The Roth IRA in Virginia

RetirePath: check coverage, then follow the account flow

RetirePath decisions begin with the live employer rules, not an old support snippet. After coverage comes registration, payroll setup, the saver election, investment defaults, and contribution coordination. Keep those steps separate so a program default is not mistaken for personal advice.

ENACTED AND EFFECTIVE JULY 1, 2026: RetirePath Virginia generally reaches nongovernmental employers with five or more eligible employees, down from 25, and the former 30-hours-per-week employee test is gone.

CURRENTNESS TRAP: two RetirePath support articles still describe the superseded 30-hours-per-week employee test and 25-employee threshold even though current law and the May 2026 expansion notice use broader rules. The live statutory definition now covers an employee age 18 or older who is currently employed and receiving wages, and a covered employer generally begins at five eligible employees. Use the current Code, live employer page, May 2026 notice, and July 2026 Program Description; do not use the old support snippets as current eligibility authority.

Use the live rollout calendar

CURRENT 2026 ROLLOUT: employers with 10-24 eligible employees must register or certify exemption by September 30, 2026; employers with 5-9 or 25 or more have an October 30, 2026 deadline.

Time-sensitive schedule: September 30 and October 30, 2026 registration deadlines appear on the live employer page, while the Board retains statutory power to alter implementation dates with reasonable notice. These dates are time-sensitive; verify them on the live employer page before relying on the schedule. The live dates can change and are not permanent statutory cohorts.

OFFICIAL MAY 2026 SNAPSHOT: more than 1,000 employers and more than 25,000 Virginians were participating; roughly 35,000 businesses were expected to receive expansion notices beginning July 1, 2026.

Treat the cohort date as a current administrative checkpoint. Reopen the live employer page before relying on it, and keep the exemption certification with the payroll setup record.

What happens after enrollment?

Read the fee as a flat charge plus an asset charge

CURRENT DISCLOSURE: $27 annual account fee plus asset-based fees of 0.32% capital preservation, 0.29% target date, 0.25% bond, 0.22% U.S. stock, or 0.24% international stock. The $27 fee is $24 to the administrator plus $3 to the Plan and is assessed as $6.75 quarterly. The fee table is labeled as of May 2026 inside the Program Description dated July 1, 2026. Additional transaction choices cost $50 for an outgoing rollover, $10 per year for paper statements, and $5 per paper check. The table is dated to the disclosure period because fees can change.

RECOMPUTED: holding balance constant, the target-date option costs about $29.90 a year on $1,000 (2.99%) versus $56 on $10,000 (0.56%).

The program stop is not household coordination

The July 2026 disclosure assigns Roth eligibility to the saver and says its dollar stop is determined without regard to Roth IRA income limits. Household MAGI, a spouse’s income, and contributions to traditional or Roth IRAs elsewhere can therefore create an excess even when RetirePath’s own ledger has not reached the general ceiling. The program offers a traditional-IRA election, timely recharacterization, or opt-out, but the saver must act.

Keep household eligibility, outside IRA contributions, and any future match destination in the saver file. The program's payroll stop does not replace that review.

Education savings: separate the deduction from the rollover

The contribution-side Virginia subtraction and a later Roth rollover answer different questions. Compute the deduction first, preserve the carryforward record, then apply the federal rollover limits and leave the unresolved state recapture question visible.

EFFECTIVE JANUARY 1, 2026: the K-12 annual qualified-expense ceiling rose to $20,000, the combined maximum account balance rose to $675,000, and the 30-year Market Portfolio duration limit ended.

Federal permission does not settle Virginia recapture

CURRENT PROGRAM OPERATION: Invest529 can make a direct 529-to-Roth IRA rollover, subject to the 15-year account rule, five-year contribution lookback, annual IRA and compensation limits, and $35,000 lifetime beneficiary cap. The Roth IRA must belong to the same designated beneficiary, not a different account owner. The annual rollover is limited by that year’s IRA ceiling minus the beneficiary’s other IRA contributions and cannot exceed the beneficiary’s compensation. Contributions and attributable earnings from the five-year period ending on the rollover date are excluded. Roth MAGI limits are waived. Invest529 reports the rollover on Form 1099-Q and sends the rollover directly to the Roth provider.

