<prompt> Human: Sorry if this topic is repetitive.nbsp;Ive been reading, but I havent been able to fully understand why its backdoor conversion so popular among high-income earners. The confusion is in part due to my inability to discern the differences in benefits between a conversion and plain contributing to a brokerage account. From my understanding, both are essentially funded by post-tax money you put in pre-taxed money to a tIRA, then pay your current rate when you convert, right? and you can withdraw your contributions to both without being taxed again on your contributions. With both a tIRA and a brokerage account, you are only taxed on the gains at the time of withdrawal. So why is it recommended to backdoor instead of contributing to a brokerage account? Would I get a tax deduction from that 5,500 tIRA contribution even though I eventually converted it to a Roth?nbsp;With that being asked, is a backdoor suitable for me? Lets say my income is at the cutoff point -- 133,000 for singles -- and that after deductionsbonusesetc., I project that I will still be over that limit. I have both, brokerage and rIRA, accounts with Vanguard. What factors should I consider in making this decision?nbsp;Please let me know if more information is needed. And thanks in advance.nbsp;Edit: Thank you all for teaching me about how often brokerage accounts are taxed. Years of passive investing meant I never fully paid attention to those recurring annual transactions and fees. I really appreciate all the responses!  <response>: Your question essentially comes down to why Roth vs taxable brokerage account. The answer is because the tax drag on gains in a taxable account is significant over time - you will pay capital gains or income tax on the latter, whereas the Roth account grows tax-free.Assuming you do not have existing Traditional IRA balances I would suggest you take full advantage of the backdoor Roth if you are close to the income limit for a full Roth IRA contribution MAGI of 118k for single, 186k for MFJ.You cannot deduct Traditional IRA contributions once your MAGI is over 72k single or 117k MFJ. 