The Slott Report

Read what Ed has to say about the advice he would give a 30-year-old Ed Slott.

The 2014 tax season is quickly coming to a close and chances are you either have grumbled over your tax bill, or soon will. The question is, when you do that, should you be longing for “the good ol’ days” when taxes were lower, or should you be counting your blessings that you have today’s tax rates to contend with and not those of years’ past? In all likelihood, a little bit of both is true. Click to read about the history of income tax in America.

The latest TIAA-CREF survey finds that fewer than 1 in 5 Americas are contributing to an IRA, potentially missing tax and savings benefits. The survey, conducted by an independent research firm between February 13-16, 2014, showed that just 17% of respondents contributed or were contributing to an IRA in 2014 - down from 19% last year and 22% in 2012.

Have you ever been to the post office on April 15th? If not, I wouldn't recommend it. It's a zoo. Chances are that if you ever make such a trip, the lines will be long and the wait even longer. Why? Because all the last-minute procrastinators are there to send out their tax returns. Click to find out how to avoid this rush.

If you were age 70 ½ last year (in 2013), April 1, 2014 is an important deadline for taking your 2013 IRA required minimum distribution (RMD). The tax code refers to this April 1st deadline as your required beginning date (RBD).

We are constantly saying that you should not do a 60-day rollover unless it is absolutely necessary. Here is a perfect example of why that's the case. The following story comes from a recent private letter ruling issued by IRS. It details some of the many ways a 60-day rollover can go horribly wrong.

Roth IRAs have many rules and benefits, so boiling them all down to a list of just three isn't easy. Inevitably, there will be important information you should consider that's not on this list. That said, by simply knowing these three rules, you'll have a pretty good idea of whether or not you should be having the "Roth Talk." Click to learn about these three rules in detail.

Recently, a woman found out the hard way what can happen when she was confused over the difference between an annuity and an IRA annuity. As a result, an IRA distribution that she took was taxable to her even though she intended to roll over the funds tax-free to another IRA within 60 days. She asked the IRS for a waiver of the 60-day rollover rule due to her confusion but the IRS said no, so the problem couldn’t be fixed.

It's tax time - and we've covered a lot of key planning issues during our Tax Planning Week. Here are some responses to other key IRA questions that come up a lot at tax time.

Last Wednesday at The Slott Report, we released our analysis of the retirement provisions in the President’s 2015 fiscal year budget, breaking the news that, as part of that budget, Roth IRA owners would have RMDs during their lifetimes. Since that time, we’ve been hit with emails, calls and other inquiries about what, if anything, makes sense to do in light of that proposal. We give you our analysis below.