CURRENT PROGRAM CAVEAT: Invest529 implements 529-to-Roth rollovers under a good-faith reading of federal law while warning that Treasury and IRS guidance may change the interpretation. The enumerated statutory guardrails are usable today, but edge questions should not be filled with assumptions. Account changes, beneficiary changes, the lookback, and aggregation remain unsettled beyond the disclosure's express terms and require a fresh check after Treasury guidance.

SCOPE LIMIT: Virginia Tax Bulletin 26-1 advanced Virginia's fixed-date federal conformity to December 31, 2025, but it did not separately interpret the Virginia Invest529 deduction-recapture statute. HB 29, Chapter 7, generally conformed Virginia to federal changes through the new date subject to listed exceptions. That conformity update does not supply the omitted agency answer about Virginia's own subtraction and recapture mechanism. Treat federal rollover qualification and Virginia deduction recapture as two separate research questions.

Do not turn a federally permitted rollover into a promised Virginia result. Recheck agency guidance for the transaction year and keep the contribution, deduction, carryforward, rollover, and beneficiary records together.

Property relief starts with the homeowner's address

CURRENT LAW: Virginia authorizes, but does not mandate, locality-specific real-estate tax exemption or deferral programs for homeowners age 65 or older and, where adopted, permanently and totally disabled homeowners. Each locality may set its own prior-year household-income and December 31 net-worth limits, benefit percentages, exclusions, filing deadlines, and proration rules. The home must generally be owned and occupied as the sole dwelling. State law expressly lets a locality exclude selected income sources or assets, so a statewide threshold table cannot determine an individual’s result.

CURRENT DESIGN LIMIT: Virginia has no single statewide elderly/disabled property-relief threshold; eligibility and treatment of retirement distributions depend on the locality's current ordinance and application. Va. Code § 58.1-3212 lets each locality set income and net-worth limits and exclude selected sources or assets. Fairfax, Loudoun, and Arlington demonstrate materially different matrices. Start with the property's address and current local application rather than applying one county's threshold statewide.

Fairfax cliff illustration: $2,000 relief change on an illustrative $8,000 tax bill at a 25-percentage-point tier boundary.

CURRENT FAIRFAX APPLICATION TRAP: the 2026 homeowner-relief application asks for all IRA distributions reported on Form 1099-R, not merely the taxable amount on the income-tax return. That instruction is consistent with Virginia Attorney General Opinion 06-066, which treated traditional and Roth IRA distributions as income for the statutory property-relief baseline. Because current law permits locality-specific exclusions and edge coding can differ, use Fairfax's current application and confirm transaction-specific treatment with the county instead of copying federal taxable income.

CURRENT LAW: a disqualifying ownership or eligibility change can nullify relief for the rest of the current tax year and the immediately following year, although a locality may adopt proration. A large distribution near year-end can be more consequential than a one-year income-cliff chart implies when the locality counts it and the change creates loss of qualification. The exact consequence still depends on the ordinance and facts; the statutory two-year reach makes confirmation with the local program important before a large transaction.

Start with the current local application, identify whether the transaction is a cash distribution, direct transfer, rollover, or redeposit, and ask the locality to resolve edge treatment before the transaction.

Medicaid figures are screening references, not transaction verdicts

Use the correct covered group and manual chapter before applying any amount. A resource rule, an income screen, and a long-term-services reference do not answer the same question.

UNRESOLVED WITHOUT CASE FACTS: the verified ABD retirement-fund resource rule does not by itself establish how every Virginia Medicaid covered group will treat a Roth conversion or distribution as income. DMAS M11 verifies when a withdrawable IRA counts as an ABD resource and how to value it, but income methodologies, disregards, transfer rules, spend-down rules, and long-term-services categories require the correct manual chapter and household facts. These resource rules and screening thresholds do not establish that a conversion is neutral or disqualifying across Virginia Medicaid programs.

