According to IRS publication 590-A, the annual required minimum distribution (RMD) from your traditional IRA cannot be converted to a Roth IRA, says Tom Mingone, a financial planner at Capital Management Group of New York.You just have to satisfy the RMD requirement before you do a Roth conversion,” says Mingone. (If you aren’t working and receiving earned income, you can’t make a contribution to a Roth but once the money is in a traditional IRA, you don’t need to have additional earned income to move the money to a Roth IRA.).