The most critical component of your IRA saving is the fact that it is created to accomodate your future retirement needs. You can decide when to make contributions, carry out distributions, and reimburse taxes on withdrawals. You can even organize what will take place after you die. If you desire to take advantage of all the benefits your IRA savings account can offer, this article will present you with little-known details that will assist you in getting the most out of your Individual Retirement Account.
Number of IRAs
Just like interest bearing checking accounts, you can maintain more than one Individual Retirement Account. It is probable to setup and keep more than one IRA for several great reasons, such as:
- You own an existing Roth IRA savings, then you rollover an old 401(k) plan to Traditional IRA.
- Your AGI or adjusted gross income (AGI) is no longer qualified to make contributions to your Roth IRA, thus you setup a Traditional IRA.
- As a beneficiary, you inherited an IRA from a relative, though you already maintain your own.
- You keep your Roth IRA and setup a Traditional IRA to benefit from the tax deductions.
- While you can open as much IRAs as you want, remember that the total deposits in all of your IRAs are limited to yearly maximum amount. For instance, for 2010, the contribution limit is $5,000.
Thus, If Edward places $2,000 to his Traditional account; he is also allowed to place another $3,000 to his Roth plan during similar tax year.
Cash Contributions Only
This restriction may be frustrating if one of your investment goals is to rollover your account and you hesitate liquidating your assets. The good news is that cash contributions enforce a new basis for assets contained in the account.
The basis of the Individual Retirement Account is critical since when you withdraw money from your Traditional IRA, you compensate taxes on the income and gains generated from your investments, though not on the basis.
Tax Deductible IRA Losses
One of the significant benefits of an IRA account is the capacity to defer taxes on investment income as well as gains. Though, you can’t utilize losses from your IRA to counteract the gains. This is for the reason that the Internal Revenue Service grants you a reprieve subsequent to your account liquidation. Therefore, if the total withdrawals from your IRA are lower than the basis, you can achieve loss deduction once the assets are withdrawn from the account. Based on the Publication 590 of the IRS, you can deduct losses on your Traditional IRA with the following stipulations:
- When you distributed your funds completely from your account and the entire amount of basis is lower than the entire amount withdrawn and;
- Similar to other miscellaneous deductions, you are only authorized to deduct up to 2% of AGI.
Required Minimum Withdrawals
In IRA savings accounts, you must start making withdrawals from 1st of April on the year after you became 70 ½ years of age. The lowest amount withdrawn is dependent on your account balance on the 31st of December the previous year and your life expectancy. For every year thereafter, you can distribute the RMD or required minimum distribution. If you own several Traditional IRAs, you are not necessitated to get RMDs from all of them.
Beneficiaries
While you can open a Roth IRA for children to educate them about the importance of saving as well as retirement planning, you can also place them as the beneficiary of your Roth or Traditional IRA. One of the advantages of maintaining an IRA is the right to shift funds directly to your beneficiaries without experiencing probate. Spousal beneficiaries can procure inherited IRAs like they are their own. This permits your spouse to manage distributions and new contributions as well.
On the other hand, non-spousal beneficiary may not consider their inherited IRA saving like their own. They may not add funds to them and the account should be liquidated in its entirety within five years from the death of the original owner. This is very crucial if you plan to leave your IRA investments to your children and grandchildren.
Conclusion
An IRA savings calculator can help you determine the returns you can generate from saving vs investing. While you can place your money in basic savings accounts, investing your money through an Individual Retirement Account gives you more built-in flexibilities.