Treat every amount as a dated screen. Verify the covered group, household facts, current manual, and transaction path before concluding that a conversion or distribution changes eligibility.

Educational information only. Program eligibility, account elections, local property relief, and Medicaid treatment depend on current official materials and the reader's facts.

Residency comes before conversion timing

A move can raise several questions at once. Keep them in sequence: identify the residency route, assemble the evidence supporting the transition, place the transaction on the resulting timeline, and then review filing mechanics. Do not choose one convenient document and ask it to answer every question. If the records point in different directions, reconcile them before acting.

Virginia counts any portion of a day as a residency day, except a part-day spent solely in transit to a destination outside Virginia. A workday followed by departure counts because the Virginia presence was not solely transit. Day-count logs should record arrival, departure, purpose, and supporting travel records rather than count only overnights.

When a nondomiciliary exceeds the actual-resident threshold, Virginia has treated the residency period as running from the first Virginia entry to the last Virginia day in that tax year—not merely from day 184 forward. For a person domiciled outside Virginia, the statutory threshold is more than 183 days—meaning at least 184 counted Virginia days—together with a maintained Virginia place of abode. Virginia counts any portion of a day as a residency day, except a part-day spent solely in transit to a destination outside Virginia. This can expose a conversion received earlier in the Virginia living period even if the taxpayer did not know until later that the annual count would exceed 183 days. P.D. 23-106 cites multiple prior determinations for this administrative position.

Treat the routes as separate screens. Complete both, record the support for each answer, and keep the day log with the residence file. That structure makes later review easier and reduces the risk that a conclusion rests on a label rather than the underlying facts.

Build the domicile story from the whole record

Virginia domicile is the permanent residence a taxpayer intends to return to, and an established Virginia domicile continues until a new domicile is actually acquired. A temporary absence, out-of-state job, second home, or mailing-address change does not by itself end Virginia domicile. A domiciliary resident remains taxable on worldwide income even while living elsewhere.

Ending Virginia domicile requires both actual residence in a new place and a bona fide intent to remain there permanently or indefinitely; the taxpayer bears the burden of proving the change. The old Virginia domicile must be abandoned with no intent to return, while the new domicile is acquired through presence plus intent. A simple declaration or physical presence elsewhere is insufficient.

Organize evidence instead of counting points

Virginia weighs all domicile evidence collectively: homes and tangible property, bank accounts, licenses and vehicle registrations, voting, employment, family and children's schools, civic ties, and the reason for the move. No single factor is dispositive. Build a contemporaneous move file showing the new home and consistent relocation of licensing, vehicle, voting, financial, employment, family, and civic connections. Selling the Virginia home is helpful but not conclusive.

• Retaining or renewing a Virginia driver's license and continuing to vote in Virginia are especially damaging facts in a claimed move-out, although neither fact is mechanically conclusive by itself. The Department calls a Virginia-license renewal strong or very strong evidence of retained domicile, because Virginia generally does not issue licenses to nonresidents. It likewise treats use of Virginia voter registration as very strong evidence of domicile. Replace these connections promptly and consistently with the new state.
• Returning to reside in Virginia within six months after a claimed move is prima facie evidence that the taxpayer never intended to abandon Virginia domicile. A conversion performed during that purported absence can remain exposed if the move-out is later rejected. The six-month fact is rebuttable evidence, not an automatic permanent bar, but it places the move under heightened risk.

Read the file as a consistent account of what happened, not as a scavenger hunt for favorable items. Date the records, preserve earlier versions, and explain contradictions instead of silently discarding them. Administrative records matter, but the purpose of the file is to document the lived move rather than manufacture a paper-only result.

Use the sequence as a planning map, not as a substitute for resolving contested facts. The chart and table present the same information. The surrounding sections supply the context needed before applying that sequence to a real transaction.

Place the transaction inside the supported move timeline

A Virginia resident who moves out by year-end with a bona fide intention to live permanently outside Virginia is taxable as a resident only for the Virginia-resident portion of the year. Physical relocation alone is not conclusive; the domicile-change evidence must support the effective date. Personal exemptions are prorated by Virginia-resident days, and nonresident-period Virginia-source business or property income remains separately taxable.

