Transferring money from MM fund in brokerage account to VTSAX in Roth

[AJSimon]

Let's say I auto-invest weekly payments into the MM fund of my taxable brokerage account, such that, a year from now, I want to transfer $6,000 from that account to the VTSAX fund in my Roth. For tax purposes, is that transfer from the fund in one account to the fund in another treated as a sale - meaning I owe capital gains (not that I expect it to amount to much in a year)? Are all such transfers between accounts treated as sales?

I'm also asked to choose a cost-basis method for reporting. It seems to default to selecting the average cost. Again, it probably doesn't make much difference given the amount and likely profit we're dealing with, but under what circumstances might you choose a different method (First In First Out, Highest In, Highest Out, or Specific ID)?

[kork13]

Because you're talking about a MMF, there's not alot to worry about here. But technically, yes -- it is classified as a sale of the MMF, which in a taxable account would be a taxable event (for what little there might be). Again, for a MMF the cost basis method doesn't really matter. Personally, I have all of my non-MM mutual funds set to SpecID, simply so that I can control which shares are eventually sold, to manage my gains/losses better.

[moneybags]

Why not just auto invest into your Roth directly?

[AJSimon]

Why not just auto invest into your Roth directly?

Roth is maxed. Further contributions are not allowed.