If you have done much studying about IRAs and 401k plans, you probably know that there are several exceptions in the Internal Revenue Code that allow an early withdrawal from your IRA or 401k plan without the 10% penalty being imposed. The section of the IRC that deals with quite a few of these exceptions is called Section 72t (referred to as 72t for short), and there are several subsections in this piece of the Code. Each subsection, listed below, has specific circumstances that must be met in order to provide exception to the 10% penalty. Clicking on the link for each subsection will provide you with additional details about that exception. §72(t)(2)(A)(i) – age 59½ – this is the standard age allowing for penalty-free withdrawals from your IRA or 401k. In some cases there is an exception allowing for penalty-free withdrawals from a 401k at or after age 55; and […]
qualified retirement plan
5 Options for Your Old 401k
When you move from one job to another, often there is an old 401k plan at the former employer. You have several choices for what you can do with the old 401k plan, and some options are better than others. Some of the options are dependent upon the balance in your old 401k account, as well. Cash it out. This is typically the worst option. You took advantage of tax-deferral (and company matching) when you contributed the funds to the account. If you simply cash out the old 401k, you’ll have to pay tax on the funds, and if you were under age 55 when you left the employer you will also likely be hit with a 10% penalty for the early withdrawal. In addition to the tax and penalty, when you take a withdrawal from your 401k plan there is an automatic 20% withholding requirement. You will have credit […]
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Qualified Plan Rollovers
Combining and rolling over various retirement accounts is a decision that many individuals will face during their working career and in retirement. For individuals that are already retired, they may consider combining accounts to make required minimum distributions a bit easier (less paperwork, companies to deal with, etc.). Individuals that are still working may consider combining accounts as they switch jobs in an effort to consolidate plans from various employers to their IRA, Roth IRA or current employer plan. What follows are some considerations as well as a handy guide form the IRS regarding what rollovers and consolidations are allowed and specifics for each plan type. Be sure to check the fees of the plan you’re coming from to the plan you’re considering moving to. While consolidation may make sense, it may be a bad idea if the expenses of the plan and funds are higher in the plan you’re […]
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Early Withdrawal of an IRA or 401k – Medical Expenses
There are several ways to get at your IRA funds before age 59½ without having to pay the 10% penalty. In this post we’ll cover the Medical Expenses which allow for a penalty-free distribution. There are three different Medical reasons that can be used to qualify for an early withdrawal: high unreimbursed medical expenses, paying the cost of medical insurance, and disability. Disability and high unreimbursed medical expenses are also applicable reasons allowing for early withdrawal of 401k funds without penalty. We’ll cover each of these topics separately below. High Unreimbursed Medical Expenses If you are faced with high medical expenses for yourself, your spouse, or a qualified dependent, you may be eligible to withdraw some funds from your IRA or 401k penalty-free to pay for those expenses. The amount that you can withdraw is limited to the actual amount of the medical expenses you paid during the calendar year, minus 10% […]
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5 Secrets About Your 401k Plan
Many folks have a 401k plan – it’s the most common sort of retirement savings vehicle that employers offer these days. But there are things about your 401k plan that you probably don’t know – and these secrets can be important to know! The 401k plan is, for many, the only retirement savings you’ll have when you reach your golden years. Used properly, with steady contributions over time, a 401k plan can generate a much-needed addition to your Social Security benefits. But you have to make contributions to the 401k plan for it to work, and invest those contributions wisely. So how much do you know about your 401k plan? Below are 5 secrets that you probably don’t know about your 401k plan. Check with your 401k plan administrator to see if these provisions are available – some plans are more restrictive than others. Secrets You Don’t Know About Your […]
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401k Loan versus Early Withdrawal
When you have a 401k and you need some money from the account, you have a couple of options. Depending upon your 401k plan’s options, you may be able to take a 401k loan. With some plans you also have the option to take an early, in-service withdrawal from the plan. These two options have very different outcomes for you, in terms of taxes and possible penalties. Let’s explore the differences. 401k Loan If your plan allows for a 401k loan, this can be a good option to get access to the money, for virtually any purpose. Being a loan, there is no tax impact when you take out a 401k loan. Plus you can use the money for any purpose that you need, at any age. As a loan, it must be paid back over the a five-year period (at most). You’ll pay interest on the loan, but since […]
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Taxes and the 401k Withdrawal
If you take a 401k withdrawal and the money in the 401k was deducted from your taxable income, you’ll be taxed on the funds you withdraw. Depending on the circumstances, you may also be subject to a penalty. There’s a lot of confusion about how the taxation works – and the taxation and penalties can be different depending upon the circumstances. Taxation of the 401k Withdrawal When you take a distribution of pre-tax money from a 401k plan, the amount of the 401k withdrawal that is pre-tax will be included in your income and will be taxed at your marginal income tax rate in that year. Unless you meet one of the exceptions noted in the article 16 Ways to Withdraw Money From Your 401k Without Penalty, your 401k withdrawal will also be subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty. For example – if you have a 401k plan at […]