Virginia attributes income to the resident period based on when it is received, regardless of source; income received outside the Virginia-resident period is removed on the part-year return unless it is separately Virginia-source income. For conversion planning, this is a transaction-timing rule, not a day-proration rule. A conversion completed while the taxpayer is still a Virginia resident is resident-period income even if the IRA was funded elsewhere.

Virginia does not prorate annual IRA distributions by resident days. P.D. 99-173 says even an unusually large withdrawal is assigned by receipt date. P.D. 05-124 treats a traditional-to-Roth conversion as an IRA distribution included in FAGI, so the timing principle applies to a taxable conversion by strong inference.

Read the official example narrowly

The money's use to buy and furnish the new out-of-state home did not change the result. The tax outcome turned on whether domicile had effectively changed before the withdrawal, not on the size, purpose, or annual residency fraction.

The example is useful because it isolates the timing lane. It is not a promise that a claimed move date will be accepted. Before relying on the displayed result, compare the actual residence, domicile evidence, transaction record, and return position with the verified rules above. When the file is incomplete or inconsistent, pause rather than fill the gap with an assumption.

Make each record easy to connect to the person, place, account, and transaction it supports. Keep confirmations with the move file, retain the chronology, and note any item that tells a different story. Documentation can make the review clearer; it should never be treated as a replacement for the events being documented.

Separate Virginia’s answer from the destination state

4 U.S.C. §114 prohibits Virginia from taxing IRA retirement income of an individual who is neither a Virginia resident nor domiciliary; the definition expressly includes individual retirement plans. The IRA category is separate from §114's special periodic-payment conditions for certain nonqualified arrangements, so a lump-sum IRA conversion is not excluded merely because it is not periodic. Virginia's own P.D. 99-173 applies §114 to IRA withdrawals, including a $200,000 withdrawal.

The federal retirement-income shield does not protect someone who remains a Virginia domiciliary or actual resident, even if another state is also the person's domicile or the IRA was earned elsewhere. A dual resident can be taxed by Virginia on all income. P.D. 22-12 taxed an IRA distribution to an actual Virginia resident who claimed domicile elsewhere; P.D. 14-88 likewise explains that Virginia may tax retirement income of a Virginia resident.

An ordinary IRA, pension, or annuity payment to a true Virginia nonresident is not Virginia-source income merely because the payer or custodian is in Virginia. Virginia-source wages, business income, and Virginia property income can still require a nonresident return after a move, but a personal IRA conversion is not sourced to Virginia solely by the institution's location.

Virginia's move-out treatment of an IRA distribution does not change depending on whether the destination state has an income tax. The domicile change and distribution date control Virginia's claim. The new state's own rules can still tax the conversion after the move, so total-state-tax planning must evaluate both states separately.

Run each state’s analysis in its own column before comparing the combined result. A favorable Virginia outcome does not complete the destination-state calculation, and a destination-state tax does not rewrite Virginia’s rule. Keep the supporting authority, assumptions, and return treatment attached to the state they belong to.

Dual residency, reciprocity, and wages

A person can be a Virginia actual resident and domiciliary of another state; in dual-residency cases, Virginia says the domicile state generally grants the credit for tax paid to the other resident state. This is a general coordination rule, not a guarantee for every conversion. Virginia's own resident credit categories are limited, and each state's law controls its credit. Dual residency also defeats the assumption that 4 U.S.C. §114 automatically shields retirement income from Virginia. 4 U.S.C. §114 prohibits Virginia from taxing IRA retirement income of an individual who is neither a Virginia resident nor domiciliary; the definition expressly includes individual retirement plans. The federal retirement-income shield does not protect someone who remains a Virginia domiciliary or actual resident, even if another state is also the person's domicile or the IRA was earned elsewhere.

