<prompt> Human: Im a 25 yr old female. I have a traditional ira. I am expecting to make less next year moving so will be unemployed for a while, I know I will have to pay income taxes on the money when I change it over. But will I also have to pay the 10 penalty when I go to a roth?  <response>: Provided that you do a proper conversion the easiest way is to do a same-trustee or direct trustee-to-trustee transfer so that it is not seen as a distribution, there is no penalty. Here is the IRS info on the conversion there isnt much, at the bottom of the page. 