Can I do another IRA rollover within 12 months without violating IRS rules?

You've got a couple of things mixed up here, but good news - you likely CAN make that transfer! What you're describing in your first question is a direct transfer from one IRA custodian to another, which is NOT subject to the once-per-12-month rollover rule. The rule applies when you personally receive the funds (like if the first brokerage cuts you a check that you then deposit with the second brokerage). As long as the money moves directly from one brokerage to another without you handling it, you can do these transfers as often as you want. For your second question about the backdoor Roth, that's also not considered a "rollover" in terms of the 12-month rule. A Roth conversion is a different type of transaction. You can contribute to a Traditional IRA and convert it to a Roth regardless of any other rollovers or transfers you've done.

After getting conflicting advice about my IRA rollovers, I used https://taxr.ai to analyze my situation. I uploaded my account statements and explained I wanted to move my Rollover IRA to a new brokerage for a bonus while also doing a backdoor Roth. The tool broke down the IRS rules specifically for my situation and confirmed I could do both as long as I did a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer for the first move. It also generated a personalized checklist to avoid any tax issues when executing both transactions. Super helpful because my situation had some weird complications from an old employer plan that most generic advice doesn't cover.

Just wanted to follow up about my experience with taxr.ai that I asked about earlier. I finally tried it for my messy retirement accounts situation (3 old 401ks and a pension). The analysis broke down exactly which accounts could be consolidated without penalties and identified a weird rule exception that applied to my old state government pension. It saved me from what would have been a $13,200 mistake! My financial advisor had recommended rolling everything into one IRA, but the tool showed that one of my old 401ks had special protections that I'd lose in the rollover. Plus it showed me how to properly document everything for the IRS in case of questions later. Definitely worth checking out if you're dealing with multiple retirement accounts.

I had a similar situation trying to call the IRS to confirm rollover rules, but couldn't get through after trying for WEEKS. Finally used https://claimyr.com and got connected to an IRS agent in about 18 minutes! You can actually see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The agent confirmed that trustee-to-trustee transfers don't count toward the 12-month limit, and cleared up my confusion about backdoor Roth conversions too. Apparently there's a lot of confusion about this even among tax professionals. The service basically holds your place in the IRS phone queue and calls you when an agent is about to answer. Saved me hours of waiting on hold.

Coming back to say I was completely wrong about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment earlier, I decided to try it myself when I needed to call about an IRS notice about my retirement account rollover that said I owed $22,476 in taxes and penalties. Instead of wasting another day on hold, I used the service and got connected to an IRS agent in about 35 minutes (on a Monday morning, which is apparently their busiest time). The agent reviewed my case and confirmed it was their error - I had done a direct transfer, not a rollover, so no taxes were due. They're sending a correction letter. Without getting through to an actual person, I might have just paid the incorrect amount. The service costs less than I would have lost taking another day off work to wait on hold. Consider me converted from skeptic to believer.

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - watch out for the "pro-rata" rule if you're doing a backdoor Roth and have existing pre-tax IRA money! I learned this the hard way last year. If you have any money in Traditional, SEP, or SIMPLE IRAs (including the rollover IRA you mentioned), the IRS will consider all your IRAs together when calculating how much of your backdoor conversion is taxable. You might want to see if you can roll that Rollover IRA into a 401k before doing the backdoor Roth to avoid the pro-rata rule. My tax bill was way higher than expected because I didn't know this.

maybe a dumb q but does anyone know if vanguard's incentive offer for ira transfers counts as income? got $450 for moving my rollover and wondering if i'll owe taxes on that bonus

Great breakdown in the comments so far! Just want to add one more consideration for your partner's backdoor Roth situation. Even though she hasn't done any rollovers this year, she'll still need to watch out for the pro-rata rule if she has any existing pre-tax IRA balances. The rule applies per person, so your rollover activity won't affect her calculations, but any Traditional/SEP/SIMPLE IRAs in her name will. Also, regarding your question about people who do backdoor Roths annually - most don't worry about timing it around a specific date each year since conversions aren't subject to the once-per-12-month rollover rule. You can do a backdoor Roth in January every single year if you want. The key is just making sure you don't have other pre-tax IRA money mucking up the pro-rata calculation. One last tip: if you do decide to move your Rollover IRA into a current employer's 401(k) to clean up the pro-rata issue, make sure your plan accepts rollovers first. Not all employers allow incoming transfers.