Quiz Yourself with These IRA Questions!
After you’ve answered the questions below, scroll down to see the answers and see how well you know your stuff!
jeffrey levine
Calculating RMDs with Multiple Beneficiaries: This Week’s Q&A
This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks into calculating RMDs with multiple beneficiaries and inheriting IRAs.
America’s IRA Experts are in Las Vegas!
This week, Ed and I (Jeffrey Levine) are in Las Vegas for the first ever AICPA Engage Conference. Engage has taken some of the biggest (and in my humble opinion, best) AICPA conferences, such as the Advanced Personal Financial Planning Conference and the Advanced Estate Planning Conference, and merged them into one giant conference.
Three Ways to Decimate a Retirement Account in a Flash
If you want to move your retirement account from one institution to another, you can do it one of two ways; directly or indirectly. Moving your account directly is the preferred way because it avoids a lot of headaches, but for various reasons, sometimes people choose to use the indirect method.
Have You Faced This Dilemma with Spousal Contributions? This Week’s Q&A
This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks into IRA beneficiaries, Roth IRAs, and spousal contributions.
The 99% Rule for Spousal Beneficiaries of Retirement Accounts
It sounds funny to say, but death is a part of life for all of us. It’s one of the few things that all of us have in common at some point, and it’s one of the few issues that must be addressed in every plan. While every situation is unique and we all have our own goals and objectives, the overwhelming majority of married couples with IRAs and other similar accounts, such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, name their spouse as their primary beneficiary as part of their estate plans. As such, knowing the rules for when a spouse inherits an IRA is critical for just about every married couple.
Seven Ways the IRS Knows…
It’s not a good question to be asking, and it’s certainly not the right question to be asking, but one fairly common question asked by both advisors and clients is “How are they going to know?” The “they,” they’re referring to, is the IRS. For those that have ever wondered, here are the answers to seven common “How are they going to know” questions.
Problems with the Once-Per-Year Rollover Rule? This Week’s Q&A
This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks into 72(t) payments, CD-IRAs, and the once-per-year rollover rule.
3 Reasons a 401(k) Deferral Beats an IRA Contribution
1) There Are No Restrictions Preventing a Tax Break
When you defer a portion of your salary into a traditional 401(k), the amount deferred will reduce your taxable income dollar-for-dollar. This is true regardless of how much income you (and your spouse, if applicable) have. In contrast, contributions to a traditional IRA are generally entitled to a tax deduction as well, but if your income is above certain limits and you (and/or your spouse, if applicable) are an active participant in an employer-sponsored retirement plan, then that deduction can be reduced or eliminated. Thus, in some scenarios, a contribution to a traditional IRA won’t help you reduce your current tax bill.
How to Increase Your Chances of Audit to 100%
Congratulations! You’ve made it through yet another tax season. By now, you should have either filed your return or an extension. If you did the former, and actually filed your return, a three-year statute of limitations clock has begun to tick. This three-year period is generally the amount of time that the IRS has to examine your return via an audit, though there are some exceptions (such as when fraud is involved, in which case there is no statute of limitations).
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