Do I have this right - I can move money in my IRA at TD into a Roth Acct. The taxes are due just like I pulled it out of my IRA (no penalty age), but any TSLA gains there are no longer taxed? This sounds pretty interesting if we believe the future is bright.
You owe taxes on the amount transfered, so you need to have that much cash on hand. If you use part of the IRA to cover the taxes, those non-rolled-over funds are a non-qualified distribution and are also taxed, along with a 10% penalty if are under qualifed age.
Note: doing a transfer while TSLA is down reduces the cash you need for taxes, but overall improvement of a Roth vs IRA comes down to the tax rate you pay on the lump sum rollover vs the tax rate you would pay on the multiyear withdrawls from the IRA. You need to look at taxes as a percentage, not a dollar amount. Say you have $100 and Tesla goes up 10x, if you get taxed 30% now, then you end up with $700 tax free at the end ((100*.7)x10). If you pull from an IRA in the future at 20%, you'll get $800 ((100x10)*.80), but dollar wise pay $170 more in taxes. This is simplified and does not take into account your standard deduction and the graduated tax rates which benefit the multiyear distribution.
(Roth also has differences in terms of access to the funds, which may be material depending on one's situation).
