CARES Act RMD Relief for 2020

Posted On March 30, 2020 By Scott Stratton, CFP(R), CFA In College Savings, Financial Planning, Tax Strategies /

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security CARES Act approved this weekend eliminates Required Minimum Distributions from retirement accounts for 2020. If you have an inherited IRA, also known as a Stretch or Beneficiary IRA, there is also no RMD for this year. We are going dive into ideas from the CARES Act RMD changes and also look at its impact on charitable giving rules.

Of course, you can still take any distribution that you want from your retirement account and pay the usual taxes. Additionally, people who take a premature distribution from their IRA this year will not have to pay a 10% penalty. And they will be able to spread that income over three years.

RMDs for 2020

Many of my clients have already begun taking their RMDs for 2020. (No one would have anticipated the RMD requirement would be waived!) Can you reverse a distribution that already occurred? Not always. However, using the 60-day rollover rule, you can put back any IRA distribution within 60 days.

If you had taxes withheld, we cannot get those back from the IRS until next year. However, you can put back the full amount of your original distribution using your cash and undo the taxable distribution. You can only do one 60-day rollover per year.

For distributions in February and March, we still have time to put those distributions back if you don’t need them. Be sure to also cancel any upcoming automatic distributions if you do not need them for 2020.

If you are in a low tax bracket this year, it may still make sense to take the distribution. Especially if you think you might be in a higher tax bracket in future years. An intriguing option this year is to do a Roth Conversion instead of the RMD. With no RMD, and stocks down in value, it seems like a ideal year to consider a Conversion. Once in the Roth, the money will grow tax-free, reducing your future RMDs from what is left in your Traditional IRA. We always prefer tax-free to tax-deferred.

Charitable Giving under the CARES Act

Congress also thought about how to help charities this year. Although RMDs are waived for 2020, you can still do Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) from your IRA. And for everyone who does not itemize in 2020: You can take up to $300 as an above-the-line deduction for a charitable contribution.

Also part of the CARES Act: the 50% limit on cash contributions is suspended for 2020. This means you could donate up to 100% of your income for the year. This is a great opportunity to establish a Donor Advised Fund, if significant charitable giving is a goal.

Above the $300 amount, most people don’t have enough itemized deductions to get a tax benefit from their donations. Do a QCD. The QCD lets you make donations with pre-tax money. Of course, you could do zero charitable donations in 2020 and then resume in 2021 when the QCD will count towards your next RMD. But I’m sure your charities have great needs for 2020 and are hoping you don’t skip this year.

The Government was willing to forgo RMDs this year to help investors who are suffering large drops in their accounts. To have to sell now and take a distribution is painful. However, if you already took a distribution, you are not required to spend it. You can invest that money right back into a taxable account. In a taxable account, the future growth could receive long-term capital gains status versus ordinary income in an IRA. I’ll be reaching out to my clients this week to explain the 2020 CARES Act RMD rules. Feel free to email me if you’d like our help.

Tax Savings under the SECURE Act

Posted On February 2, 2020 By Scott Stratton, CFP(R), CFA In Tax Strategies /

A few weeks ago, we gave an overview of key changes under the SECURE Act Retirement Bill. Today we are going to dive into a few questions that investors have been asking about the Act. Here’s how the SECURE Act can help you reduce your tax bill.

RMDs and QCDs

1. Required Minimum Distributions are pushed to age 72 from 70 1/2. If you turned 70 1/2 in 2019, even though you won’t reach 72 in 2020, you will still be responsible for taking RMDs. You will not get to skip a year.