Wages. Virginia's reciprocity agreements with Kentucky, the District of Columbia, Maryland, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania concern wage or salary income—not Roth conversions. A mover should not use a wage-reciprocity form or rule to exempt conversion income. Retirement-distribution treatment turns on residency, 4 U.S.C. §114, Virginia's FAGI rules, and the new state's tax law. 4 U.S.C. §114 prohibits Virginia from taxing IRA retirement income of an individual who is neither a Virginia resident nor domiciliary; the definition expressly includes individual retirement plans. The federal retirement-income shield does not protect someone who remains a Virginia domiciliary or actual resident, even if another state is also the person's domicile or the IRA was earned elsewhere.

Do not use a familiar wage form as shorthand for a retirement transaction. Identify the income category first, then apply the rule written for that category. If another state also claims residency, review its credit law directly and avoid assuming that one return will automatically offset the other.

Finish with a currentness check

Virginia Tax P.D. 26-3, issued February 4, 2026, is the latest directly relevant residency determination located and continues the abode/day-count, two-part domicile, burden-of-proof, license, physical-presence, and whole-facts framework; no 2026 legislative change to these conversion-relevant residency rules was located. Current Code and Administrative Code pages were checked on August 15, 2026, together with the official 2026 legislative summary, P.D. 26-3, and the cited 2025 residency decisions. As the newest directly relevant determination, P.D. 26-3 confirms that intent plus Virginia connections cannot establish domicile before personal presence, while a part-year resident must allocate income between resident and nonresident periods on Form 760PY. Recheck current law, forms, and newly published determinations before annual rollover.

Treat this section as a decision file, not a permanent answer. Reopen the governing materials when planning, compare current forms with the transaction year, and preserve the version relied upon. If a later authority changes the analysis, update the chronology and the state-by-state calculation together.

Educational information only. Resolve residency and transaction-specific questions with a qualified tax professional before acting, especially when the records conflict or another state may also claim the income.

Start with the legal lane, not the account label

Route the account by event: ordinary creditor process, bankruptcy, rollover, inheritance, or transfer at death. Each lane has its own rule and boundary.

Keep the account agreement and source records with the lane they support. Do not stretch one lane's answer into another.

What does the owner-account statute actually do?

Virginia's retirement-plan definition expressly includes arrangements intended to satisfy IRC §408A. An individual's interest is exempt from creditor process only 'to the same extent' federal bankruptcy law permits for that kind of plan. The statute makes the exemption available to a participant, beneficiary, contingent annuitant, alternate payee, or other interest holder, subject to its exceptions and claim procedure.

The exemption does not apply to a claim by the individual's alternate payee, a Commonwealth administrative action under Title 63.2 support-enforcement provisions, or court process enforcing child support or combined child-and-spousal support. If two current or former spouses claim protection in the same plan or plans against the same jointly owed marital debt, their aggregate exemption cannot exceed the incorporated federal amount and is allocated in proportion to their interests.

Before sale or turnover under creditor process. Section 34-34(E) incorporates §34-17's timing rule. Exempt property may be set apart any time before a creditor-process sale or sale by a bankruptcy trustee; if no sale is required, the claim must be made before the property is turned over to the creditor. The current 2020-amended text does not use the older five-day formulation discussed in pre-2020 cases.

Assert the applicable exemption promptly and keep the ordinary creditor and bankruptcy routes separate.

What changes in bankruptcy?

The Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia held that a debtor claiming the federal retirement-funds exemption under §522(b)(3)(C) need not satisfy the Virginia §34-34 exemption or §34-17 timing rule. Virginia's opt-out bars the menu of §522(d) exemptions, not the separate retirement-funds protection Congress placed in §522(b)(3)(C).

The Judicial Conference adjustment increased the §522(n) contributory-IRA amount from $1,512,350 to $1,711,975 for bankruptcy cases filed on or after April 1, 2025. Section 522(n) aggregates traditional and Roth IRA amounts subject to the cap, excludes SEP and SIMPLE accounts under §408(k) and §408(p) from that cap, disregards specified employer-plan rollover amounts and related earnings, and permits a court to increase the amount if the interests of justice require. Because §34-34 imports the extent permitted under federal bankruptcy law, the figure is also central to Virginia's ordinary creditor-process rule.

