This is the season for charitable giving. And this year, it is especially so for those who want to get the most tax benefit from charity deductions before new Tax Cuts and Jobs Act becomes law. The Act effectively reduces the tax-saving value of the charitable contribution deduction for many.
Recharacterization is currently one of the few “do-overs” allowed under the tax code. Its days may now be numbered. The tax reform legislation currently pending in Congress would do away with recharacterization at the end of 2017.
Creating a self-directed IRA is relatively straightforward. It is not a creation of the tax code, but rather stems from the investment policies of the custodian that administers the IRA account. The agreement will allow you to diversify your IRA assets across a wide range of investments that you choose. However, when investing self-directed IRA assets, it is important that you and your advisor understand the types of transactions to avoid. These transactions, called “prohibited transactions,” can lead to serious tax consequences, including the disqualification of your IRA assets.
This holiday season consider giving the gift of a big head start on lifetime financial security to the children in your family by giving them funds to contribute to Roth IRAs. There's no lower age limit on having a Roth IRA as long as a child has earned income. And an early start on saving can have a tremendous long-term payoff through the power of compound interest.
Roth IRAs become 20 years old in January of 2018 and now hold more than $660 billion in retirement wealth, reports the Investment Company Institute. Yet while Roth IRAs have become very popular among individuals who make annual contributions to IRAs, they are near totally avoided by persons who roll over big-dollar distributions from company retirement plans into their IRAs, with these funds going overwhelmingly into Traditional IRAs.
While there is a lot of focus on the proposed tax law changes that have a target effective date of 2018, there is something we can count on for 2018, the inflation adjusted retirement account limits. There are currently no proposed changes to the following limits.
House Republicans took the first shot at tax reform with the release of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on November 2. Now it is the Senate’s turn to weigh in. Not surprisingly, the Senate’s take on overhauling the tax code looks very different than the House version. You may wonder how your retirement account may be affected. Here are some highlights.
We continuously get questions on 60-day rollovers. Many times those questions revolve around a client receiving more than one distribution or wanting to complete the 60-day rollover with more than one distribution. Here is what you need to know.
Are you approaching retirement age and not looking forward to being forced to take unwanted required minimum distributions (RMDs) from your retirement account? You may be looking for a way to delay those distributions. You may have heard about the “still-working” exception, which can allow RMDs to be put off. Will this exception help you? Here are 10 things you need to know.
The much anticipated Republican proposal for tax reform has been released in the form of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, an over-400 page long major rewrite of the Tax Code. It is sure to be controversial and subject to political dispute, and specific provisions are likely to change. Here's how the major provisions that most matter to helping your clients read now.