2. Although RMDs have been pushed to 72, the age for Qualified Charitable Distributions (QCDs) was unchanged at age 70 1/2. I’ve read some articles suggesting people under 72 not do QCDs now. Sure you could wait until after 72 to count a QCD towards your RMD. However, most donors I know want to support their favorite charities annually. So if you are 70 1/2 and want to make a $5,000 charitable donation this year, consider three scenarios:

You could make a cash donation. To be able to deduct your charitable donations, you have to have more than $12,400 (single) or $24,800 (married) in itemized deductions for 2020 It’s likely that a $5,000 donation nets you no tax benefit.
Or you could donate appreciated securities. If you had a $5,000 position with a $2,500 cost basis, donating those shares would save you $375 in long-term capital gains. (Most tax payers are in the 15% LT rate.)
With a QCD, it wouldn’t save you any taxes this year. But it would remove $5,000 from your IRA, saving you in future taxes. If you are in the 24% tax bracket, that would save $1,200 in future income taxes. That’s still the best choice of these three options.

529 Plans Can Pay Student Loans

3. Beneficiaries of a 529 College Savings Plan can now use their account to pay up to $10,000 in student loans. This will help those who have finished and have leftover funds. But also, there could be an advantage to deliberately taking $10,000 in Stafford Loans in the first or second year of college to receive deferment on the loan until after you’ve graduated. Then the funds can grow for four or so years while the student receives a loan which has no payments or interest accruing. Upon the end of the deferment period, you could use the 529 to pay off the loan in full. Additionally, owners of a 529 plan can also use the funds to pay $10,000 towards a sibling’s student loans, should the original beneficiary not need the funds.

Stretch IRA Eliminated in 2020

4. With the elimination of the Stretch IRA, we previously shared tax saving strategies for owners of larger IRAs. Here’s one additional approach for a married couple who both have IRAs and plan to leave them to their children. Assuming both spouses have more funds than they will need in their lifetime, consider making your children the primary beneficiaries of your IRAs. Otherwise, the traditional approach of leaving each IRA to the spouse will ultimately double up the tax burden on the children as well as increasing RMDs for the surviving spouse. Since all inherited IRAs must be distributed in 10 years or less, it may be more tax efficient for the children to receive two distributions spread out, rather than one combined inheritance from the second-to-pass parent. Contact me for an examination of your specific situation.

Annuity for Retirement Income?

5. 401(k) plans can now offer annuities for retirees to create a guaranteed income stream. This sounds like a big deal, but you have always been able to do this once you roll over your 401(k) into an IRA. And it still might be better to buy an annuity in an IRA for a couple of reasons:

You could shop for the best annuity product for you. Otherwise, you are stuck with whatever the plan sponsors have decided to offer. It could be that another insurance company offers higher payout rates. Contact me for quotes if this is something you are considering.
Your State Insurance Guaranty Association probably only protects $250,000 in losses should an Insurance Company go bankrupt. Some of the biggest ones, including AIG, almost failed back in 2009. If I had $400,000 or $600,000 to invest in annuities, you bet I’m going to divide that between two or three companies to stay under the covered limits. (Read more on the Texas Guaranty Association.)

Changes in law are common and an important reason for having an on-going financial plan with a professional who is staying informed. If you have questions about how the SECURE Act Retirement Bill could be beneficial or detrimental to your situation, please contact me. Our first meeting is always free.

Giving Strategies, Now and Later

Posted On November 10, 2019 By Scott Stratton, CFP(R), CFA In Financial Planning /

If you have a significant estate and are thinking about how to give money to charity or individual beneficiaries, you might want to consider if it would be possible to make some of those gifts during your lifetime. Today, we are going to look at the tax benefits or implications of different large gift strategies.

A gift to charity from your estate will reduce your your taxable estate. However, with the estate tax threshold presently at $11.4 million per person, most people will never pay any estate taxes. This was not the case 15 years ago when the estate tax threshold was just $1.5 million. For married couples, the threshold is doubled to $22.8 million. So if your past estate plan was based on estate tax avoidance, it may be time to update your plans and revisit your charitable strategies.

Charitable donations remain eligible as an itemized deduction, although many tax payers will not have enough deductions to exceed the 2019 $12,200 standard deduction ($24,400 married). However, if you are contemplating a large charitable donation, you can deduct up to 60% of your Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) when making a cash donation to a public charity. (This was increased from 50% under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.) If making a donation of non-cash property, such as appreciated shares of stock, the limit is 30% of AGI. In both cases, you can carry forward any excess donation for five years.

