary really need a job?
Yes, and it catches families out because the requirement falls on the beneficiary rather than on whoever funded the plan. The rollover borrows the ordinary IRA rules, where the limit is the lesser of the dollar amount or the compensation includible in gross income (26 U.S.C. 408A(c)(2) and 219(b)(1)). A beneficiary with no earned income can roll nothing, however old the account is. In practice this pushes the whole exercise into the years after the beneficiary starts work, which is also when they are least able to fund a Roth themselves.
Does changing the beneficiary restart the fifteen-year clock?
Nobody knows for certain, and that is the honest answer. The statute says the program must have been maintained for the fifteen-year period ending on the date of the distribution, and it does not address what a change of designated beneficiary does to that clock. The IRS has not published guidance on the point, so plans differ in how they treat it. If you are thinking of switching a 529 to a younger sibling in order to roll their money to a Roth later, ask the plan administrator in writing first and do not assume the original opening date survives.
Is this a Roth conversion?
No, and none of the conversion rules apply. There is no income limit, so a high-earning beneficiary is not shut out the way they would be from an ordinary Roth contribution. There is no pro-rata rule, because no traditional IRA is involved. Nothing is added to taxable income, so it cannot push anyone into a higher bracket. What it does share with a conversion is the paperwork discipline: it must be a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer rather than a cheque, and the plan reports it to the receiving Roth IRA's trustee.
What do I do with the money this cannot move?
Three other routes exist. Changing the designated beneficiary to a member of the family — a sibling, a cousin, a parent, even yourself — is not a distribution at all and has no tax cost, and the statutory definition of family is wide. A 529 can pay up to $10,000 of the beneficiary's student loans, and the same again for each sibling. Failing those, a non-qualified withdrawal taxes only the earnings, at ordinary rates plus 10%, and the contributions come back untouched. In the example $6,000 is left stranded, which is the amount those routes would have to handle.