A Couple Who Retires at 62 With $650,000 Between Two IRAs Can Convert $40,000 a Year for 11 Years. The Average Couple Converts Nothing and Meets $42,000 of Required Withdrawals at 73

Picture a married couple who both stop working at 62 with $650,000 split between two traditional IRAs. Their paychecks are gone, Social Security may not have started yet, and their taxable income probably hasn’t been this low since their twenties.

That quiet stretch lasts until 73, the age when SECURE 2.0 starts required minimum distributions (mandatory yearly withdrawals). If they move $40,000 a year into Roth IRAs, which grow and pay out tax-free, they can use all 11 years of that window. A couple that converts nothing ends up facing a combined $42,000 in required withdrawals once the window closes.

Most conversion math works the same for one person as for two. Being a couple changes three things: the brackets they use, Medicare surcharges they can pay twice, and the tax bill one will face alone.

Joint Brackets Give a Couple Twice the Room

This year, the IRS says the 12% bracket for joint filers runs up to $100,800 of taxable income. The joint standard deduction is $32,200. Together, that means a couple can have $133,000 of gross income before any of it is taxed above that rate.

That room grows larger later. Each spouse 65 or older adds $1,650 to the standard deduction. The One Big Beautiful Bill created a senior deduction of up to $6,000 per person, phasing out for joint filers at $150,000. Each year’s available room is whatever remains under the couple’s chosen limit after other income.

What Changes When One Spouse Dies

A surviving spouse generally files jointly in the year of death. With a dependent child at home, qualifying surviving spouse status keeps joint rates for up to two years after. Otherwise, the survivor files as single the following year. Note that the IRMAA table treats “qualifying surviving spouse with dependent child” differently from a true joint filer for some thresholds, but the single-filer threshold generally applies once the survivor files as single.

Single brackets are roughly half as wide. For a single filer, that bracket ends at $50,400 of taxable income, and the standard deduction is $16,100. That drops the 12% limit to $66,500 of gross income.

The survivor’s income rarely falls by half. The smaller Social Security check stops; the survivor keeps the larger one. The inherited IRA keeps producing required withdrawals. The same money gets taxed at higher rates for life. That’s the strongest case for converting while both spouses are alive: the tax gets paid in joint brackets, and the survivor never reports that money as income.

Medicare Surcharges Hit Twice, Then Get Easier to Trigger

IRMAA, Medicare’s income-related monthly adjustment amount, is an extra premium for higher-income retirees based on the tax return from two years earlier. This year, it starts once joint modified adjusted gross income passes $218,000, raising the Part B premium from $202.90 to $284.10 a month.

Medicare charges that premium to each enrolled person, so a couple crossing a threshold pays the surcharge twice. A survivor faces the single threshold of $109,000, meaning household income that never triggered a surcharge can trigger one after death. The survivor can file Form SSA-44 online, by fax, by mail, or at a local office to request recalculation for life-changing events. However, a filing status change from joint to single, which is what happens when a spouse dies, is not a qualifying event by itself. SSA-44 cannot reverse the bracket shift caused solely by a filing-status change. It only works if the survivor also had a genuine income reduction, such as the loss of a deceased spouse’s Social Security or pension income.

Deciding Whose IRA to Convert First

Each conversion must come from one spouse’s own IRA. The older spouse turns 73 first, and once their required withdrawals start, the household’s window closes. Women tend to outlive men, so the older husband’s IRA is often inherited by the survivor, which is a reason to convert more aggressively from that account.

The annual amount depends on details only couples face. One spouse may still work after the other retires. They may claim Social Security at different ages, or only one may have a pension. All use up bracket room.

Paying tax with savings outside the IRA keeps the whole conversion growing inside the Roth. Withholding tax from a conversion before 59½ counts as an early withdrawal and can trigger an additional 10% tax. Couples without the cash often convert smaller amounts.

Couples Who Can Skip It

Some couples stay in the 10% or 12% bracket for life, with the survivor living mostly on one Social Security check plus a small IRA. Converting means paying tax now at the same low rate owed later, or possibly nothing. Over the window, a full schedule moves $440,000, which only makes sense if the survivor’s future tax rate is higher.

A Calculation Worth Running Every Autumn

Each fall, before December 31, a couple can estimate the year’s income, compare it with their bracket limit, and convert enough to fill the gap. The harder question: which is more likely to survive, and what will that person’s single-filer return look like? That answer determines the plan more than any bracket table (we sized up the low-tax years between retirement and RMDs, the window this whole exercise lives inside, in a free Roth guide).

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