What's the penalty for changing a traditional IRA account to a Roth IRA?

If I expect to earn less income this year than the previous year and expect to earn more in the future is this a good year to convert my traditonal to ROTH? I am assuming I'll be paying either penalty or tax based on my current year income and/or accumulated IRA fund.

you have to pay taxes on the amount you convert. It can be somewhat expensive, especially if it throws you into a higher tax bracket. You do not have to convert the whole thing at once. You can convert a portion each year--say just enough to keep your from changing tax brackets. Over the long run, you will save money, because once converted all earnings are tax free.

There is no true penelty fee, but you will have to pay taxes on any gains and you can't, unless over like 59 or want to pay a penelty for taking your money out early, use that money to pay your taxes. So, if you did well, you might be looking at a hefty bill. You generally do not want to do that unless you want to take your money out later than the mid 70s (a penelty put on Social Security and traditional IRAs) and want to leave tax free money to your heirs or charity.

you'll pay taxes....not a penalty to convert your IRA to a Roth IRA

As stated earlier, you don't have to convert the whole thing.