One argument often made against doing a Roth conversion is that you can delay paying taxes and keep money invested in a traditional IRA, and, therefore, earn more income on your investments over time. But, any investment income made in a traditional IRA will eventually be taxed at your ordinary income tax rate. If you convert the money into a Roth, you can still have the same amount of money invested (assuming that you use non-IRA money to pay the taxes, which is allowed). However, the Roth investment income, dollar for dollar, is worth more than the traditional IRA investment income because it is never subject to income tax. So, when evaluating whether or not to do a Roth conversion, you need to consider both your tax rate and your potential for investment income over time. It could be that your overall net after-tax return will be higher if you do the Roth conversion. You really need to do the math.
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