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How to Take a Loan from Your 401k
You have this 401k account that you’ve been contributing to over the years, and now you’ve found yourself in need of a bit of extra cash. Maybe you need to cover the cost of a new furnace, or possibly you have some extra medical bills that need attention, and you don’t have the extra cash to cover. Whatever the reason, a loan from your 401k might be just the ticket. A 401k (or other employer-based plan like a 403b, 457, etc.) is unique from an IRA in that you are allowed to borrow against the account. An IRA can never be borrowed against, any withdrawals are immediately taxable. Before we go into the specifics of taking a loan from your 401k, since I’m a financial planner I have to put a word of warning out: Borrowing from your 401k should be considered a “last resort” option, when you’ve exhausted all […]
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SOSEPP – RMD Method
The Required Minimum Distribution method for calculating your Series of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (under §72(t)(2)(A)(iv)) calculates the specific amount that you must withdraw from your IRA, 401k, or other retirement plan each year, based upon your account balance at the end of the previous year. The balance is then divided by the life expectancy factor from either the Single Life Expectancy table or the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy table, using the age(s) you have reached (or will reach) by the end of the current calendar year. This annual amount will be different each year, since the balance at the end of the previous year will be different, and your age factor will be different as well. Which table you use is based upon your circumstances. If you are single, or married and your spouse is less than 10 years younger than you, you will use the Single Life Expectancy […]
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SOSEPP – Fixed Amortization Method
When calculating your Series of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SOSEPP), provided for under §72(t)(2)(A)(iv) of the Internal Revenue Code, one of your choices is the Fixed Amortization method. Calculating your annual payment under this method requires you to have the balance of your IRA account. With this balance you then create an amortization schedule over a specified number of years equal to your life expectancy factor from either the Single Life Expectancy table or the Joint Life and Last Survivor Expectancy table, using the age(s) you have reached (or will reach) for that calendar year. The amortization table must use a rate of interest of your choice, but the chosen rate cannot be more than 120% of the federal mid-term rate published by regularly the IRS in an Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB). Which table you use is based upon your circumstances. If you are single, or married and your spouse is less than […]
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SOSEPP – Fixed Annuitization method
When calculating your Series of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments (SOSEPP), provided for under §72(t)(2)(A)(iv) of the Internal Revenue Code, one of your choices is the Fixed Annuitization method. Calculating your annual payment under this method requires you to have the balance of your IRA or 401(k) account and an annuity factor, which is found in Appendix B of Rev. Ruling 2002-62 using the age you have reached (or will reach) for that calendar year. You will then specify a rate of interest of your choice that is not more than 120% of the federal mid-term rate published by regularly the IRS in an Internal Revenue Bulletin (IRB). Once you’ve calculated your annual payment under the Fixed Annuitization method, your future payments will be exactly the same until the SOSEPP is no longer in effect. There is a one-time opportunity to change to the Required Minimum Distribution method. For more details on […]
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Early Withdrawal of an IRA or 401(k) – SOSEPP
This particular section of the Internal Revenue Code – specifically §72(t)(2)(A)(iv) – is the most famous of the 72(t) provisions. This is mostly due to the fact that it seems to be the ultimate answer to the age-old question “How can I take money out of my IRA or 401(k) without penalty?” While it’s true that this particular code section provides a method for getting at your retirement funds without penalty (and without special circumstances like first-time home purchase or medical issues), this code section is very complicated. With this complication comes a huge potential for costly mistakes – and the IRS does NOT forgive and forget! A Series of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments, or SOSEPP is just what it sounds like. You withdraw a specified amount from your IRA or 401(k) every year. The specified amount is not always the same (hence “substantially” equal) but the method for determining the […]
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Beyond – Beyond 401k and IRA
As a follow up to my post last week Beyond 401k and IRA, I discovered this week that I had neglected to point out a relatively new option that is very well worth considering. This option was brought to my attention by my friend and colleague (and fellow GPN member) Lisa Weil of Clarity Northwest Wealth Management in Seattle, WA: as of late last year with the issuance of IRS Notice 2014-54, there is the option of over-funding your 401k with after-tax dollars, and then rolling over those monies to a Roth IRA when you leave employment. The way it works is that after you max out your regular deducted 401k contributions, plus your company provided the matching funds, there is usually quite a bit of headroom available within the annual funding limits. You can (if your 401k administrator allows) make after-tax contributions to your 401k up to the limit […]
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What Plans Can I Rollover My Retirement Plan To?
