The Supreme Court upheld President Barack Obama's 2010 Health Care Law, the Affordable Care Act, with a 5-4 "up" vote on its constitutionality based on Congress' taxing power. Regardless of your politics, with the Supreme Court's decision, there is more certainty that health care taxes, what we call the health care surtax, will take hold on high-income earners in 2013. Ed Slott outlines what the Supreme Court ruling means for YOUR taxes and retirement planning situation in this IRAtv video below:
The New York Times ran an article on June 13th titled, "Using Your 401(k) to Buy a Small Business," and we feel compelled to discuss the piece and provide a few words of warning on using what is called a ROBS (Rollovers as Business Start-ups) transaction. Ed Slott goes through the article and adds his own expert retirement planning perspective in this IRAtv video below.
The question of Roth IRA conversion eligibility is one of the more popular inquiries we receive each week. The Roth IRA is such a powerful retirement planning vehicle that it is important to understand the conversion eligibility requirements. This IRAtv video talks about this very topic.
This week's Slott Report Mailbag includes questions on earned income for IRA contributions, required minimum distributions (RMDs) in the year of death and non-spouse IRA beneficiaries. Click to read a Q&A with our IRA Technical Consultant.
In many of our writings we refer to the most popular types of qualified retirement plans, such as 403(b)s and 401(k)s. While these are two very distinct plans with many differing rules, they do share several commonalities. In particular, the main purpose of each is to provide participants with an easy venue for saving and investing for retirement on a tax-beneficial basis. Both have taken a more prominent role as employers continue to jettison traditional pension plans.
One of the most effective ways to accumulate a large retirement nest egg is to start young. And no age is too young. In fact, the younger the better. Even a one year-old can make an IRA, or better yet, a Roth IRA, contribution as long as they have earned income – perhaps as a model in a Gerber Baby Food commercial. In reality though, most people don’t start contributing to retirement accounts until much later on in life.
Life insurance is not only the single biggest benefit in the tax code, but it is also the most cost effective way to protect a large-balance IRA. Many owners of large-balance IRAs are concerned about protecting IRA values during volatile markets. Life insurance proceeds can do just that with its incredible leverage.
Ed Slott discusses Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's unorthodox IRA in this video blog. Ed walks you through Romney's reported account value, its pitfalls, tax expenses and what steps he should take now to avoid problems down the road in this video. This issue has come up several times in discussions about Romney's reported wealth, his assets and the release of his tax returns.
You have just inherited an IRA or employer plan from someone other than your spouse. What now?
This week's Slott Report Mailbag delves into the oftentimes complicated world of required minimum distributions (RMDs). We look at RMDs after conversions, recharacterizations and the "still-working" exception. We also answer a question about when you can recharacterize a Roth IRA conversion.
