I want to rollover my entire contributions in my IRA accounts in my wife's name
She won't be withdrawing any money out of it and will keep it as an IRA but in her name. Do I or my wife pay any taxes or penalty for this transaction? We both are over 60 years of age.

Why do this? Why not just make her the beneficiary of the account?

I'm not 100% sure, but I believe if the IRAs are currently in your name only, then to transfer them, you would have to withdraw them and redeposit in her name. This would incur a tax on the distribution and potentially a gift tax.

This won't work as you had hoped. It would require withdrawing your account funds, which will trigger oridinary income tax being owed on the portion attributable to pre-tax contributions and earnings (I am asssumimng this is not a Roth IRA). But your wife cannot then put the money into her own IRA because the max contribution she can make is $6K/year (less if your combined earned income is less than that).

What exactly are you trying to accomplish? There may be better ways...

Regarding ScottGem's comment on gift taxes: transactions between married couples do not trigger any gift tax issues.

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Originally Posted by ebaines

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Regarding ScottGem's comment on gift taxes: transactions between married couples do not trigger any gift tax issues.

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Wasn't sure on that, thanks.