Section 522(n) caps aggregate §408 and §408A assets other than SEP and SIMPLE accounts, but computes that cap without amounts attributable to rollover contributions under IRC §§402(c), 402(e)(6), 403(a)(4), 403(a)(5), and 403(b)(8), plus earnings. Section 408A(e) defines a qualified rollover contribution from an employer plan by reference to §402(c), §403(b)(8), or §457(e)(16), as applicable. Therefore, a qualifying 401(k)-to-Roth IRA rollover under §402(c), or a qualifying 403(b)-to-Roth IRA rollover under §403(b)(8), may retain the listed uncapped provenance; calling it a conversion does not defeat that route. By contrast, an IRA-to-IRA rollover or traditional-IRA-to-Roth conversion whose operative rollover rule is §408(d)(3), and a §457(e)(16) rollover standing alone, are not independently enumerated in §522(n), so they should not be promised automatic uncapped treatment. Preserve source-plan, rollover, and earnings-tracing records.

Preserve the source-plan statements, transfer path, and related earnings records. Have bankruptcy counsel map mixed provenance before relying on a ceiling or carveout.

Can last-minute funding cure a creditor problem?

An exempt account does not immunize an actually fraudulent or federally avoidable transfer. Virginia law voids transfers made with intent to delay, hinder, or defraud creditors. In Middleton, the bankruptcy court treated a debtor's use of cash to buy a Roth IRA shortly before bankruptcy as a 'transfer' under the broad federal avoidance definition. The opinion did not establish that ordinary lawful exemption planning alone proves fraud, but it defeats any claim that moving cash into a Roth is categorically beyond avoidance review.

Inherited accounts need authority-level labels

Clark v. Rameker held that an inherited traditional IRA does not contain retirement funds for the beneficiary because the beneficiary cannot contribute, must withdraw under inherited-account rules, and can use distributions without the owner's early-distribution penalty. The holding directly involved an inherited traditional IRA, not an inherited Roth IRA.

Virginia §34-34 expressly includes a beneficiary but limits protection to the extent permitted under federal bankruptcy law. Clark held that an inherited traditional IRA was not 'retirement funds' for the direct federal exemption and discussed funds originally deposited in a traditional or Roth IRA, but it did not decide a nonspouse inherited Roth or Virginia's imported-scope statute. Through August 15, 2026, no controlling Virginia appellate, Fourth Circuit, or Virginia bankruptcy ruling located resolves that interaction. The result remains unresolved; obtain Virginia counsel before relying on either protection or exposure.

Preserve that uncertainty. Do not replace the missing controlling holding with a probability claim.

A surviving spouse can have a different route

A valid own-account election should restore the ordinary owner-Roth protection analysis; this protection conclusion is an applied inference. IRS Publication 590-B permits a sole spouse beneficiary to treat the deceased spouse's Roth IRA as the surviving spouse's own, subject to the federal requirements. Once validly treated as the survivor's own, the account should be analyzed as that spouse's owner Roth rather than as a Clark-style inherited account. No Virginia creditor-protection opinion located through the as-of date directly confirms this step.

Do not overread a recent local case

Not an exemption holding. Sorrells involved a Chapter 13 plan-modification and feasibility dispute after the debtor liquidated an IRA inherited from her mother's workplace plan. The court expressly said the case was not about retaining all inherited-IRA proceeds instead of paying the trustee. It therefore should not be cited as resolving whether a Virginia inherited IRA or inherited Roth is exempt.

Divorce separates ownership, tax execution, and beneficiary cleanup

The marital share may be divided; 50% is a ceiling on direct payment from the marital share, not an automatic half-account award. Virginia presumes the portion of retirement plans of whatever nature acquired during marriage and before the last permanent separation to be marital property, absent satisfactory separate-property evidence. The statutory 'marital share' is the portion earned during that period. A court may order direct payment, but no payment may exceed 50% of the marital share of cash benefits actually received. Separate contributions and retraceable separate property can remain separate, and the court considers tax consequences.

