It seems that some of the rules the IRS has put in place with regard to IRAs have not always been watched very closely – and the IRS is stepping up efforts to resolve some of this. According to the article in the WSJ, IRA Rules Get Trickier, an estimated $286 million in penalties and fees were uncollected for 2006 and 2007 tax years’ missed distributions, over-contributions, and the like. The title of the article is a bit misleading, because the rules are not changing or getting “trickier”, the IRS is just going to be paying closer attention to what you’re doing with your account. This is set to begin by the end of this year, after the IRS delivers their report to the Treasury on how to go about enforcing the rules more closely. The first rule being monitored more closely is the contribution rule – for 2012, you’re […]
IRA
RMDs Don’t Have to Be Taken in Cash
But… It’s a little-known fact that distributions from an IRA or a Qualified Retirement Plan can be taken in kind, rather than in cash. You can in any circumstance take distribution from the account of stocks, bonds, or any investment that you own, just the same as if it were cash. The downside to this is determining valuation for the distribution. You could value the distribution on the day of the distribution by opening price, closing price, average price, or mean between the day’s high and low prices. Where you really get into trouble is when the security that you own is very thinly-traded, such as a small company or very infrequently-traded bonds. These can be very hard to value on the date of distribution, and as you might recall, the value of a distribution for Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) must be valued appropriately in order to ensure that the […]
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What Is Net Unrealized Appreciation?
We’ve discussed how to utilize the Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA) treatment of distributions from your qualified retirement plan (also known as QRP, meaning 401(k), 403(b), and other plans) – one of the earlier articles on Net Unrealized Appreciation can be found at this link. Even though the process is explained in the earlier article, we didn’t discuss just what exactly can be treated with the NUA option. How do you determine what part of the distribution can be treated with capital gains treatment? In order to determine what is to be treated as unrealized appreciation, we need to define what has to be treated as ordinary income from such a distribution. Briefly, the way that the NUA option works is that you take a complete distribution of your QRP account within one tax year – and you have the option to treat a portion of your account distribution with capital […]
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Investing Truths
This list of factors about investing is part of a document that I often provide to my clients as we’re working with investment planning. The list isn’t intended to be exhaustive, but rather representative of some of the truisms that I have found to be helpful over the years. Add your own truisms to the list and I’ll put this up as a separate page to include your comments as well! Investing Success Factors Time is the most important factor relating to an investment plan’s success. There is no substitute for starting early and maintaining regular contributions to your savings. Diversification, among asset classes, sectors, and tax treatment, is the second-most important factor relating to an investment plan’s success. The old adage “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” applies here. Keeping expenses down, by utilizing low-cost investment vehicles such as no-load mutual funds and exchange-traded funds, is […]
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What If My Employer Doesn’t Match My 401(k) Contributions?
Should I continue to make contributions to my 401(k)? Is there something else that I should make contributions to instead? As you may recall, the recommended order for retirement savings contributions is normally as follows: 401(k) contributions up to the amount that the company matches max out your Roth or traditional IRA contributions for the year (as applicable) max out the remainder of the available 401(k) contributions make taxable investment contributions In the situation where your employer doesn’t match your contributions to a 401(k) plan, the order of contributions is more appropriate if you bump up the Roth or traditional IRA contributions. In other words, just eliminate the first bulletpoint. Now, the choice of Roth IRA versus the traditional IRA for your contributions is dependent upon your income and the tax impacts. For example, you would not be eligible to make a deductible traditional IRA contribution if your Modified Adjusted […]
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Ideal Roth Conversion Candidate – Protecting Non-Taxation of SS Benefits
This is the second in a series of posts about Ideal Roth Conversion Candidates. See the first post, Low or Zero Tax, at this link. One of the planning options that most all folks have available to them is the Roth IRA Conversion. For the uninitiated, a Roth IRA Conversion is a transaction where you move money from a Traditional IRA or a Qualified Retirement Plan (QRP) such as a 401(k) into a Roth IRA. With this transaction, if any of the funds in the original account was pre-tax, that amount would be included in income as potentially taxable in the year of the Conversion. As you might expect, making a decision like this can result in a considerable tax impact, depending on the individual circumstances. A Roth IRA Conversion may make a great deal of sense for one individual, while another may decide that the Conversion cost is too […]
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Ideal Roth Conversion Candidate – Low or No Tax
One of the planning options that most all folks have available to them is the Roth IRA Conversion. For the uninitiated, a Roth IRA Conversion is a transaction where you move money from a Traditional IRA or a Qualified Retirement Plan (QRP) such as a 401(k) into a Roth IRA. With this transaction, if any of the funds in the original account was pre-tax, that amount would be included in income as potentially taxable in the year of the Conversion. As you might expect, making a decision like this can result in a considerable tax impact, depending on the individual circumstances. A Roth IRA Conversion may make a great deal of sense for one individual, while another may decide that the Conversion cost is too great for the result. Detailed below is one specific circumstance that indicates a Roth IRA Conversion is a good move – although each individual needs […]
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What is Meant by Half Years of Age?
