Tag: partial Roth IRA conversion

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IRA

Doing a Roth IRA Conversion? – Leave the Door Open

Retirement Income Center

You’re standing on the edge of the 10-meter diving platform ready to take the plunge into Roth IRA conversion waters, about to transfer 100% of your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. Before you take that final step, there’s one more thing that you should consider if you’re still working or planning on working in the future and your income exceeds certain limits.

If you’re converting your entire traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, it doesn’t have to be, and in many cases shouldn’t be, the last Roth IRA conversion that you will do. In 2010, if you’re single and your modified adjusted gross income (“MAGI”) exceeds $120,000 or if you’re married and your MAGI exceeds $177,000, you’re prohibited from making direct contributions to a Roth IRA. It’s important to keep in mind that if your income doesn’t exceed these limits and you make a contribution to your Roth IRA, the maximum allowable amount is currently $5,000 or $6,000 if you’re 50 or older, and, furthermore, your contribution isn’t deductible.

While your income may limit your ability to make direct contributions to a Roth IRA, you may still make indirect contributions via a two-step process. In order to implement this strategy, you need to have a traditional IRA account in place. I recommend to all of my working clients who are considering full conversion of their traditional IRA’s to Roth IRA’s to keep one of their traditional IRA accounts open by leaving $1,000 in it. If you do this, even though you may be transferring 99% of your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, you’re technically doing a partial, vs. a full, Roth IRA conversion.

Assuming that your income exceeds the specified deductible IRA contribution limits which in 2010 are $66,000 if you’re single and $109,000 if married, step one is to make a nondeductible IRA contribution to your traditional IRA account. The maximum allowable traditional IRA contribution, whether it is deductible or nondeductible, is identical to the maximum allowable Roth IRA contribution limit: $5,000 or $6,000 if you’re 50 or older.

Once you’ve made your nondeductible IRA contribution, you may immediately implement step two. Given the fact that, beginning in 2010, there are no income limitations in connection with converting traditional IRA accounts to Roth IRA accounts, step two is to complete your financial institution’s Roth IRA conversion form requesting transfer of the amount that you just contributed to your traditional IRA to your Roth IRA account. Once again, this will be a partial conversion since you generally want to leave funds in your traditional IRA account in order to keep it open for potential future contributions.

Although you have until April 15th to make an IRA contribution for the preceding year, it’s a good idea to execute this two-step process at the beginning of each year assuming that funds are available. This will get you in the habit of making sure that you implement this strategy each year, and, if done consistently over a number of years, can substantially add to the value of your Roth IRA account.

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Roth IRA

Not Converting 100% of Your Traditional IRA’s? – Don’t Use All of Your Basis – Part 2

Retirement Income Center

If you haven’t yet read last week’s post, I recommend that you do so before reading this one. Last week’s post listed three types of partial Roth IRA conversion scenarios and stated that the calculation of taxable gain in scenarios #2 and 3 can be problematic when basis exists if you’re not careful. This week’s posts illustrates each of the three scenarios.

Scenario #1 – Conversion of a Portion of a Single Traditional IRA Account

Suppose you own one traditional IRA account with a value of $120,000 and basis of $100,000. If you convert 50% of the account value, or $60,000 to a Roth IRA, you would use 50% of your basis, or $50,000 to calculate your taxable gain as follows: $60,000 – $50,000 = $10,000. Your remaining unused basis would be $50,000 (total basis of $100,000 less basis used of $50,000).

Scenario #2 – Conversion of a Portion of a Traditional IRA Account Where There are Multiple Traditional IRA Accounts

For this scenario, let’s assume that you own two traditional IRA accounts, consisting of a contributory and a SEP-IRA account with the following value and basis:

Account Type

Current Value

Basis

Contributory IRA

$100,000

$ 80,000

SEP-IRA

$200,000

  

$   0

 

TOTALS

$300,000

$ 80,000

Let’s assume that you convert 50%, or $100,000, of your SEP-IRA account to a Roth IRA. What is the amount of basis that you should use to calculate your taxable gain? Is it (a) $0 (50% of your SEP-IRA basis), or (b) $26,667 (1/3 of the total basis of both of your traditional IRA accounts)?

For those of you who guessed “b,” you are correct. Per last week’s post, whenever you calculate the taxable gain in connection with a partial Roth IRA conversion, you always need to include the basis from all of your traditional IRA accounts in your calculation. Since you are converting $100,000, or 1/3 of the total value of your traditional IRA accounts of $300,000, you need to use 1/3 of the total basis of your two accounts, or $26,667 ($80,000 divided by 3), resulting in a taxable gain of $73,333 ($100,000 – $26,667).

