Is it possible to convert an mutual fund I bought earlier this year into a roth ira?

The mutual fund is obviously after tax. I do not have a Roth IRA now but do qualify. This fund has a large turnover and would be a better choice in a Roth so I do not get hammered with capital gains taxes each year. thanks

You can only contribute cash to an IRA or Roth IRA, and you can't go back in time and say that you meant to open up a Roth back when you bought the fund.
But IF it's a good fund you'd like to stick with AND you don't have a big capital gain on it now, you would be better off selling $9K of the fund and contributing $9K to a Roth in early 2008 ($4k for '07 and $5K for '08,) and buying the fund in the Roth. Ask for your cap-gains distribution to be automatically reinvested, and (hopefully) watch your money grow.

Well, if you have under 9000 dollars invested in the mutual fund it will work, otherwise you will need to sell the excess amount and slowing add that to the ROTH. You have up till late April to add 2007 contributions (up to 4000) to a ROTH account, and can deposit 5000 dollars in 2008. I believe, but am not sure if you can deposit for 2007 into an account opened in 2008. You will need to find a servicer for the ROTH that allows transfers other than cash, this shouldn't be too difficult but I have never done it. You also need to make sure that you can hold the particular mutual fund in the account of a different company, one other than the company that sold you the mutual fund. I don't know the answers to those last two questions without further information.

If you are single, HOH or MFS not living at all with your spouse and your income is less than $114K, you can fund your ROTH in 2007 with a $4000 contribution. The deadline is 4/15/2008. You must also have at least $4000 of earned income for 2007.

To get the $4000, you must have cash. You can get that cash by selling some or all of your mutual fund. (Don't forget to report the capital gain/loss on schedule D.)

The reason you have to sell the mutual funds is you must contribute AFTER-TAX money to a Roth. Once money is in a ROTH you can roll it to another ROTH without selling the funds within it.

no, you still have to pay whatever capital gains taxes on it. you have to sell it before opening a roth ira. you can contribute up to $4000 for tax year 2007. and up to $5000 for tax year 2008.

No, you can't "convert" it into a ira account.

If you sell the mf first, you would pay tax at that point.

If you can open a Roth IRA with the same broker or mutual fund family, you may not have to liquidate the assets. Check with them.

You can't "move" existing taxable account shares into an IRA, but you can open an IRA and then buy that mutual fund within it.

No you can't, and if you are wondering why, here is why.

If you could transfer investments, people would transfer in their highly appreciated investments and never have to pay capital gains taxes on the transferred amount due to the tax structure of a ROTH IRA. If I bought AAPL five years ago at $8 per share and I could transfer shares into my ROTH I would never have to pay capital gains taxes even if I sold it a day, or 10 years later. The IRS does not like that idea, because i never would pay the capital gains tax I would have had I sold it in my taxable account.