As reported in the article, Thiel's income was below the income limit in the year of contribution, and he only needed one year's contribution to execute the str

As reported in the article, Thiel's income was below the income limit in the year of contribution, and he only needed one year's contribution to execute the strategy. Also, income doesn't matter nowadays. Because Congress removed the income limit on Roth conversions (also reported in the article), anyone is free to make a nondeductible traditional IRA contribution and convert it to Roth, which achieves a similar effect.