The Internal Revenue Code is over 4,000 pages of often unintelligible tax jargon. So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the law contains more than its share of baffling and inconsistent provisions.Here are four examples pertaining to IRAs and company retirement plans:
The end of 2020 is almost here. With the end of the year come certain retirement account deadlines. Here are 5 items you should have on your 2020 year-end retirement plan to-do list:1. Do a 2020 conversionIf you are considering converting an IRA to a Roth IRA in 2020, time is quickly running out. The deadline for 2020 conversion is the end of the calendar year. There is a common misconception that a conversion can be done up until your tax-filing deadline.
Thanksgiving is behind us, and the end of the year will be here soon. (Many of us are truly thankful for that!) This is a good time to remind you of certain tax breaks that will expire before we turn over the calendar to 2021. Many of these actions require cooperation from third-party IRA custodians and plan administrators, so you need to act fast. As that great philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “It gets late early out there.”
Question:Our estate planning attorney prepared trust documents a few years ago and he advised us to name the trust as a beneficiary. This was done after discussion with him regarding a situation in case our son(s) divorce their wives. The trust is prepared so that our sons are designated beneficiaries.I've been reading your Slott Report article that advises against naming a trust as IRA beneficiary. Please let me know how to make sure half of the inherited IRA funds don't go to our son's divorced spouse.Thanks in advance.
For many people, 2020 has meant leaving a job. Some jobs have disappeared. Some workers are taking early retirement. This means that many workers are receiving distributions from employer plans. Many individuals may assume that the right move is to roll over those retirement funds to an IRA. Not so fast! For many people, a rollover will be a smart decision. However, don’t assume that is always the way to go. In some cases, as strange as it may sound, taking a lump sum distribution and paying taxes is a smart choice. You may be wondering how that could be possible. Well, a tax break called Net Unrealized Appreciation (NUA) may make taking that lump sum distribution a good choice in 2020.
FIX: Rolling Over the Tax Withheld on a Distribution. Was the mandatory tax of 20% withheld on your work plan withdrawal even though you intended to roll over the entire account? Did you change your mind on an IRA withdrawal and now want to roll it back, but you elected to have taxes withheld on the initial distribution? If money was withheld for taxes on a distribution from a work plan or an IRA and you want to roll over the distribution plus taxes withheld, you can make up the difference “out-of-pocket.” The money withheld and sent to the IRS is gone, but you can replace that withholding with other dollars, roll over the full amount, and have a credit waiting for you for the amount withheld when you do your taxes next year.
Many company retirement plans – like a 401(k) – offer company stock as an investment option. Under special tax rules, a plan participant can withdraw the stock and pay regular (ordinary) income tax on it, but only on the original cost and not on the market value, i.e., what the shares are worth on the date of the distribution. The difference (the appreciation) is called the net unrealized appreciation (NUA). NUA is the increase in the value of the employer stock from the time it was acquired to the date of the distribution to the plan participant.The plan participant can elect to defer the tax on the NUA until he sells the stock. When he does sell, he will only pay tax at his current long-term capital gains rate – even if the stock is held for less than one year. To qualify for the tax deferral on NUA, the distribution must be a lump-sum distribution. This means the entire plan must be emptied in one calendar year, including all non-company stock within the plan.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag answers readers' questions about changes in QCDs, Roth Recharacterization, Roth conversions, and NUA stemming from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag looks into the still-working exception and RMDs.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag examines NUA rules and the "still working" exception.
