3 Tips For Managing Traditional and Roth IRA Tax Implications
IRAs and Roth IRAs offer tax advantages that allow you to save more and give Uncle Sam less over time, but certain actions can trigger major tax bills in a given year. If you have either of these retirement accounts, here’s how to get the most out of them and prepare for any related personal income taxes that you might owe this year.
Maximize Contributions Before Filing Taxes
To get the most benefit from your IRA or Roth IRA, make sure you contribute the full amount that you’re allowed to. The contribution limit for 2019 is $6,000 for people under 50 years old and $7,000 for seniors age 50 or older. This is an individual limit, so spouses can each have their own account and contribute the maximum allowed.
Moreover, these contributions don’t have to be made by the end of the calendar year. As long as you make contributions before filing your 2019 personal income taxes, those contributions can be counted on your return. The deadline for filing this year is April 15, 2020.
Plan for Taxed Roth IRA Contributions
While Traditional IRA contributions are tax-deductible and will lower how much you owe for the year’s income taxes, the same isn’t true for Roth IRA contributions. Whereas contributions made to Traditionals are pre-tax, anything put in a Roth is post-tax income. As a result, you’ll have to pay income taxes on contributions made to a Roth if you haven’t already.
For some people, this is a moot point because contributions are made from paychecks that have already had income tax withheld. If you’re self-employed or use a non-salary/wage income for these contributions, though, make sure you keep enough to pay the income taxes that will be due.
Reserve Some Withdrawals for Taxes and Penalties
Neither IRA or Roth IRA accounts are intended to have money taken out of them before age 59-1/2 , but you can access the funds in your account should you need to for an emergency. For
example, sometimes people make early withdrawals to avoid bankruptcy, prevent foreclosure or pay unexpected medical bills.
Should you take an early withdrawal, you might be hit with a substantial income tax and penalty depending on how much and what exactly you take out. The implications are as follows:
Early withdrawals from Traditional IRAs are taxed at your income tax rate and assessed a 10-percent penalty.
Withdrawn earnings from Roth IRAs are taxed at your income tax rate and assessed a 10-percent penalty.
Withdrawn contributions from Roth IRAs aren’t taxed or penalized, because you’ve already paid income tax on this money.
Because withdrawals are usually made for financial emergencies, they’re frequently substantial. If you made an early withdrawal this year, reserve some of the funds to pay any taxes and penalties that you need to.
Time is Running Out: Make Your 2019 IRA Contribution
With Tax Day-- April 15-- rapidly approaching, there’s still time to lower your taxable income and save for your retirement as well with a Firstrade no-fee traditional or Roth IRA. A win-win, as they say.
If you already have a Firstrade Traditional or Roth IRA, good for you! You already know all about the great value of IRA investing. But don’t forget, you’ll still eligible to take advantage of 2019 tax benefits by making additional contributions to your IRA before April 15, 2020. You can log in now to start your contribution. (If you’re age 50 or under, you can contribute up to $6,000, and $7,000 if you are age 50 or older.)
If you don’t have an IRA, now’s the time to get started to reduce your taxable income for 2019 and save for your retirement. And best of all, Firstrade’s no-fee IRAs mean that all the money you contribute begins working for you immediately. Don’t delay, to open your no-fee IRA, go here for the application.
2019 and 2020 IRA Contribution Limits and Deadlines:
*You can also make an additional early contribution now for the 2020 tax year.
We’ll be talking more about the many tax benefits of an IRA in an upcoming blog. Stay tuned.
New IRA Changes Make It a Great Time to Open an Absolutely No-fee IRA At Firstrade
As financial consumers, we face many choices on how to invest our hard-earned money for retirement. But save we must. Firstrade’s absolutely no-fee IRA allows all of your funds to work for your retirement only with maximum tax advantage.
Studies have shown that one-in-five Americans have no retirement savings at all, while one-in-three who are close to retirement age have less than $25,000 saved. Given that many of us will likely live longer than past generations, this is pretty scary stuff.
Are you prepared to live comfortably in your retirement?
IRAs are among the most well-known and popular retirement investment products available to consumers today. With a range of choices from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, millions of Americans are saving for their future by opening IRA accounts.
And now, new reforms are making it easier and more appealing for Americans to invest and save for retirement. The two key changes:
Increased Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) Ages – Previously, with a traditional IRA, an account owner would have had to begin taking required minimum distributions (RMDs), the minimum amount you must withdraw from your account each year, when reaching age 70½. This age has now been raised to 72, providing more time to save with tax deferral.
Removes Age Limitations on Contributions – Formerly capped at age 70½, maximum age limits on retirement contributions have been eliminated allowing investors to continue to contribute to an IRA throughout their lifetime and save even more.
Of course, the existing benefits to an IRA still apply— for a traditional IRA, for instance, your money grows tax-deferred and your contributions may be tax-deductible. And you can contribute up to $6,000 a year or $7,000 if you’re age 50 or older. With a Roth IRA, you pay taxes when you put your money into your account. The contributions and earnings including capital gains, dividends and interest income are considered after-tax money, so when you withdraw the money years from now, you won't have to pay federal income tax on it.
IRAs are great vehicles for you to sock away money for your retirement years! At Firstrade, we make it easy to open an absolutely no-fee IRA. That’s right. No annual fee, account set-up fee, or maintenance fee. And, you can trade stocks, ETFs, options and mutual funds in your IRA with zero commission trading.
Check here for more detailed information about the benefits of IRAs and to open an account!
News About Firstrade’s CMA Foreign Fransaction Fees
As we discussed in an earlier blog post about Cash Management Account, owning a Firstrade cash management account (CMA) is a convenient way to manage your money by providing all the benefits of a checking, savings and investment account within one product.
A Firstrade CMA has no annual, application or maintenance fees and only a minimum deposit of $100 is needed to get started.
And, we’ve just made our CMA even more beneficial. Here’s how it works:
To be eligible, you must maintain a minimum account equity of $10,000 or more in your CMA.
You will receive a refund for the first foreign transaction fee (3%)incurred each month on debit card withdrawals and purchases made outside of the U.S.
The reimbursement will appear in your account within three business days.
This is definitely great news for those of you who live or spend time overseas. To learn more about our cash management accounts, go here.
New Investor Site Goes Live!
What do customers want in an investor site? Simple, really.
Ease of Use. Accessibility. Simple navigation. Speed. Information.
Well, we’ve got it all covered with the new site that we’re launching today.
You’ve asked for the tools to make your investing experience better than ever and we’re continuing to deliver for you.
Highlights include:
New and Updated Look - Redesigned to bring a fresh new look to our award-winning investing platform.
Improved Navigation - New dropdown navigation bar makes it quicker to find what you need.
Faster Performance - Optimized for faster loading times and performance across the site.
Take a look and let us know what you think!