The 11-Year Tax Window Most Retirees Miss Between 62 and 73

Between ages 62 and 73, most retirees pass through an unusually low-tax stretch of life that they will never see again. Wages have stopped. Social Security can be delayed. Required minimum distributions from traditional retirement accounts have not yet kicked in. For roughly 11 years, taxable income sits in a valley, and that valley is exactly where Roth conversions do their best work. The problem is that most retirees do not plan for the window. They either claim Social Security as soon as they can, drift through their 60s without touching the question, or wait until RMDs begin at 73 and discover the door has closed on the lowest-cost conversion years of their retirement.

Why The Window Exists

The window is created by three rules that rarely line up in a person’s favor. Social Security can be claimed at age 62, but benefits are reduced by up to 30% at that age, while waiting boosts checks by about 8% for each year of delay up to age 70. Many retirees who can afford to delay end up with several years of near-zero taxable income before benefits begin. Required minimum distributions, meanwhile, do not start until age 73, with the trigger age scheduled to move to 75 for those born in 1960 or later.

The 2026 brackets show how much room the valley actually contains. For tax year 2026, the standard deduction is $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married couples filing jointly. The 12% bracket runs up to $50,400 for singles, and $100,800 for joint filers, and the 22% bracket runs up to $105,700 single and $211,400 joint filers. A retired couple with little earned income can convert tens of thousands of dollars a year from a traditional IRA to a Roth and still have the conversion taxed at 12% or 22%, rather than facing it later at 24% or higher once Social Security and RMDs are both flowing.

What Retirees Are Walking Past

The cost of missing the window shows up later. Once RMDs begin, the IRS requires a withdrawal each year based on account balance and life expectancy, and an RMD itself cannot be converted to a Roth. The required withdrawal adds to Social Security, pension, and investment income, often pushing retirees into a higher bracket than they ever paid while working. Income receipts on assets across U.S. households reached $4,281.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, and Social Security payments hit $1,630.3 billion in the same quarter, both still climbing. For a retiree, those same trends mean future taxable income is unlikely to fall, which is the entire argument for converting during the valley.

Interest rates frame the math but do not change it. The federal funds effective rate was 3.63% as of June 17, 2026, and the 10-year Treasury yield was 4.32% in April 2026. Lower rates reduce the after-tax return on the cash used to pay conversion taxes, while bracket arithmetic remains the central driver of the decision.

The Five-Year Rule Most People Forget

A separate trap inside the window is the Roth five-year clock. Each conversion starts its own holding period before the converted dollars can be withdrawn penalty-free if the account holder is under age 59½. The clock begins on January 1 of the year of each conversion and restarts for every new conversion. Once you reach age 59½, the penalty no longer applies, but for those converting in their early 60s, the timing still matters. Opening and funding a Roth IRA early, even with a small contribution, starts a separate five-year clock for tax-free earnings withdrawals, but it does not consolidate the conversion clocks.

Using The Window

Three patterns emerge from the data:

1. Annual taxable income between 62 and 73 sets the ceiling on how much traditional IRA income can be converted while staying within the 12% or 22% bracket. The $100,800 ceiling on the 12% bracket for joint filers is the most common target.
2. Social Security timing interacts directly with the conversion math. Delaying benefits past 62 widens the valley and leaves more bracket space available for conversions.
3. The five-year clock on each conversion and the IRMAA thresholds both matter, since crossing the set modified adjusted gross income thresholds can raise Medicare premiums.

Once RMDs start at 73, the lowest-tax conversion years are gone, and the unconverted balance becomes a tax bill the retiree no longer controls.

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