Scenario #3 – Conversion of 100% of One of Two or More Traditional IRA Accounts

Suppose in Scenario #2, instead of converting 50% of your SEP-IRA, you decide instead to convert 100% of your contributory IRA to a Roth IRA. Your contributory IRA account has a high basis since all of the contributions to it have been nondeductible vs. 100% deductibility for all of the contributions to your SEP-IRA, resulting in $0 basis. If you convert 100% of your contributory IRA to a Roth IRA, is the amount of basis used to calculate your taxable gain (a) $80,000 (100% of your contributory IRA basis), or (b) $26,667 (1/3 of the total basis of both of your traditional IRA accounts)?

Once again, “b” is correct. As with Scenario #2, you cannot simply use the basis from the traditional IRA account that you are converting to calculate your taxable gain. When there are two or more traditional IRA accounts, you must use a pro rata portion of your basis based on the relative values of the accounts that you are converting. Since you are converting $100,000, or 1/3 of the total value of your traditional IRA accounts of $300,000 you need to use 1/3 of the total basis of your two accounts, or $26,667 ($80,000 divided by 3), resulting in a taxable gain of $73,333 ($100,000 – $26,667).

In both Scenarios #2 and #3, after doing your Roth IRA conversion, you will have remaining basis of $53,333 (total basis before conversion of $80,000 less basis used for the conversion of $26,667).

Whenever you’re considering a Roth IRA conversion, you should always follow these four steps:

  1. Take an inventory of your various traditional IRA accounts to make sure that you’re including all of them in your calculations, even those you aren’t converting. Include all of your regular, or contributory IRA accounts, rollover IRA’s, SEP-IRA’s, and 72(t) IRA’s in your inventory.
  2. Make sure that you include the basis of all of your traditional IRA accounts in your calculations. Assuming that you have basis in at least one account, you should be able to locate this on Form 8606 – Nondeductible IRAs that is part of the tax filing for the most recent year that you made a nondeductible contribution to a traditional IRA, received a distribution from a traditional IRA or Roth IRA, or did a Roth IRA conversion.
  3. For partial conversions of a single traditional IRA, include a pro rata portion of the basis of the account based on the value of the account being converted relative to the total value of the account.
  4. Where there are multiple accounts and you are either converting a portion of one account or 100% of one of two or more accounts, include a pro rata portion of the basis of all accounts based on the value being converted relative to the total value of all accounts.

Above all, always remember that if you’re not converting 100% of your traditional IRA’s to a Roth IRA, don’t use all of your basis!

Categories
Roth IRA

Not Converting 100% of Your Traditional IRA’s? – Don’t Use All of Your Basis – Part 1

Retirement Income Center

In the August 2, 2010 post, Remember Your IRA Basis Scorecard When Planning Roth IRA Conversions, the concept of basis, including the importance of tracking it and using it to offset otherwise taxable gains in connection with Roth IRA conversions, was discussed. This post and next week’s post are follow-ups to that post since they expand upon the discussion of how taxable gains are calculated in connection with a partial Roth IRA conversion when basis is available.

We learned in Remember Your IRA Basis Scorecard When Planning Roth IRA Conversions that you’re taxed on the difference between the value of your distribution and your basis in the distribution. This is a relatively simple calculation when you convert 100% of all of your traditional IRA accounts, however, it’s a different story when you do a partial Roth IRA conversion.

A partial Roth IRA conversion occurs when you convert less than the total value of all of your traditional IRA accounts to a Roth IRA. Partial Roth IRA conversions come in three flavors. They include conversions of:

  1. A portion of a single traditional IRA account,
  2. A portion of a traditional IRA account where there are multiple traditional IRA accounts, or
  3. 100% of one of two or more traditional IRA accounts

Scenario #1 is pretty straightforward when calculating taxable gains, however, scenario’s #2 and #3 can be problematic when basis is present if you’re not careful. The best way to illustrate is by using examples. Before doing so, however, it’s important to point out an often-overlooked issue when dealing with scenarios #2 and #3 which can contribute directly to the taxable gain calculation problem.

When considering one’s traditional IRA’s, always keep in mind that there are several types of accounts that fall under the traditional IRA umbrella. Basically, any IRA account that isn’t a Roth IRA, beneficiary IRA, or SIMPLE IRA account is generally a traditional IRA account. This includes regular, or contributory IRA accounts which can include both deductible and nondeductible IRA contributions, rollover IRA’s, SEP-IRA’s (see the June 21st post, Don’t Forget About Your SEP-IRA for Roth IRA Conversions), and 72(t) IRA’s (see the July 26th post, Considering a Partial 72(t) Roth IRA Conversion? – Tread Lightly).

Whenever you calculate the taxable gain in connection with a partial Roth IRA conversion, the first thing you should always do is take an inventory of your various IRA accounts to make sure that you include all of your traditional IRA accounts as well as the basis from each of your accounts in your calculation.