Use a qualifying name change or direct trustee-to-trustee transfer under IRC §408(d)(6); an indirect 60-day rollover does not qualify. Federal law treats an IRA interest transferred to a spouse or former spouse under a divorce or separation instrument as that recipient's IRA, not as a taxable owner distribution. IRS guidance says the transfer must be executed by changing the name on the account or by trustee-to-trustee transfer. Withdrawing cash and having the former spouse redeposit it within 60 days is not a §408(d)(6) transfer and can make the withdrawal taxable to the owner, with the 10% additional tax potentially applicable.

Virginia generally revokes it, but exceptions and payment mechanics make a direct custodian update essential. Entry of a qualifying divorce or annulment decree generally revokes a revocable contractual death-benefit designation to a former spouse, and 'death benefit' includes a retirement arrangement. The rule yields to applicable federal or Virginia law, a decree or written agreement that specifies a contrary result for the benefit, and any trust or benefit payable to or under a trust. A payor that follows its contract is discharged unless it received written notice of revocation before payment. Virginia divorce decrees must warn that designations may or may not be automatically revoked.

At death, follow the beneficiary form before the will

Start with the custodian's accepted designation, then separate probate tax, spousal rights, income tax, and administration.

What happens if the account enters probate?

No probate tax at $15,000 or less; above $15,000, $0.10 per $100 or fraction on the full taxable probate estate, plus a local tax equal to one-third of the state tax if the locality has imposed it. Virginia imposes no probate tax on an estate valued at $15,000 or less. Once the taxable probate estate exceeds $15,000, the state tax is $0.10 for every $100 or fraction of $100 on the full taxable value, including the first $15,000. A county or city may elect to impose a local probate tax; where imposed, the statutory amount is exactly one-third of the state probate tax, not a discretionary lower rate up to one-third. Section 58.1-1718 also authorizes a separate $25 list-of-heirs or affidavit recordation fee, which should not be folded into the tax rate. A retirement benefit passing directly outside probate is not added to the probate-tax base merely because its value may enter the augmented-estate calculation.

$75,000 of total personal probate estate, effective 2026-07-01, with a 60-day waiting period. HB 100, enacted as Chapter 40 of the 2026 Acts of Assembly, increased the small-asset affidavit ceiling to $75,000. Current §64.2-601 requires the decedent's entire personal probate estate wherever located not to exceed $75,000, at least 60 days to have elapsed, and no personal-representative appointment application to be pending or granted, among other affidavit requirements. The change can simplify an estate-payable Roth or other probate asset but does not alter a valid named-beneficiary Roth's nonprobate transfer.

Can a surviving spouse reach a nonprobate Roth?

A beneficiary designation can bypass probate without escaping the augmented-estate calculation. For a Virginia-domiciled decedent, the elective share equals 50% of the marital-property portion of the augmented estate. The augmented estate includes probate property, nonprobate transfers to others, nonprobate transfers to the surviving spouse, and specified spouse property. Virginia defines property to include values subject to beneficiary designations and expressly values retirement-plan interests. The marital-property schedule rises from 3% for a marriage under one year to 100% at 15 years; multiplying by the 50% elective-share rate yields 1.5% to 50% before credits, exclusions, claims, and apportionment.

Election generally within six months after the later probate/qualification event; complaint within six months after election; late complaint can remove nonprobate transfers from the calculation. The surviving spouse must generally record the election no later than six months after the later of will admission or administrator qualification, then file the complaint no later than six months after the election. If the complaint is filed more than 12 months after death, nonprobate transfers to others are excluded from the augmented estate for elective-share computation. Original recipients of nonprobate transfers and some donees can be personally liable for proportional contribution; the court can fix liability even if the property never reached the personal representative.

Preserve the designation, marriage history, transfer values, election, complaint, and notices in one chronology.

Which death-tax and income-tax questions remain?