If you’ve paid much attention to the rules around retirement plans (IRAs, 401(k)s, and others), you’ve probably noticed that there are a couple of rules that refer to ages that include “½”. So what does this mean?? Well, quite literally, this means 6 months after you reach a certain age. The two primary ages with “½” included are 59½ and 70½. So, to be age 59½, means that you reached your 59th birthday six months prior to that date. Likewise, to be age 70½ means that you reached age 70 six months prior to that date. These two ages are for different purposes and are (naturally) treated differently. Age 59½ The rule using age 59½ is for one of the exceptions to the penalty for early withdrawals from your IRA or 401(k) plan: once you’ve reached that age (and not before that age) you can take withdrawals from your IRA […]
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Inherited IRA Multiple Beneficiary Example
I thought it might be helpful to work through an example of an IRA that has been inherited by multiple beneficiaries, so that we can discuss the important components of working with such a situation. In our example, we’ll say there is an IRA worth $800,000 at the date of death of the original owner, and she has designated four beneficiaries of the account. One of the first factors that is important to note is that the beneficiaries could be anyone – they do not have to be related to the original owner, or likewise they could be the children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, brothers or sisters of the original owner. For the purpose of this example though, none of the beneficiaries is the surviving spouse of the original owner – surviving spouses have different rules to work from. Option 1 – Do Nothing The beneficiaries of the original account could […]
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What Options Are Available for a Surviving Spouse Who Inherits an IRA?
First Spouse Program bronze medal (Photo credit: Wikipedia) When the owner of an IRA dies and leaves the IRA to his or her spouse as the sole beneficiary, there are some unique options available for handling this inherited IRA. Keep in mind that these options are only available to a spouse a beneficiary – a non-spouse beneficiary has much more limited options available. Options for a Spousal Beneficiary of an IRA The first and easiest option is for the spouse to leave the IRA exactly where it is and do nothing. In this manner, the IRA will continue to exist as belonging to the deceased spouse – for a time. If the deceased spouse was over age 70½ years of age and subject to Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs), the surviving spouse could elect to continue receiving those RMDs using his or her late spouse’s lifetime as the distribution factor. On […]
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When Is a Roth IRA Subject to Income Tax?
Elaine Roth (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Ah, the Roth IRA. That single bastion of non-taxable money in our arsenal of accounts. When you have investments in a Roth IRA, you can take the money out tax-free, right? Not always. There are several situations where a Roth IRA’s monies can be subjected to tax, penalty, or both. Listed below are some of those circumstances. When a Roth IRA is Taxable It should be noted that contributions to a Roth IRA may always be withdrawn from the account tax-free, for any purpose whatsoever. There are no restrictions on these withdrawals. 1. Taking the money out of the account within the first five years of the account’s existence can result in taxation of a portion of the funds. The portion that is taxable is any withdrawal that exceeds the total of all contributions and conversions into the account. This rule applies without exceptions. 2. […]
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A Tax-Free Roth Conversion Question of Timing
Fern Overgrowth (Photo credit: MightyBoyBrian) We’ve discussed here in the past about how it is (at least under present law) a perfectly legal maneuver to make a non-deductible contribution to a traditional IRA and then at some point later convert the same contribution to your Roth IRA (see Is it Really Allowed? for more). If you have no other IRA accounts, this conversion to Roth can be a tax-free event, especially if there has been no growth or gains in the investments in the account. However (and there’s always a however in life) I recently came across a situation that was sent to me by a reader, where he wanted to do such a conversion, but he also wanted to rollover some money from his 401(k) plan into an IRA. The question is in the timing – understandably, if he does the conversion from the traditional IRA to the Roth […]
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About to Graduate? Learn How to Save!
Hey, soon-to-be-graduates: as you begin to make your way out into the world of full-time employment, you’ll soon be faced with many, many “grown up” ways to spend the money you’ll be earning. You’ll of course have rent, insurance, food and clothing, maybe a car payment, and you’ll want to use some of that new-found money to blow off steam, however you choose to do that – maybe fulfilling a lifetime dream of getting “beaked” by Fredbird, for example. If you’re on top of your game, you’ll may also be thinking about saving some of your earnings. Here, you’ll have a bundle of options to choose from – regular “bank” savings accounts, 401(k) plan (or something similar) from your employer, and IRA accounts, both the traditional deductible kind and the Roth kind (hint: the Roth kind is what I want you to pay particular attention to). Side note: even if […]
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What types of accounts can I rollover into?
