In deciding whether to convert your traditional IRA to a Roth, there are many factors to weigh. At present, uncertainty about potential income tax reform makes the decision even more difficult: you are making a decision on what provides greater tax advantages, conversion or not, without confidence in the future tax impact.
Nonetheless, converting makes good tax sense if you expect your future marginal tax rate in retirement to be the same or greater than the rate on the conversion. However, if you expect your tax rate in retirement to be lower, then you will pay more taxes on conversion than you will in retirement.
There are other reasons to consider converting now:
> First, converting an IRA or other plan to a Roth account means that the assets are no longer subject to the Required Minimum Distribution (“RMD”) requirement reached at age 70½, thus allowing you to retain assets as long you wish. At death, your heirs must start withdrawing from the account, but the withdrawals will be income tax-free.
> Second, if you believe your IRA assets will grow significantly over time then it is advantageous to convert. If you convert now, you will have a lower conversion rate (less of the total will have been subject to income taxes). This calculation applies whether your current IRA assets are depressed or have yet to appreciate.
There is a reason not to convert now:
> If you’re single and the conversion puts your AGI over $200,000 (or you’re married and the conversion puts your AGI above $250,000), then the 3.8% Medicare surtax on unearned income may be triggered. However, you can avoid this (and other unintended consequences) by doing partial conversions over multiple years.
What if you err? If you convert and then your account value falls, you have until October 15th of the following year to undo the conversion, thus revering the income taxes paid.
Planning: If you’re considering a conversion, give us a call and we can help you make the right decision for you!
Tag Archives: estate planning
Update on the impact of the 3.8% Medicare surtax
Experimented with some returns on our tax software, here is an example of the impact of the surcharge, from forms 8959 and 8960, on the taxes due.
For a client with high W-2 income, as well as interest and dividend income, shifting $100,000 of income from dividends to W-2 income decreased the surcharge by $3,630 (the taxes remained unchanged).
In contrast, shifting $100,000 of salary to dividends increases the surcharge by $3,601 as does shifting $100,000 of salary to capital gains.
The message so far is: when there is substantial earned income, minimizing investment income is worth over 3% for the amount you move. That means that, all other factors being equal, an investment that had no interest, dividend or capital gains distributions will have a better after-tax return than one that does.
Planning for the inevitable – online end-of-life services
What would happen if today were your last day? How would your survivors know how to administer your estate? Even if you have a will, would the personal representative or executor of your will know where to find your life insurance policy, estate documents, and the passwords to your accounts? There are many ways you can plan for this inevitable event and provide your survivors with the support they need to carry out your wishes.
In recent years, new websites have been created for end-of-life planning and documents storage like www.AfterSteps.com and www.principledheart.com. These websites provide a one-stop solution where you can store all your end-of-life documents, from wills and trusts to instructions for basic matters like cancelling your cellphone plan, or to lists storing all you passwords. These websites also organize your asset information and communicate relevant information to your beneficiaries at death.
Of course, whenever you store sensitive information online, you have to be able to trust that the service provider will keep your information secure. Generally, these websites provide bank-level security and encryption services, but as you well know, even the most “secure” websites can be vulnerable. You have to weigh the convenience these websites provide against the risk of having your account compromised.
If an online solution does not work for you, you can always choose a more traditional route. There are resources available, such as the “What if…” workbook that can help you formulate your plan. Alternatively, you can compile a binder with all of your instructions, passwords and estate documents and store your binder in a secure location, either in paper form or as an encrypted document (and be certain to communicate that location).
Whatever you choose, it is important to discuss with your estate planner to determine the best solution is for you. In the end, you want a choice that provides peace of mind for you and clarity for your survivors.
Massachusetts enacts the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code (“MUPC”) Many other states have or will do the same
(While the following applies to Massachusetts, there are many other states that have recently made the same changes)
Massachusetts adopted the “MUPC” on March 31, 2012. It affects almost every aspect of the law of wills and the administration of estates including changes outlined below:
• Personal Representative: The law does away with classifications of executors, temporary executors, administrators, special administrators and the like by adopting the one-size-fits-all title of “personal representative.” The personal representative acts for people with a will (“testate”) or people without (“intestate”).
