Site search

This week's Slott Report Mailbag includes questions on using severance pay as compensation for 401(k) contributions, using non-cash distributions to satisfy RMDs (required minimum distributions, and rolling an after-tax 401(k) to a Roth IRA. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.

There were two key tax law changes in 2010 that encouraged people to convert their existing retirement accounts to Roth IRAs. We explain these changes and how they may affect you below.

When you are entitled to receive withdrawals from your employer's retirement plan, such as a 401(k), a rollover to an IRA is a smart move in most cases. But there are some times when it’s best to leave the money in the employer plan and NOT do a rollover to an IRA. We detail those scenarios below.

Suppose you are one of the many retirement account owners who converted funds to a Roth IRA in 2010 when there was a special 2-year “deal” on paying the taxes. Now you are wondering when you can take a distribution of those funds. The simple answer is that you can always take a distribution of your converted funds. However, depending on what you withdraw, you may not be happy with the tax consequences. Here are the rules.

This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks at the 10% early distribution penalty, which is in affect before age 59 1/2 in many cases. We also answer a tricky question about Roth recharacterizations.

How can you and your financial advisor work together to lower your tax liability? One of the questions we often ask financial professionals is, "what have you done to lower your clients' exposure to the new 3.8% healthcare surtax on net investment income?" View our IRAtv video below.

When individuals take withdrawals from their IRAs, it's usually a cash withdrawal. By cash, we don't mean dollar bills; instead it's usually done by issuing a check. But it's possible to take a non-cash withdrawal from certain IRAs. These non-cash distributions are known as property distributions or “in-kind” distributions. Click to learn more about these distributions.

What happens when you or your client inherits more than one IRA? Can they be combined into one account? Do you have to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from each account separately or can the distributions be aggregated? The answer will depend on who the inherited account came from as well as what type of account it is.

The Slott Report has extensively looked at IRS' DOMA guidance as it relates to taxes, IRAs and same-sex married couples through IRS Rev. Ruling 2013-17. Now, we have put all key points into a video alert at Ed Slott and Company's YouTube Page, IRAtv. The video below with Ed Slott and Company IRA Technical Consultant Jeffrey Levine talks about the tax and retirement planning issues related to Rev. Ruling 2013-17.

Previously, same sex married couples did not have the spousal IRA benefits of opposite-sex married couples under the tax code. These benefits include the ability to make spousal IRA contributions, tax-free splitting of IRAs in a divorce, and spousal rollovers at death. However, the IRS recently issued guidance that gives same-sex married couples the spousal IRA benefits.