Here are seven principles for giving to charities and to individuals, such as your children or grandchildren:

1. If you have stocks or funds with a large gain, you can give those shares to charity, get the full tax deduction and avoid capital gains tax. The charity will not pay any taxes on the shares they receive and sell.

2. If you leave an IRA to a charity, that is name a charity as a beneficiary of your IRA rather than a person, they will pay no tax on receiving your IRA.

3. For individual beneficiaries of your estate, they will have to pay income tax on inheriting your IRA. Presently, there is a Bill which has passed the House which will eliminate the Stretch IRA. However, beneficiaries will receive a step-up in cost basis on inherited taxable accounts. The most tax efficient split is to leave your Traditional IRA to charity and your taxable assets and Roth IRAs, to your heirs. Then neither will pay income taxes on the assets they receive.

4. If you are over age 70 1/2, you can make up to $100,000 a year in gifts from your IRA as Qualified Charitable Distributions, which count towards your RMD. You do not have to itemize to use the QCD.

5. You can give $15,000 a year to any individual; this is called the annual gift tax exclusion. A couple could give $30,000 to an individual. This includes your adult children. Additionally, you can directly pay medical or educational expenses for any individual without this limit.

Where many people are confused: exceeding the gift tax exclusion does not automatically require you to pay a gift tax. It simply requires filing a gift tax return, which will reduce your lifetime Gift/Estate tax limit, which again is $11.4 million per person (2019). For example, if you give someone $17,000 this year, the $2,000 over the $15,000 limit will be subtracted from your $11.4 million estate tax exemption when you die.

6. If you want to create college funds for your grandchildren or other relatives, you can fund up to five years upfront into a 529 Plan without exceeding the gift tax exemption. That is $75,000 per beneficiary, or up to $150,000 if coming from both Grandma and Grandpa. You can retain control of the funds, even change the beneficiary if desired, and the money grows tax-free for qualified higher education expenses.

7. You can make a large donation to a Donor Advised Fund to receive an upfront tax deduction and then make small donations in the years ahead. For example, it would be more tax efficient to make a $100,000 donation into a DAF and make $10,000 a year in charitable distributions for 10 years from the DAF, than to make regular $10,000 donations each year for 10 years.

Even if you know all of this information, I think many potential donors are still looking for more flexibility in their giving plans. What if you need money later? How much should you keep for your own expenses and needs? Creating a comprehensive retirement analysis is an essential first step, and then we can help you consider other more advanced giving strategies.

There are many ways of structuring charitable trusts which can split assets and income between the creator of the trust, a charity, and/or beneficiaries. Generally, the donor is able to receive an upfront tax deduction for the present value of a gift, based on their expected lifetime or duration of the trust. The present value is calculated using your age and a specific discount rate, known as the Section 7520 rate, which is published monthly by the IRS. It is based on intermediate treasury bonds and is currently 2.2% for trusts created in September 2019. This rate is down from 3.4% from last August.

With a very low interest rate being used for the discount rate today, it is quite unappealing to establish a Charitable Remainder Trust (CRT). The low rate means that the tax deduction is very small compared to trusts that were established when the rate was higher. That’s unfortunate, because a CRT is an ideal structure: the creator receives income from the trust for life (or a set period of years) and then the remainder is donated to the charity when you pass away (or at the end of the term).

A more effective structure for a low interest rate environment is a Charitable Lead Trust (CLT). In this type of trust, a charity receives income for a period of years (say 10 years) and then any remaining principal is distributed to your beneficiaries, free from gift or estate taxes. This might hold some appeal for tax payers who would be subject to the estate tax and who do not need or want income from some portion of their assets. But it doesn’t offer much appeal to donors who want income or flexibility from their trusts.

If you are thinking about charitable giving or where your money might eventually go, let’s talk about which strategies might make the most sense for you.