OMG IRA (Photo credit: girlonaglide) When you have money in several accounts and you’d like to have that money consolidated in one place, the question comes up – Which type of account can be tax-free rolled over into which other type of accounts? Thankfully, the IRS has provided a simple matrix to help with this question. At this link you’ll find the matrix, sourced from IRS Publication 590. In terms of explanation, here are a few rules to remember: You can generally rollover one account of any variety (IRA, Roth IRA, 401(k), and so on) into another account of the exact same type. You can rollover a Traditional IRA into just about any other tax-deferral plan, including 401(k), 403(b), 457(b), as well as a SEP IRA. The same goes for each of the accounts in reverse as well as between all of these types of accounts. In general, employer plans […]
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The Rollover
Image via Wikipedia You’ve heard it millions of times – on the radio or tv – “when you leave your job, you should roll over your retirement account”. You may know that it makes sense (or at least you assume it makes sense, otherwise why would these folks admonish you to do so?), but do you know why it’s important? And do you have the first clue as to how to accomplish a rollover? Why rollover? Among the reasons that it is important to rollover your retirement account when you leave employment is that you want to have control over your money. If you leave the account with the former employer, you are effectively handing over a portion of the control of your money to the administrator. This administrator’s primary job is to ensure that the plan remains as effective and efficient as possible, for your former employer. Your interests […]
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Tax Credits That Can Increase Your Refund
The IRS recently issued their Tax Tip 2012-41, which lists out some of the tax credits that are refundable. Most tax credits are not refundable, meaning that if the amount of the credit is more than your tax for the year, the credit is limited only to the amount of your tax. For example, if you had tax payable of $1,500 and then had Education Credits, Energy Credits, and/or Foreign Tax Credits amounting to more than $1,500. Your credits will be limited to $1,500 since that’s your tax payable and the credits are not refundable. On the other hand, there are a few credits that are refundable, as listed below in the actual text from Tax Tip 2012-41. Four Tax Credits that Can Boost Your Refund A tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction of taxes owed. Some tax credits are refundable meaning if you are eligible and claim one, you […]
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8 Things to Consider Before Rolling Over Your 401(k)
K’nex (Photo credit: -Snugg-) Employers have been giving us lots of opportunities to make this decision of late: when leaving an employer, whether voluntarily or otherwise, we have the opportunity to rollover the qualified retirement plan (QRP) such as a 401(k) from the former employer to either an IRA or a new employer’s QRP. This decision shouldn’t be taken lightly – although often it is the best option for you. Moving to an IRA gives you much more control over your destiny, so to speak, by allowing you to choose from the entire universe of allowable investment choices. Using your new employer’s QRP can give you a better sense of control over the account as well, although the flexibility of an IRA is generally preferable to another QRP. But sometimes it makes the most sense to leave your money in the old plan. Listed below are eight possible reasons that […]
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Ordering Rules for Roth IRA Distributions
Tax (Photo credit: 401K) Did you know that there is a specific order for distributions from your Roth IRA? The Internal Revenue Service has set up a group of rules to determine the order of money, by source, as it is distributed from your account. This holds for any distribution from a Roth account. Ordering rules First, over-contributions or return of your annual contribution for the tax year. This means that if you’ve made a contribution to the Roth IRA in the tax year, the first money that you withdraw from the account will be the money that you contributed that year. If you over-contributed to your account a prior year. Growth on this over-contribution or annual contribution needs to be removed at this time as well, with tax and penalty paid as required. Second, regular annual contributions to the account. The next money that comes out is the total […]
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Facts About the 72t Early Distribution
Image by wallygrom via Flickr In case you don’t know what a 72t distribution is, this is shorthand for the Internal Revenue Code Section 72 part t, and the most popular provision of this code section is known as a Series of Substantially Equal Periodic Payments – SOSEPP for short. Enough about the code section already. What is this thing? A SOSEPP is a method by which you can access your IRA funds prior to age 59½. In order to take advantage of this rule, you determine the amount of the annual distribution from your IRA (this is done in a prescribed manner, more on this in a bit) and then begin taking the distributions. Once you start the SOSEPP, you have to keep it going for the longer of five years or until you reach age 59½. Methods of Distribution There are three ways that you can determine the […]
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Pre-Death Planning: Roth Conversion
Image via Wikipedia Financial planning often requires us to face our own certain demise – something that we often don’t want to do, but still a certainty that we all must face. Among the things that we want to do when planning for the inevitable would be to make certain that our surviving loved ones have access to adequate monetary resources to support themselves, in the most cost-effective manner. Another thing that we hope to accomplish is to make the transition as easy as possible for our loved ones. One way to do this is to convert a good portion of your IRA or other tax-deferred funds to a Roth IRA account. Here’s why: By converting to a Roth account, you will make the funds in that account available to your heirs totally tax free. Granted, your estate will also be smaller by the amount of tax that you paid […]
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The latest in our Owner’s Manual series, A 401(k) Owner’s Manual, was published in January 2020 and is available on 
A Medicare Owner’s Manual, is updated with 2020 facts and figures. This manual is available on 
Social Security for the Suddenly Single can be found on Amazon at 
Sterling’s first book, Lose Weight Save Money, can be 
An IRA Owner’s Manual, 2nd Edition is available for purchase on Amazon. Click the link to choose the 
Jim’s book – A Social Security Owner’s Manual, is now available on Amazon. Click this link for the 
And if you’ve come here to learn about queuing waterfowl, I apologize for the confusion. You may want to discuss your question with Lester, my loyal watchduck and self-proclaimed “advisor’s advisor”.