Opening an IRA Account and IRA Rollovers: Today’s Slott Report Mailbag

Thursday, July 09, 2020

By Sarah Brenner, JD
IRA Analyst
Follow Us on Twitter: @theslottreport

Question:

Hello,

I am aware of the IRA one-rollover-per-year rule. What I can’t find is if a married couple that files jointly violates the rule if they each do a rollover from their own individual IRAs?

For example: One person has an IRA in their name and takes a distribution and rolls it over within the 60-day limit avoiding the taxable distribution. Now, can the other spouse also take a distribution from their own IRA and do the same without incurring a taxable distribution?

Thanks so much.

Maggie

Answer:

Hi Maggie,

Good news for married couples! While the once-per-year rule is strict and limits an IRA owner to rolling over only one IRA distribution in a 365-day period, this rule applies per person, not per couple. In your example, each spouse could do a rollover within the same 365-day period without concern about the once-per-year rule.

Question:

I am 71 years old as of March 2020.  Does the SECURE Act permit me to open a new spousal IRA account this year?

Steve

Answer:

Hi Steve,

The SECURE Act does away with the age limit for IRA contributions for contributions made for 2020 or later. This would include spousal contributions. So, if you file jointly and your spouse has enough earned income to cover your contribution, you can make spousal contribution to your IRA for 2020 regardless of your age.

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