What Can a Roth IRA Be Rolled Over Into?
Rollovers can be an excellent way to combine retirement savings from previous employers into one plan and potentially gain access to investments unavailable through employer-sponsored plans, but can add further tax complications.
To avoid penalties, withdrawals must meet certain requirements – these could include using funds for home ownership or construction, medical costs or education of children or grandchildren.
Tax-Free Withdrawals
Roth accounts can be an effective savings vehicle since their funds grow tax-free, yet withdrawing your money requires meeting certain conditions to avoid taxes or penalties. You must have held onto the account for five years and be at least 59 1/2 to withdraw without incurring taxes or penalties; furthermore, qualified purposes like buying/building a first home, paying medical expenses/premiums/adoption fees etc; qualifying reservist distributions can all qualify.
To avoid paying unnecessary taxes, it’s wise to conduct a direct rollover from one Roth IRA to another. A direct rollover occurs when your IRA provider sends you a check for the balance of your account; deposit it within 60 days into the new Roth IRA; otherwise it could become taxable and subject to income tax and an early withdrawal penalty of 10%.
Qualified Higher Education Expenses
Roth IRA distributions may be used for qualified higher education expenses without incurring penalty; however, this must comply with the IRS’ pro-rata rule regarding contributions and earnings.
Higher education expenses typically include tuition and fees associated with attending any educational level post high school, including room and board costs; however, they don’t cover insurance, medical or dental bills, transportation or personal living expenses incurred in relation to attending that course or its associated books and supplies.
Before recently, it wasn’t possible to directly roll over employer retirement accounts like 401(k)s and 403(bs into Roth IRAs – now it is. Doing this can save both steps, time and money!
Qualified Charitable Expenses
Sometimes IRA owners may wish to utilize their IRA for charitable donations. While this may be feasible, we advise speaking with a financial or tax professional prior to making this decision to ensure it’s the best course of action for you.
Notably, charitable distributions from IRAs count towards your annual required minimum distribution (RMD), potentially necessitating you to withdraw more money than necessary from retirement as a result of making such an IRA distribution.
Another method for avoiding this problem is to direct roll over from an IRA directly into charity within 60 days, eliminating any income taxes on withdrawal. However, doing this may expose you to further tax complexities should you not be the spouse of the deceased IRA owner.
Distributions to Beneficiaries
If you are the nonspouse beneficiary of a deceased Roth IRA owner who did not take an RMD before death, and were not required to take one before their passing, you can roll their assets directly from one IRA into yours with what’s known as trustee-to-trustee transfer; any other form of transfer would constitute distribution and must be taxed accordingly.
The IRS only permits one direct transfer between IRAs annually, although indirect rollovers have some downsides.
With an indirect rollover, when receiving a distribution you have 60 days to deposit it completely – including income tax withholding – into another tax-advantaged retirement account before becoming ordinary income and subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty. Therefore it is crucial that any decision about this option be discussed with an impartial fee-only financial planner with no financial stake in which option is chosen.
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