A worked example

The state tax no rate table shows

Dana, 62, single, retired in New York with $900,000 in pre-tax accounts and $300,000 in a brokerage account, spending $60,000 a year. No Social Security yet, no other income.

“I want the whole pre-tax balance in a Roth before RMDs start. New York's top rate is nowhere near California's. How much does the state actually take?”

What the projection shows

Nine years of $100,000 conversions add up to $212,711 of lifetime tax in present value, and the state's share doesn't behave the way a bracket table suggests. New York excludes the first $20,000 a year of pension and annuity income once you've been 59½ for a full year, and a Roth conversion counts (TSB-M-98(7)I), so a fifth of each early conversion leaves the state's tax base entirely. Then the brokerage account runs dry, the projection starts funding living costs from the pre-tax balance on top of the conversion, and state income crosses New York's supplemental-tax threshold. From that year on, the state adds a supplemental tax on top of its regular schedule, and two years behind each conversion the Medicare lookback arrives as well. Neither shows up in a rate table, and neither was what the question was about.