When you have a retirement plan, or many different types of retirement plan, you may be faced with decision-points when it would be helpful to rollover one plan into another plan. But do you know which type of plan I can rollover my retirement plan into? What follows is a description of the types of accounts that you can rollover each particular source account into, along with the restrictions for some of those accounts. The IRS also has a handy rollover chart which describes these rollovers in a matrix.
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Where to Start With Retirement Savings
Today, we have so many choices for our retirement savings that it can be difficult to choose which sort of account to contribute to. If you are fortunate enough (as many are) to have more than one type of retirement plan available to you, in what order should you contribute to the accounts? Right now, at the beginning of a new year, is an excellent time to start with retirement savings. Qualified Retirement Plans First of all, many folks who are employed by a company have some sort of tax-deferred, qualified, retirement savings account available. These accounts go by many names – 401(k), 403(b), 457, and deferred compensation. These accounts are collectively referred to as qualified retirement plans, or QRPs. QRPs do not include IRAs – this is another type if retirement savings account with some different rules. A QRP account is a good place to start when contributing to […]
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Five Things You Need to Know About Retirement Plans
Listen to this post: Most of you have one or more types of defined contribution retirement plans, such as a 401(k), 403(b), 457, IRA, SEP-IRA, or any of a number of other plans. Each type of plan has certain characteristics that are a little different from other plans, but most of them have the common characteristic of deductibility from current income and deferred taxation on growth. 1. Each dollar you defer is worth more than a dollar. It’s true. As you defer money into your retirement account, each dollar that you defer could be worth as much as $1.66. How, you might ask? Since you are not taxed on the dollar that has been deferred into the retirement account, your “take home” pay only reduces by the amount that is left over after taxation. For example, if you’re in the 25% bracket, generally your income will only reduce by […]
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To Roll or Not to Roll?
At some point in almost everyone’s lifetime they have gone through the process of changing jobs. Many times those jobs offered retirement plans such as 401(k)s 403(b)s, etc. Conventional wisdom would say that for most employees it may make sense to roll their employer sponsored plan into an IRA. Based on a request from a reader (thanks David!), I thought I would go over some of the issues to consider before rolling your employer sponsored plan to an IRA.
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2015 Contribution Limits for Retirement Plans
The IRS recently published the new contribution limits for various retirement plans for 2015. These limits are indexed to inflation, and as such sometimes they do not increase much year over year, and sometimes they don’t increase at all. This year we saw a few increases for some contribution amounts, and the income limits increased for most types of accounts after virtually no changes to the contribution amounts in 2014.
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IRS Notice 2014-54: Will This Clarify NUA Basis Allocation?
Recently the IRS issued a Notice, 2014-54, which details some information regarding the allocation of pre-tax funds from a qualified plan (such as a 401(k) plan) into a Roth IRA. This is a clarification of a question that has been on the minds of folks in the financial services industry for some time, and it’s a good result. Now the question becomes: does this help to clarify NUA basis allocation strategies? If you’d like additional detail on Notice 2014-54, you can find the actual text of the Notice by clicking this link. What I find interesting about this Notice is that this is the first time that the IRS has used this interpretation of the rules referenced specifically in IRC Section 402(c)(2), which is the code section I’ve referenced before regarding allocation of basis for Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA) treatment for employer stock. (See more information in this most recent […]
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Why You Should Participate in a 401(k)
We all know that we should save money for a rainy day, a message we’ve received since we were little ones, but this article covers some more reasons why you should participate in a 401(k) plan, if you have one available. It’s on you Back in the olden days when the earth was still cooling, employees could count on (or at least thought they could count on) a pension benefit from their employer upon retirement. This pension plan provided a safety net that allowed the employee to go into retirement with relatively little concern about whether there would be enough money to live on.
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