This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks at IRA beneficiary language and procedures as well as Roth conversions and recharacterizations, a topic we cover heavily in Ed Slott's 2014 Retirement Decisions Guide. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.
When it comes to estate planning, one of the primary goals is to transfer as much of a person's assets to their intended beneficiaries at the lowest cost or, in other words, by paying the least amount of tax. Today, the federal estate tax exemption is $5,340,000 per person. It is also portable (can be transferred) between spouses, giving them a maximum exemption of $10,680,000 per couple and the maximum rate is 40%. That is a far cry from where we’ve been.
IRS has released its annual list of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams just in time for you to try and avoid them during their peak tax season. Beware of these scams and check back here for Tax Planning Week through Friday.
While Roth IRAs should ideally be used for retirement, the fact that you have unrestricted access to your Roth IRA basis allows you to take a distribution at any time for any reason. Maybe you’re planning on going back to college or graduate school, but you don’t want to go in debt to pay for it. However, if you’re planning on using your Roth IRAs to pay for higher education expenses, there is a big disadvantage you need to know about before you do so. Click for more information.
Welcome to Tax Planning Week at The Slott Report - a week where each of our experts verse all of us in one issue they feel is extremely important as you organize your paperwork and hop on TurboTax or send it off to the local CPA. Click for more Tax Planning information.
The Slott Report Mailbag is full of inquiries on one of our most discussed topics, the Roth IRA 5-year rules, as well as a question that came from our Wednesday article on where you report your 2013 Roth IRA contributions on your tax return (hint: nowhere!). Click for this week's Q&A with our IRA Technical Expert.
If you made a Roth contribution for 2013 and are now preparing your tax return, you may be wondering where to report it. Chances are, however, that if you’ve been looking, you’ve been looking for a while. It’s very difficult to find where these contributions are reported. Actually, truth be told, it’s impossible.
If you are in the midst of getting a divorce or you're already divorced, you might be awarded some or all of your ex-spouse's company retirement plan funds, such as a 401(k) plan, as part of the property settlement. If so, there are a few things you need to know before you get those funds. We detail these below.
This week there were five private letter rulings (PLRs) issued by IRS that dealt with IRA issues. Don’t let these problems happen to you or to your clients! Click to learn more about these rulings.
Come rain, sleet, or in this case, a Nor'easter of snow, we still deliver The Slott Report Mailbag with questions about IRA required minimum distributions (RMDs), beneficiaries when one wasn't listed (hint: the spouse isn't automatically the beneficiary) and the Roth IRA conversion rules.
