Articles
OBAMA BUDGET WOULD ELIMINATE THE “BACK-DOOR” ROTH IRA, REQUIRE RMD FOR ROTH IRAs, AND LIMIT YOUR ACCOUNT AT $3.4M
President Obama's latest budget proposal seeks to address once policy issue: the federal government wants more money. That fact is, American wealth is being concentrated into retirement accounts and the government wants more of it than it already receives. Here's...
HOW TO TRANSFER TITLE FROM A DECEASED SPOUSE
When property is owned by spouses as joint tenants with rights of survivorship or as community property with rights of survivorship, the interest of the first spouse to die passes to the surviving spouse. If property was held between spouses with "rights of...
2014 Tax Reporting for Your Self-Directed IRA
Self-Directed IRA investors should be aware of the following IRA tax reporting responsibilities. Some of these items are completed by your custodian and some of them are the IRA owner’s sole responsibility. Here’s a quick summary of what should be reported to the IRS...
IRAs and Annuities: What You Need to Know
IRAs are the most commonly held retirement account and annuities are one of the most popular investments for retirees. Despite the popularity of each, the two concepts shouldn't ordinarily be combined together. On the topic of IRAs and annuities, I am routinely asked...
2015 IRA ROLLOVER RULE CHANGE IS IN EFFECT
Starting January 1, 2015, you are only allowed one 60-day rollover for all of your IRAs in a twelve-month period. This change was the result of a Tax Court case reported on my blog last year known as Bobrow. Click here for the details. The important details of the new...
ROTH IRA CONVERSION RE-CHARACTERIZATION
If you have converted a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA in 2014, you can reverse the conversion by doing what is called a Roth IRA conversion re-characterization. Under a re-characterization, the Roth IRA funds and assets are rolled back into a Traditional IRA and the...
3 THINGS TO DO WITH YOUR IRA BY DEC 31
As we end 2014, there are three critical items that you must be aware of as these items must be completed by December 31, 2014. 1. Required Minimum Distributions. If you are age 70 1/2 or older and if you have a traditional IRA (or SEP or SIMPLE IRA or 401k), you...
PRECIOUS METALS BULLION IN IRAs: SATISFYING THE ‘PHYSICAL POSSESSION’ REQUIREMENT
In 1986, Congress allowed individual retirement accounts (IRA) to invest in precious metals bullion. Since then, many IRA owners have purchased and held precious metals bullion coins and bars in IRAs as a hedge against inflation and to diversify their retirement...
How to Avoid the $15000 Solo 401(k) “Failure to File 5500-EZ” Penalty
Do you have a solo 401(k)? Have you been filing form 5500-EZ each year for the 401(k)? Are you aware that there is a penalty up to $15,000 per year for failure to file? While many solo 401(k)s are exempt from the 5500-EZ filing requirement, we have run across many...
2014 Solo 401(k) Contribution Deadlines
I posted a comprehensive article last week about 2014 retirement plan contributions in general. However, as the year ends I wanted to highlight three important deadlines you must know if you plan to set-up a Solo 401(k) in 2014. A solo 401(k) is a retirement plan for...
