We now turn our focus from the election (although the issues remain) to year-end financial planning and helping both consumers and financial advisors obtain the expert information they need to come together and form a perfect retirement team. This week's Slott Report Mailbag includes questions (and our answers) on inherited IRAs and tax forms and a 3-part question on the Roth conversion process.
You can’t make a traditional or Roth IRA contribution for someone who is dead. The issue comes up when someone dies, for example your spouse, and you want to make an IRA contribution for your now deceased spouse. You figure that because he/she was eligible to make the contribution when he/she was alive, you will just make it for him. You will file a joint federal income tax return for the year, and maybe even claim a tax deduction for the IRA contribution you made for your deceased spouse. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to do that.
If you are an IRA owner or an IRA beneficiary, you will have to make a federal income tax withholding choice when you take a distribution. The reason you have to make a withholding choice is because IRA distributions are taxable. In most cases, the withholding election is built into the withdrawal form provided by the custodian. You can be penalized for underestimating your tax liability.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag comes to you live from the Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa and our Fall 2012 Master Elite and Elite IRA Advisor Group Workshop. We answer questions about rolling before-tax and/or after-tax money to an IRA, non-governmental 457(b) plans and rolling money to an IRA during bankruptcy.
Mr. President,
As part of the campaign process for your bid to seek a second term in the White House, you recently released a copy of your 2011 tax return. Purely to satisfy my own curiosity, I decided to review the return, as well as the tax return of your challenger, Governor Romney.
The tax code allows a taxpayer to plan his financial affairs so as to pay the least amount of tax that is legally owed. This allows individuals to take advantage of favorable tax provisions. But the lack of bipartisanship engaged in by Congress is making it harder and harder for individual taxpayers to plan effectively. Congress does this by delaying the passage of key tax provisions until the end of the tax year.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag comes during an important time. The election is less than two weeks away, and we have devoted an entire week to covering the IRA, tax and retirement planning issues you care about. This week's mailbag includes questions on life insurance, using Roth IRA funds for a first-time home purchase and how to take the required minimum distribution (RMD) for a deceased parent in the year of death.
Medicare will be a difficult challenge to the winner of this year's Presidential election. The number of Medicare recipients will be increasing as millions of baby boomers retire, and costs have increased as medical care has become much more expensive. Most experts agree that Medicare is unsustainable without raising taxes and/or reducing spending.
An important deadline is fast approaching. This October 31st deadline applies to trusts that are beneficiaries of retirement assets of individuals who died last year. A trust beneficiary cannot use stretch distributions from inherited retirement assets unless the trust meets four qualifications explained below.
IRS announced 2013 pension plan and IRA contribution limits and other retirement-related items on Thursday. Included in the release below are 2013 retirement plan contribution limits and AGI (adjusted gross income) phase-out ranges for Roth IRA contributions and Traditional IRA deductions. We will dissect these numbers in the weeks to come, but for now, here is the official release in full from IRS.------WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service today announced cost of living adjustments affecting dollar limitations for pension plans and other retirement-related items for Tax Year 2013. In general, many of the
