In 2014, a U.S. tax court reinterpreted the rules on rollovers between IRA accounts.

A rollover is when an IRA holder withdraws money from a Traditional or Roth IRA and redeposits the money into the same type of IRA within 60 days.  During this period, the taxpayer can use the money without owing tax or penalty.

The New Rule:  You can only make one rollover from an IRA to another (or the same) in any 12 month period, regardless of the number of IRAs you own.  The limit will apply by aggregating all of an individual’s IRAs, including SEP and Simple IRAs, as well as Traditional and Roth IRAs, effectively treating them as one IRA for purposes of the limit.

The Old Rule:  You could do one such rollover per IRA (or IRA account) every 12 months.

Trustee to trustee transfers between IRAs are not limited and conversions from Traditional to Roth IRAs are not limited.

There are transition rules if an IRA holder had a 2014 rollover.