Tax Rules

Congress decided to inflation-adjust both the existing and the new split-entity qualified charitable distribution limitations.

Roth IRAs can only be funded with earned income. Here is a guide to what the IRS considers to be earned income.

Here are three common Roth transactions and how they interact with MAGI for Roth IRA purposes.

This notice did not offer the final guidance we were hoping for, but rather continued to push the decision further down the road.

Gifting depreciated stock is more complex and never to anyone’s advantage.

Each governing body in Virginia has their own rules and eligibility requirements.

We’ll have to wait and see what they really mean by these lofty goals.

These grants are called “K-12 Learning Acceleration Grants” and must be used to pay for “qualifying education services.”

Why create tax rules which expire so soon after they are made? The answers are as frustrating as the uncertainty the sunsets create.

This amendment raises the ABLE account age to 46 starting in 2026.

Seniors born between 1962 and 1965 will be the first to be able to take advantage of these plus-sized limits.

For those who run a retirement plan, the next step for implementing this change is to email your plan provider.

Hopefully over all this amendment encourages employer plans to offer Roth options, which will be good for taxpayers, even if this additional wealthy discrimination is unwelcome.

In a designated Roth account like a Roth 401(k), each early distribution is treated as coming part from contribution basis and part from earnings.

This update amends the Roth-side of employer retirement plans to behave more like Roth IRAs prior to death.

Later required beginning dates are generally advantageous to seniors, although the complexity surrounding RMD rules is nothing to celebrate.

For those over age 59 1/2, you would need to withdraw all funds attributable to basis before your withdrawal would be sourced from Roth IRA earnings and the age of your Roth IRA would matter for taxation.

To avoid getting issued an IRMAA, you can proactively tell the SSA of any changes your income has seen in the past two years using a “Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount – Life-Changing Event” form.

With the help of Yahoo Finance and a one-cell formula, you barely need to do any work.

The IRS has very limited case law on what constitutes a substantially different fund. However, here is what we do in our own trading.

You may be surprised by the amount of subsidies you can receive.

In 2019, the SECURE Act changed how inherited RMD rules work. After many IRS notices, we now aren’t sure how the new rules work.

Calculating the fair market value of property varies in difficulty depending on the type of property and the date of death.

Employment contracts have their origins in very old master-servant laws. With no employment contract, you can better protect your child’s freedom and childhood.

You can find out if your child or other employee qualifies by reviewing your 401(k) plan document.

If you have cost basis information missing in a taxable account, it is important to work with your custodian on correcting the missing information.

Some investable assets in the name of the child can currently keep $2,300 of unearned income from the tax rate of the parents.

As always, it is best to confer with a tax professional on matters such as these.

While you may think that the account owner needs to stay the same, you can easily change the account owner.

If you receive Social Security benefits, the portion of those benefits which will be taxable depends on your income. The taxable portion can be anywhere from 0% to a maximum of 85% of your benefits.

Luckily for Roth lovers like us, you don’t have to choose between Roth conversions or Roth contributions.

A SEP-IRA can be opened any time before you file your tax return and you can make prior-year contributions at that time. In contrast, a solo-401(k) must be opened and contributed to before the year end to count for that tax year.

Most people are able to do direct rollovers from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. In this way, most people can do any number of Roth conversions in one twelve-month period.

To avoid getting issued an IRMAA, you can proactively tell the SSA of any changes your income has seen in the past two years using a “Medicare Income-Related Monthly Adjustment Amount – Life-Changing Event” form.

If you have this fringe employer or former employer benefit, I hope you are able to take advantage of making small Roth IRA contributions throughout your retirement.

If you are currently shopping for health insurance for 2022, consider getting an on-exchange health insurance plan. You may be surprised at how much subsidies you can receive.

The 25 lines of the Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet are so simplified, they end up being difficult to follow what exactly they do. So, for those of you who are curious, here’s what they do.

You as the business owner have until the tax-filing deadline to complete both your profit-sharing and elective deferral contributions.

Whether you are on the Tax Computation Worksheet or in the Tax Table it helps to understand how your tax is calculated.

In the eyes of the IRS, Roth conversions are a type of rollover and their part in your Roth IRA’s contribution basis is called a rollover contribution.

I would recommend that you strive to pay your children $0 in non-cash compensation. Let them purchase their own rewards.

In Publication 590B, the IRS gives an example to demonstrate how Roth distribution ordering works.

The 2021 tax credit is worth $3,600 for children under age 6 and $3,000 for those under age 18. These rules apply to tax year 2021 only.

In Publication 590B, the IRS gives an example to demonstrate how Roth contribution basis works in a Roth IRA.

ABLE accounts offer people with disabilities a new opportunity to save and invest for the future.

It is easiest to simply save your 1099-R and its numbers with your record of all your Roth IRA contributions.

Going forward, keep track of all your contributions in a file alongside where you store your tax returns.

This is a common confusion with Roth IRAs.

The short answer is that most taxable distributions from inherited IRAs are taxed at the the child / beneficiary’s income tax rate. The longer answer is that there are multiple chances for inheritance to be taxed.

To take advantage of tax-free penalty-free Roth withdrawals of contribution basis, you need to keep careful records of your Roth contributions.