• Descendants: Any portion of the estate which passes to the decedent’s descendants will pass under a new system of distribution called “per capita at each generation.” Under this rule, living children inherit equally. If a child pre-deceases the parents, and has living children, the shares of all deceased children are combined and divided equally among all the surviving children.
• Effect of Divorce on the Estate Plan: The impact of divorce is broadened from partially revoking wills and unfunded revocable trusts to expressly apply to non-probate transfers, such as life insurance policies and trusts, whether funded or unfunded, in the case where an individual has the sole power to make certain changes to at the time of the divorce or annulment. The new law also operates to revoke bequests to relatives of the ex-spouse, as well as appointments of such relatives of executor or trustee under certain situations.
• Effect of Marriage on Will: Where marriage used to automatically revokes a prior will, the MUPC does not provide for such automatic revocation. Instead, the will survives, and any legacy to descendants of the decedent (who are not descendants of the new spouse) is preserved. If any part of the estate is left to persons other than such descendants, the new spouse would receive his or her intestate share under law, to be satisfied from the assets left to such other persons (and from any bequests made to the surviving spouse, if any, in the premarital will). The testator’s choice of personal representative and guardian of minor children is also preserved. Note that this rule can be avoided by updating the will after marriage.
Because of these changes to the MUPC, it is important that your estate planning documents are up to date. If you have not updated your estate plan recently, be sure to do so as soon as possible.
Tax Law Changes Coming, including raised capital gains and dividend tax rates
This month, President Obama released his proposed FY 2014 budget which contains new taxes, limits on deductions, and other changes intended to meet the goal of raising more than $580 billion in revenue.
The most significant of these is the termination of capital gains breaks and qualified dividend treatment, causing them both to be taxed as ordinary income. The Kiplinger Tax Letter suggests taking capital gains before 2015 to lock in the lower rate. However, as always, do not let a tax strategy override a good investment plan.
Here is a summary of other changes that may affect you:
The 28% Limitation:
• Affects married taxpayers filing jointly with income over $250,000 and single taxpayers with income over $200,000.
• Limits the tax rate at which these taxpayers can reduce their tax liability to a maximum of 28%.
• Applies to all itemized deduction including charitable contributions, mortgage interest, employer provided health insurance, interest income on state and local bonds, foreign excluded income, tax-exempt interest, retirement contributions and certain above-the-line deductions.
The “Buffet Rule”
• Households with income over $1 million pay at least 30% of their income (after charitable donations) in tax.
• Implements a “Fair Share Tax,” which would equal 30% of the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income, less a charitable donation credit equal to 28% of itemized charitable contributions allowed after the overall limitation on itemized deductions. The Fair Share Tax would be phased in, starting at adjusted gross incomes of $1 million, and would be fully phased in at adjusted gross incomes of $2 million.
Estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer (GST) Tax
• Reintroduce rules that were in effect in 2009, except that portability of the estate tax exclusion between spouses would be retained.
• This change would take effect in 2018.
• Top tax rate would be 45% and the exclusion amount would be $3.5 million for estate and GST taxes, and $1 million for gift taxes.
The Kiplinger Tax Letter anticipates the changes being acted on as early as 2014. On April 23, 2013, Max Baucus (D-MT), the head of the Senate Finance Committee, announced he would retire from the U.S. Senate at the end of his term in 2015. In The Kiplinger Tax Latter, Vol. 88, No. 9, Kiplinger predicts that “he’ll push to make revamping the tax code his legacy.”
You may feel as though you are done with taxes and do not need address them for another year. Resist that urge and schedule a meeting with us so we can review the potential impact of proposed tax changes on your portfolio and investments. We can also discuss the best strategies for saving money on your 2013 and 2014 tax returns.