It was a while ago, but IIRC you only owe taxes on the pre-tax contributions (which, in this case was $0). But I couldn't make a post-tax contribution directly

It was a while ago, but IIRC you only owe taxes on the pre-tax contributions (which, in this case was $0). But I couldn't make a post-tax contribution directly to a Roth, just a post-tax contribution to a traditional, then convert... [edit] Some googling[1] implies my memory was mostly correct. 1: https://www.investopedia.com/roth-ira-conversion-rules-4770480 https://www.investopedia.com/roth-ira-conversion-rules-47704... See particularly the part about "backdoor