Roth IRA income limit

Just do the backdoor ROTH method which will avoid this whole issue.

It may be too late this year since you may have already been contributing past your direct contribution maximum but do that going forward.

Here ya go. This discusses backdoor as well.

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if you over-contribute to a Roth IRA, you’ll have to withdraw the excess and any earnings on it. Otherwise, you’ll pay a 6% tax on ineligible contributions, plus you’ll pay a 10% early withdrawal penalty if you’re younger than 59.5.

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Lifehacker

You can either do a backdoor or file an 8606 to reclassify it as a non deductible contribution.

The tricky part with backdoor is you have end up with the pro rata rules which take into account all non Roth monies. You can’t pick and choose which dollars. It’s a percentage or you can do all at once, which might not make sense. It’s a PITA

You have until tax filing deadline the next year to make a contribution for the previous year.

You can wait to see what the actual numbers are and then make the contribution in Jan- Feb of 2021 for 2020 tax year.

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So what happens if I’ve already contributed too much and we go over the income limit? I

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You just have a to remove the over contribution plus and growth on that portion. Happens all the time. Every iRA custodian can walk you through it. No penalties as long as you do it before tax filing.

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The tricky part with backdoor is you have end up with the pro rata rules which take into account all non Roth monies. You can’t pick and choose which dollars. It’s a percentage or you can do all at once, which might not make sense. It’s a PITA

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It's literally one of the easiest retirement things to do.

Contribute $6,000 into your traditional IRA's money market.
It will take a day or two to season.
Click the convert to Roth IRA button.
Direct the $6,000 into the Roth IRA's fund of your choice.

That's it.

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There is a lot more nuance than that.

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On Vanguard, that is literally all you do. The only extra step is Form 8606 (I think that's it anyway) at tax time.

Here is a step by step on Vanguard's website LINK

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Unless this is your first and only retirement vehicle.

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I guess. Besides my 401k, SOLO 401k, my wife's 403B, 457, her Roth IRA, and her TRSL I oversee. But I probably don't know what I'm doing.

It is more complicated if you have other IRA's and that includes rollovers.

Contribute $6,000 into money market in traditional IRA.
I already have $94,000 in a Rollover IRA from a previous job.
Convert $6,000 to Roth IRA (but only 6% is eligible for backdoor).
$360 is backdoor and I owe tax on $5,640.

To answer the OP's question when you are flirting with the limit...put as much as you can into Roth until phase out then backdoor the rest (assuming you don't have other IRA's as detailed above). Your CPA can run the calculation for you. You can do as suggested and do a backdoor even if under the Roth limits (or in phase out) just make sure you don't take the deduction for the traditional IRA part that is eligible.

Definitely ways to get around the pro-rata rules, thanks for adding.

I was just trying to address the posters questioning how it can be more complicated.