Recently, Presidential candidate Mitt Romney indicated that a $17,000 cap on itemized deductions could be used as a way to
help pay for his plan to cut tax rates across the board.This has caused some to wonder how their deduction for an IRA contribution would be affected by such a provision.Thankfully, the answer is both favorable and easy to understand. It wouldn't be! That's because IRA deductions are
not itemized deductions and therefore, would not be impacted at all.
If you are thinking about making a charitable donation for this year, you might use money from your IRA to do so. If an IRA distribution is used to make a charitable donation, the IRA distribution will be taxed even though the money went to a charity for a worthy cause. If you are under age 59 ½ on the date of the distribution, you will also be subject to the IRS 10% early distribution penalty,
unless there’s an exception such as disability. We covered that exception in an answer to a question in last Thursday's mailbag.
I hear this a lot. "The contribution is to a non-deductible IRA." Or, "I have a non-deductible IRA." There is no such thing as a non-deductible IRA. There are non-deductible contributions made to an IRA. Think about it. Even if a contribution is made to a non-deductible IRA, it will not remain entirely non-deductible for long. There are some sort of earnings on the account – even if it is invested in a money market IRA. Would you make a contribution to an IRA that guaranteed no earnings for as long as you had any funds in the account?
This week's Slott Report Mailbag includes questions on whether an employer plan allows for distributions and rollovers when an employee stops working for that employer, how to compute the taxes on an IRA and an inherited IRA and whether or not a disabled individual can take an IRA distribution before a certain age.
Please, please don't make the mistake that so many people make and think you make too much money to make an IRA contribution. There is no limit on how much income you can make in order to make an IRA contribution. None, whatsoever. Yet, each year I speak with countless financial advisors and CPAs who are advising their clients that they cannot make an IRA contribution for the year because their income is too high. That is not true and don't you believe it for one second!
A "Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees" (SIMPLE), is a retirement plan for small businesses that uses a special IRA (called a SIMPLE IRA) as the funding vehicle. November 1, 2012 is the deadline for employers who are continuing to offer a SIMPLE IRA plan for next year to send you a notification.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag comes LIVE from The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas as we get ready for Ed Slott's 2-Day IRA Workshop this Saturday and Sunday. We answered questions on Roth conversions, the Roth IRA 5-year rules, and where an IRA goes at your death.
If your employer offers a SEP (Simplified Employee Pension) plan, it's very similar to a profit sharing plan, except that contributions are placed into your designated SEP IRA. Once the funds are in your IRA, you own and control your own money. Your employer does not control the money after it's been deposited in your SEP IRA.
The Slott Report is going on the road this week to Las Vegas, Nevada for Ed Slott's 2-Day IRA Workshop, Instant IRA Success, on Saturday, September 29 and Sunday, September 30 at The Cosmopolitan. There is still time to join us LIVE this weekend in Las Vegas. If you can't make it to Las Vegas this weekend, there are still ways to share in the experience.
An IRA account owner is trying to keep things simple or just does not get around to changing a beneficiary form. Only one person ends up being named on the beneficiary form. The account owner exacts a promise from that person that they will make sure that the account is split between all the children, or all the grandchildren, or all the siblings or whoever is important to the account owner. The unwitting beneficiary agrees to this since, after all, it is only fair that the account be split.