No Virginia estate tax or inheritance tax for contemporary deaths; rare legacy postponed-remainder cases can remain. Virginia Tax states that Virginia no longer has an estate tax or inheritance tax. The estate tax was effectively repealed for deaths on or after July 1, 2007. A narrow legacy inheritance-tax issue can survive where an old postponed remainder interest from the former tax regime later vests; a 2015 ruling involved a decedent who died in 1963. Probate tax and federal estate tax remain separate questions.

Death satisfies the qualifying-event prong, but the owner's Roth five-year period still determines whether earnings are tax-free. IRS Publication 590-B states that a Roth distribution is qualified only after the applicable five-year period and after a qualifying event, including the owner's death. If the owner satisfied the five-year period, the beneficiary's qualified Roth distribution is excluded federally. If not, the taxable earnings portion can enter federal adjusted gross income; the death exception removes the 10% additional tax. Virginia starts with federal adjusted gross income and has no identified Roth-specific addback, so the federal income inclusion generally flows into Virginia taxable income.

Current law and proposals belong in separate columns

Keep each proposal's status attached so it cannot be mistaken for a current benefit.

What is the custodial-account age boundary?

PARTLY ESTABLISHED, APPLICATION UNRESOLVED: Virginia permits a conditional age-25 UTMA designation for qualifying transfers made on or after July 1, 2019, but that does not establish that every custodial Roth IRA uses Virginia UTMA or permits the election. Va. Code § 64.2-1908(E) applies when a transferor transfers property to a person under 21 pursuant to § 64.2-1903 or § 64.2-1904 and expressly includes the age-25 designation. Under § 64.2-1919(B), for custodial property transferred by irrevocable gift or exercise of an inter vivos general power of appointment under that provision, the beneficiary may still demand transfer at age 21 by written request during the statutory window beginning 30 days before age 21 and ending 30 days after the later of age 21 or the custodian's notice. Even for a conditional qualifying transfer, the statutes do not establish that every provider's custodial Roth is UTMA property, that the original transfer used the required designation, or that the provider's IRA agreement supports age 25. Those account mechanics must be checked with the custodian and governing documents.

Check the provider agreement, governing law, original transfer, designation, notice, and beneficiary request together.

Currentness and method

The method separates legal lanes, labels unresolved questions, identifies worked-example assumptions, and keeps proposals outside current law.

Recheck law, account terms, and bill status before acting; keep unresolved questions visible.

Virginia Roth IRA protection and beneficiary questions

Is a nonspouse inherited Roth protected?

No controlling Virginia or Fourth Circuit ruling located; nonspouse inherited-Roth protection is unresolved.

Does a named beneficiary settle every death-transfer question?

A valid contractual beneficiary transfer is nontestamentary and generally bypasses probate. A beneficiary designation can bypass probate without escaping the augmented-estate calculation.

Does Virginia impose a current estate or inheritance tax?

No Virginia estate tax or inheritance tax for contemporary deaths; rare legacy postponed-remainder cases can remain.

Does a Virginia UTMA label settle when a custodial Roth transfers?

PARTLY ESTABLISHED, APPLICATION UNRESOLVED: Virginia permits a conditional age-25 UTMA designation for qualifying transfers made on or after July 1, 2019, but that does not establish that every custodial Roth IRA uses Virginia UTMA or permits the election. Va. Code § 64.2-1908(E) applies when a transferor transfers property to a person under 21 pursuant to § 64.2-1903 or § 64.2-1904 and expressly includes the age-25 designation. Under § 64.2-1919(B), for custodial property transferred by irrevocable gift or exercise of an inter vivos general power of appointment under that provision, the beneficiary may still demand transfer at age 21 by written request during the statutory window beginning 30 days before age 21 and ending 30 days after the later of age 21 or the custodian's notice. Even for a conditional qualifying transfer, the statutes do not establish that every provider's custodial Roth is UTMA property, that the original transfer used the required designation, or that the provider's IRA agreement supports age 25. Those account mechanics must be checked with the custodian and governing documents.

Educational information only. Creditor, bankruptcy, divorce, beneficiary, probate, elective-share, and inherited-account results depend on the governing documents and facts. Use qualified Virginia counsel for an account-specific decision.