Authors Posts by bobrichards

bobrichards

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disclaimer

Disclaimer

When people set up beneficiaries for their IRAs, they don’t know what the future holds. Assume a simple situation where the the IRA owner has two heirs—a spouse and a child. The IRA owner...
cut taxes

Yikes—Look at the Taxes!

“Once thought to be relatively obscure, IRD deductions are becoming more common. Big-ticket IRD items such as distributions from IRAs, 401(k)s, 403(b)s, and other tax-sheltered retirement plans of affluent baby boomers have been growing...
estate planning

Why It’s Not Only Those Over 70½ Who Are at Risk

Retirees of any age with large IRAs must understand that their IRAs can be hit with estate and income taxes when they die. And RMD rules could cause future income tax burdens while they...

Why Be Concerned Since the Estate Tax is Supposed to Disappear?

That is not a bet you should make. For even if the tax goes away, the income tax “step-up-in-basis” provision for the most part goes away too. And beneficiaries could use life insurance to...
gift tax

What is the Gift Tax?

The Congress thought about this solution and they enacted the gift tax rules. Essentially, the gift tax rules limit the amount of gifts you can give annually and over your lifetime. If you exceed...

What is the Estate Tax?

The estate tax is a tax on accumulated wealth. So if you die and you are considered wealthy (by the estate tax rules then in effect), your estate is subject to tax. It’s the...
ira trust

Trusts as Beneficiary of IRA

Can a trust be the beneficiary of an IRA? Even though there are no tax benefits, there may be circumstances when you want to name a trust as your IRA beneficiary. Trusts, however, create unique...
charities as IRA Beneficiaries

What About Charities as IRA Beneficiaries?

You may think that it’s a nice thing to leave some of your unused retirement funds to charity when you go. Generally, this a good idea, and your heirs will love you for this...
titling

Titling of Inherited IRAs

Given that you’re reading this book and you may not be a CPA or financial advisor, it indicates that you have a strange reading list and may have read other items on income taxes....
too rich

The Problem of Being Too Rich

Unfortunately, although BAPCPA has created an exemption for all types of retirement plans, the exemption for those plans is not unlimited in all cases. The catch is that, in the case of Roth and...