Clear Money Guide
What this state guide covers
A quick view of the questions, practical details and source notes below.
Updated August 12, 2026. Quick answer: No, at any age — provided the whole amount lands in the Roth. Pennsylvania’s own PA-40 instruction booklet carries a heading called “Roth IRA Rollover”: you owe no Pennsylvania tax on the difference between what came out of the traditional IRA and your previous contributions if the entire withdrawal moved trustee to trustee, or if you put 100% of it into a Roth within 60 days. The catch is federal withholding — anything held back and not replaced into the new account is taxable to Pennsylvania at 3.07%, to the extent it exceeds your basis in the old IRA.
Confidence note: high. Pennsylvania addresses the conversion by name rather than by inference: Personal Income Tax Bulletin 2008-1 has a section headed “Conversions,” and the PA-40 booklet adds a “Roth IRA Rollover” rule plus a 1099-R filing tip written specifically for a conversion reported with distribution Code 1 — the early-distribution code. An earlier version of this page told you the cited authority was silent about conversions. That was wrong: our citation was incomplete.
Why a conversion is a different question from a withdrawal
Almost every state summary answers “how does Pennsylvania tax retirement income?” That is a question about distributions. A Roth conversion is not a distribution in the ordinary sense — it is a voluntary election to recognise income now in exchange for tax-free growth later. Whether a state’s retirement exclusion reaches that election is a separate question, and it is the one that decides your bill.
Pennsylvania settles that separate question the way it settles a rollover. Its Department of Revenue treats the conversion as a distribution out of the traditional IRA, then treats that distribution as nontaxable when the full amount is rolled into the Roth — which is why Pennsylvania’s usual age-59½ rule for IRA withdrawals does not decide this page. The department’s own filing tip is written for a conversion reported with distribution Code 1, the code used when the owner is under 59½.
The part worth getting right is the money that never reaches the Roth. If federal tax is withheld from the conversion and you do not replace that exact amount out of other money within the 60 days, Pennsylvania treats the withheld slice as a distribution you kept: taxable at 3.07% to the extent it exceeds the adjusted basis — your previous contributions, less any previous distributions — in the original IRA. Paying the federal tax from outside the account avoids that entirely.
What Pennsylvania does with the converted amount
State income tax: flat 3.07%
How Pennsylvania treats IRA and plan income: Not taxed in retirement: distributions from eligible employer-sponsored plans (pensions, 401(k), 403(b)) are exempt when made after retirement upon meeting the plan’s age or years-of-service conditions. IRA distributions exempt when made on or after age 59 1/2 (or death/disability). Early distributions can be taxable to the extent they exceed previously-taxed contributions.
In Pennsylvania the whole amount has to land in the Roth.
The PA-40 booklet’s Roth IRA Rollover heading says you owe nothing on the converted amount if it moves trustee to trustee, or if 100% of the withdrawal reaches the Roth within 60 days. The trap is federal withholding: whatever is held back and not replaced becomes taxable at 3.07% above your basis. That is a mechanics question worth getting right before the paperwork is filed.
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What to ask a preparer about Pennsylvania
Nothing on eligibility — the PA-40 instructions settle it. Ask about mechanics instead: is the conversion going trustee to trustee, is any federal tax being withheld, and if it is, are you replacing that exact amount into the Roth from other money inside 60 days? That answer, not your age, is what decides whether Pennsylvania takes 3.07%.
Converting around a move
Converting in the year you move into Pennsylvania is the case that catches people. Residency at the moment of conversion is what generally determines which state gets to tax it, so a conversion executed a week before a move and one executed a week after can produce different bills.
Four separate taxes change when you move, not one: income tax on withdrawals, treatment of Social Security, estate tax, and inheritance tax. A state that looks good on conversions can be worse on the other three.
The state bill is the smaller half
Whatever Pennsylvania does, the conversion is federal ordinary income first. The federal bracket you land in, and whether the conversion pushes you over an IRMAA threshold two years later, will usually move more money than the state line does. The state answer tells you whether to convert here; the federal answer tells you how much to convert at once.
Paying the tax from outside the account matters more than either. Using converted dollars to pay the bill shrinks the balance that was the entire point of converting.
Sources
Authority: PA Department of Revenue, PA-40 instruction booklet, “Roth IRA Rollover” and the 1099-R filing tips — the guidance that decides this page; PA Personal Income Tax Bulletin 2008-1, “IRAs,” Section 11.2 (Conversions). Also 72 P.S. § 7301(d) (compensation definition excluding retirement payments); 61 Pa. Code § 101.6; 72 P.S. sec. 9116.
The 2025 PA-40 booklet and Bulletin 2008-1 were read in full at the source on August 12, 2026. Compiled from state statutes, session laws and revenue-department publications and adversarially verified in July 2026. Dataset confidence for Pennsylvania: high.
This page states what the cited authority says. It is not tax advice, and a conversion large enough to matter is worth putting in front of a preparer who can see your whole return.
Nearby states
With no Pennsylvania tax to add on a properly executed conversion, the only bill left is the federal one — enter a state rate of zero in the Roth conversion state tax calculator and it will show you that bill, and how much of the conversion reaches the Roth once you have paid it. If a move to a state that does tax conversions is on the table, it will price both sides.