The Slott Report

Disadvantage of Using Your Roth IRA for Higher Education Expenses

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.

Slott Report Mailbag: How Do These Roth IRA 5-Year Rules Work?

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.

Roth IRA Contributions: Don’t Report on Tax Return, But Do Keep Track

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.

Rolling Over Company Retirement Plan Money You Get in a Divorce

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.

IRAtv: 65-Day Rule for IRA Trust Beneficiaries and Trustees

The 60-day IRA rollover rule is well documented, but there's another special rule (the 65-day rule) for IRA trust beneficiaries and trustees. Ed Slott IRA Technical Expert Jeffrey Levine takes you through the nuts and bolts of the rule in the IRAtv video below.

New IRS Publication 560 – Retirement Plan Info for Small Businesses for 2013

The IRS updated the 2013 version of Publication 560, Retirement Plans for Small Business (SEP, SIMPLE, and Qualified Plans) For use in preparing 2013 Returns. This publication contains basic information on employer retirement plans such as simplified employee pension (SEP), savings incentive match plan for employees of small employers (SIMPLE), and qualified retirement plans.

Retirement Account Asset Valuation Seeing Greater Scrutiny

Asset valuation is coming under greater scrutiny. It started with valuations used for calculating estate tax. IRS questioned valuation discounts used in many estates and was successful in many of these challenges.Then came the housing crash, the market crash and the mortgage security problems in 2006 and beyond. As a result, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) is now looking harder at how illiquid investments in alternative funds are being valued.