Two Tax Time IRA Questions

By Beverly DeVeny, IRA Technical Expert
Follow Me on Twitter: @BevIRAEdSlott

Here are two questions that come up a lot at tax time.

Q. Can I do a conversion now for 2011?
A. No. In order to have a 2011 conversion, the funds must leave the IRA account in 2011. They don’t have to be in the Roth IRA in 2011 since you can take a withdrawal in December, 2011 and have 60 days to complete a rollover to the Roth IRA in January or February, 2012. But they must leave the traditional IRA account by December 31, 2011.

Q. Joe died last year. He had earned income. Can we make a contribution to his IRA or Roth IRA account for last year?
A. No. You can only make a contribution for someone who is alive. The theory behind this is that if someone dies during the tax year, they no longer have a need to save for retirement. You just can’t argue with that logic!!!
 

Receive Ed Slott and Company Articles Straight to Your Inbox!
Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

Content Citation Guidelines

Below is the required verbiage that must be added to any re-branded piece from Ed Slott and Company, LLC or IRA Help, LLC. The verbiage must be used any time you take text from a piece and put it onto your own letterhead, within your newsletter, on your website, etc. Verbiage varies based on where you’re taking the content from.

Please be advised that prior to distributing re-branded content, you must send a proof to [email protected] for approval.

For white papers/other outflow pieces:

Copyright © [year of publication], [Ed Slott and Company, LLC or IRA Help, LLC – depending on what it says on the original piece] Reprinted with permission [Ed Slott and Company, LLC or IRA Help, LLC – depending on what it says on the original piece] takes no responsibility for the current accuracy of this information.

For charts:

Copyright © [year of publication], Ed Slott and Company, LLC Reprinted with permission Ed Slott and Company, LLC takes no responsibility for the current accuracy of this information.

For Slott Report articles:

Copyright © [year of article], Ed Slott and Company, LLC Reprinted from The Slott Report, [insert date of article], with permission. [Insert article URL] Ed Slott and Company, LLC takes no responsibility for the current accuracy of this article.

Please contact Matt Smith at [email protected] or (516) 536-8282 with any questions.