Traditional vs. Roth IRA’s

I just opened an account with fidelity and plan on rolling over a small Traditional IRA (that had been an old employer IRA and rolled into a traditional 6 years ago) into a Match Fidelity Traditional IRA. (Thanks for the tip!) I want to fund it before the deadline (I am 56) however, I do not need the tax deduction . My question is, if I do not need the tax deduction is it to my advantage to transfer my old account into a ROTH and fund that instead of keeping it a traditional and transferring it as such? Thank you, I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and tenacity with “us”.

Terry Says:  Just keep in mind that if you convert it to a Roth IRA, you will owe taxes on all that money, since neither contributions, nor gains have been taxed.  You should have money OUTSIDE the account to pay those taxes — or you will face a 10 percent penalty, plus ordinary income taxes on the amount you take out of the IRA to pay taxes!  And that negates the entire value of rolling the IRA into a Roth to get tax-free growth.   If you don’t have the money to pay the taxes, just keep it in a traditional IRA.