Next week’s post will illustrate each of the three partial Roth IRA conversion scenarios, including the calculation of taxable gain. Stay tuned.

Categories
Roth IRA

Considering a Partial 72(t) Roth IRA Conversion? – Tread Lightly

Retirement Income Center

The topic of this week’s blog post is one which, quite frankly, doesn’t pertain to very many people. You may be wondering why I’m writing about it if this is the case. Besides bringing the topic to the attention of those who may be affected by it, the main reason I’m writing this post is to provide interested readers with an example of a tax planning strategy that, while it doesn’t run afoul of any IRS rules, hasn’t been officially blessed by IRS.

As with many of my blog posts, this one was inspired by one of my clients. Mr. and Mrs. R., who are retired, aren’t yet receiving Social Security benefits, and derive the majority of their income from Mrs. R.’s 72(t) IRA and two nonqualified term certain annuities, a sizeable portion of which is nontaxable.

For those of you unfamiliar with a 72(t) IRA, some brief background. Generally you must wait until age 59-1/2 to begin taking distributions from an IRA, otherwise you’re subject to a 10% premature distribution penalty in addition to any income tax liability on your distributions. IRS has carved out an exception to this rule whereby you won’t be subject to the 10% penalty if you receive a series of substantially equal periodic payments, or “SOSEPP,” from your IRA for the greater of five years or until you reach 59-1/2. A 72(t) IRA account is a traditional or a Roth IRA account from which a SOSEPP is being made.

While Mrs. R has been taking her SOSEPP for five years, she’s still about a year and a half from turning 59-1/2. If Mrs. R. discontinues her SOSEPP before she turns 59-1/2, IRS would consider this to be a modification of her SOSEPP. As such, Mrs. R. would be subject to a 10% premature distribution penalty on future distributions from her IRA. Furthermore, the 10% penalty would also be applied retroactively to all of the distributions she has already taken from her 72(t) IRA.

In addition to their 72(t) IRA and nonqualified annuity distributions, my clients recently sold a rental property at a loss of $26,000. After reducing their adjusted gross income by various itemized deductions, they were projected to have a 2010 taxable loss of approximately $25,000. While this would result in no income tax liability, without further income tax planning, this would be a potentially wasted opportunity to recognize additional income and still pay no income taxes.

How could my clients recognize additional income? While they could potentially sell securities at a gain in their nonretirement account, this would be offset by a sizeable capital loss carryover. The other option was to do a Roth IRA conversion of Mrs. R.’s 72(t) IRA. IRS regulations permit a full Roth IRA conversion of a 72(t) IRA provided that the IRA owner continues his/her 72(t) distributions from the Roth IRA account following conversion.

Since the value of Mrs. R’s. 72(t) IRA was approximately $280,000, the potential income tax liability attributable to a full 2010 conversion of Mrs. R.’s 72(t) IRA to a Roth IRA couldn’t be justified based on my client’s current and projected multi-year income tax planning even with splitting the reporting of Mrs. R.’s conversion income between 2011 and 2012. I calculated that Mrs. R. could do a partial conversion of $50,000 without incurring any income tax liability due to my client’s ability to use a net operating loss carryover that they couldn’t otherwise use in 2010. Furthermore, Mrs. R.’s conversion amount could be as much as $70,000 before my client’s marginal income tax rate would exceed 15%.

Since IRS has endorsed the full conversion of a 72(t) IRA to a Roth IRA, it would seem that there should be no issue with a partial conversion so long as the 72(t) payments continue following the conversion. Logically, the post-conversion 72(t) payment amount should be paid from both the original 72(t) IRA and the new Roth IRA accounts based on the allocation of the relative values of the two accounts. The problem is that IRS has provided no guidance on partial Roth IRA conversions of 72(t) IRA accounts, including the allocation of post-conversion 72(t) payment amounts.

Given this situation, while it isn’t logical, IRS could potentially challenge a partial Roth IRA conversion of a 72(t) IRA. If IRS were to prevail on this issue, as previously stated, future, as well as retroactive, 72(t) distributions would be assessed a 10% premature distribution penalty. IRS would also assess interest on any assessed penalties.

After consulting with Natalie Choate, a well-known attorney who specializes in estate planning for retirement benefits, I recommended to my clients that they consider doing a partial Roth IRA conversion of Mrs. R.’s 72(t) IRA in 2010, file a 2010 income tax extension application, and plan on recharacterizing, or undoing, Mrs. R.’s partial Roth IRA conversion by October 15, 2011, the extended due date of Mr. and Mrs. R.’s 2010 income tax returns, in the event that IRS doesn’t provide definitive guidance on partial Roth IRA conversions of 72(t) IRA’s by this date. (For an explanation of the recharacterization process, please see Recharacterization – Your Roth IRA Conversion Insurance Policy.)