In the wake of IRS Notice 2014-54, this question is coming up a lot. Can you roll only after-tax 401(k) funds to a Roth IRA? The answer is that you are NOT limited to moving only after-tax employer plan funds to a Roth IRA.
Most people are familiar with the basic rules for the pre-tax salary deferrals and employer contributions that are the most frequent types of money found in 401(k) and similar plans. Few, however, are aware of the rules for after-tax contributions to the “traditional side” of such plans and the unique rules and planning opportunities that can present themselves. That’s begun to change over the last week, however, since the release of IRS Notice 2014-54, which provided exceptionally favorable guidance for people with after-tax money in their 401(k) and similar plans.
Since you have unlimited access to your IRA funds, you might be tempted to use your IRA for personal use. While you are allowed to take an IRA distribution at any time, and for any reason, the IRA distribution will be taxable to you if you don’t roll it over within 60-days of receipt. So, in order to avoid having to pay federal income taxes on an IRA distribution, you might think to try and take a loan from your IRA instead. Unfortunately, taking a loan from your IRA could actually cost you MORE in taxes than taking an IRA distribution.
Yesterday the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a study on IRA balances accumulated as of 2011. The report provides some fascinating information about the number of people who have IRAs, as well as the staggering amounts that some people have accumulated in them. While there are many points that can be taken away from the study, here are three that may be of particular interest.
Life insurance and Roth IRAs have a lot in common. They are both often used as wealth transfer tools to help facilitate an efficient transfer of assets from one generation to the next, and they are both able to provide a tax-free legacy, just to name a few. Despite their many similarities, however, Roth IRAs and life insurance are very different and the rules that apply to one don’t always apply to the other. In fact, more often than not, that’s the case. Below, we discuss three such examples.
The creditor protection rules that apply to retirement accounts are complex and frequently misunderstood. In an effort to correct some of the most frequently misunderstood concepts and provide some clarity in these seemingly murky waters, below we explore 5 Retirement Account Creditor Protection Myths and then give you the real facts behind them.
On Monday, we will be celebrating Labor Day, a holiday established to pay tribute to the American workforce. Much of that workforce has access to some type of employer plan and, for more than 50 million workers, that plan is a 401(k) plan. So, with that in mind and in honor of Labor Day, this week we take a look at 5 answers to questions commonly asked by 401(k) participants.
When you retire or switch jobs, you will be entitled to receive the funds from your company retirement plan. At that point you will be notified of your options on what to do with that money. The basic options you have are to receive the funds personally or do a direct rollover (sometimes called a direct transfer) of the funds to an IRA. If you want to do a rollover to your IRA, there are problems if you choose to have the money distributed to you personally. We detail these problems below.
An advisor had a client who had missed part of her required minimum distribution (RMD). No big deal. This happens – frequently. To fix it, you take the RMD that was missed and you file IRS Form 5329 with the tax return. Form 5329 has you calculate the penalty – 50% of what was not taken. However, IRS can waive this penalty for good cause. The instructions for the form tell you how to do this, although they are a bit confusing. Then you attach a letter explaining what happened and requesting the waiver of the penalty. Apparently the tax preparer did not read the instructions and the penalty was included in the tax due on the client’s return. She did not pay the penalty portion of the tax due because she requested a waiver of the penalty. Now comes the fun part.
The pro-rata rule - another complicated intersection of moving IRA money. It's an important rule to know when thinking about distributing funds from your IRA, so we decided to break it down below into 3 things you need to know.
