You are 70 ½ or older this year so you have a required minimum distribution (RMD). But, you don’t need the money or you don’t want to increase your income and pay more in income tax so you don’t want to take your RMD. What happens if you just ignore your RMD and do not take it?
Fall is in the air and the holidays are just around the corner. For many retirement account owners, this means that an important deadline is approaching. Most of those who are 70 ½ or older will need to take a 2016 RMD by December 31, 2016. However, that deadline does not apply to everyone. If you are age 70 ½ or over, when would an RMD not be required to be taken from your retirement account by the upcoming December 31 deadline? Here are some exceptions that might apply to you.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks into beneficiary IRA's with specific examples when over or under 70 1/2 years old with QCDs, RMDs as well as pre and post tax contributions.
What is there to say that hasn’t already been said (10,000 times)? The election of Donald Trump to be our next President shocked the pollsters, the American public and, by all accounts, even the President-elect himself. Reactions are obviously divided, to say the least, but one thing that has united most retirees, regardless of the side of the aisle that they sit on, is the question, “What does this mean for me?”
The deadline of October 15th has passed for recharacterizing Roth conversions done in 2015. (You have until October 15, 2017 to recharacterize your 2016 Roth conversions.) Now that you have recharacterized a 2015 conversion, what comes next? Can you reconvert those funds? The answer is yes, after a waiting period.
Required minimum distributions (RMDs) are fact of life for most retirement account owners once they reach age 70 ½. However, if you fit the definition of “still-working” you catch break and can delay your RMDs. What happens when you finally decide to throw in the towel and begin your well-earned retirement? Well, RMDs must start and that’s when things can get a little complicated. You will want to proceed with caution because a missed RMD is a costly mistake. There is a 50% penalty on an RMD that is not taken. That is not the way you want to start your golden years!
Another historic event for Same Sex Marriages happened on Wednesday, September 14, 2016. That is when the U.S. Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released final regulations amending the definitions of “marriage” and “husband and wife” in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision which legalized same-sex marriage, and the Windsor v. U.S. decision, which struck down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks at taxes associated with converting a Traditional IRA into a Roth; we also have a 2-part question regarding a living trust as the designated beneficiary on a 403b Plan -- that living trust then designated her children as equal beneficiaries.
As many know, you may not need to start taking Social Security at age 62; you can start any time after that until age 70. After 70, there's no point in waiting longer because your Social Security benefits won't increase moving forward. If you don't have an immediate need for the money and you're healthy enough to anticpate a long retirement, waiting will increase the size of the Social Security checks you'll eventually receive. Long-term, you may come out ahead.
I like to ask clients “If what you thought to be true turned out not to be true, when would you want to know? Since the beginning of mankind, people have been told things that turned out not to be true. The World is Flat. Radio has no future (Lord Kelvin 1897). The horse is here to stay, but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad. (Advice from a president of Michigan Savings bank to Henry Ford’s lawyer. Horace Rackham). What if you were told you are not part of an employer retirement plan but you really were? What could be the implications?
