We have written many times on the importance of completing and filing a designated beneficiary form for all of your IRAs. If no designated beneficiary form is filed with your IRA custodian, or if one cannot be located, the identity of your beneficiary will be governed by default language contained in the IRA agreement, if any. Leaving to chance what may be the most critical aspect of your family’s financial future is not a smart planning move.
Approaching as quickly as a Caribbean hurricane is October 17, 2011, the day of reckoning for undoing 2010 Roth conversions. A recharacterization means reversing your Roth IRA conversion as if it never happened. Once this date passes, most individuals who made 2010 conversions that they did not recharacterize will be irrevocably locked into them as well as their accompanying tax bills.
We have written several times about the various aspects of naming a trust as beneficiary of an IRA. We have indicated when it would be appropriate to do so, as well as defined the complexities involved with such an undertaking.
What are the spousal IRA contribution rules? What benefits will a Roth conversion have for legacy planning? Can I use Social Security money to fund my wife and I's joint retirement account? We answer those questions in this week's Slott Report Mailbag.
Private letter rulings (PLRs), are written decisions by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in response to taxpayer requests for guidance. A private letter ruling binds only the IRS and the requesting taxpayer and may not be cited or relied upon as precedent by other individuals. However, if the subject matter addressed in a PLR has broad application to the general public, the IRS can redact its text and reissue it as a revenue ruling, which becomes binding on all taxpayers and the IRS.
Prior to April 18, 2011, several articles posted in The Slott Report contained reminders about the importance of making your 2010 IRA contribution. Among other things, we indicated that $5,000 was the maximum amount you could contribute to your IRA for 2010, with an additional "catch up" contribution of $1,000 if you were age 50 or older on December 31, 2010. Click to read more about what is compensation for IRA and Roth IRA contribution eligibility.
A provision in the tax code allows use of a special formula called “ten year income averaging” by qualifying individuals or their beneficiaries to determine the tax liability with respect to a lump sum distribution they may receive from an employer-sponsored qualified plan or annuity. To qualify for 10 year income averaging, the following six tests must be met.
IRD is taxable income that was earned but not received by an individual prior to his or her death. It is taxed in the same manner to the recipient as it would have been to the decedent had he or she lived to collect it. Good examples of IRD include deferred compensation, series EE savings bonds and date of death balances in IRAs and other tax-deferred retirement plans, just to name a few.
Horror stories are tough to hear. Below we share a story from someone given poor advice by his financial advisor. We also answer two other questions in this week's installment of The Slott Report Mailbag.
A 10% early withdrawal penalty applies to taxable funds withdrawn from a traditional IRA before the account owner attains age 59 ½ unless an exception applies. The same penalty (with its own set of exceptions) also applies on distributions made from most employer-sponsored retirement plans, unless the payment is due to the participant’s separation from service in a year in which he or she attains age 55 or older. Click to read about two tax traps that will trip up an unsuspecting consumer and trigger the 10% penalty.
