The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Investor Alley => Topic started by: Spondulix on October 11, 2018, 07:48:48 PM
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My father in law wants to make contributions to my husband's IRA. DH has a Roth and SEP IRA. His self-employment earnings are under $30k so his SEP contribution limit is pretty low.
- Is it better to have for FIL to contribute to the Roth or should we create a Traditional IRA? Is there any tax benefit to us if these funds go in a traditional IRA?
- Is gifting money to my husband's IRA the best way for him to pass it along? It limits what we can contribute IMO. I'm not exactly sure what my FIL's goal is.
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At ~30K/year he's already in a pretty low tax bracket. You'd get some marginal benefit with a traditional IRA, but the tax benefit of a Roth is a gift that keeps on giving.
I'd stick with the Roth.
To the extent that the gift limits what you were going to contribute, personally, I'd put the difference in a taxable account, and let it ride with the market until you retire.
You'll pay annual taxes on reinvested dividends, but when you do retire, that taxable investment will be taxed at long-term capital gains rates as you draw it down.
Perhaps an even better alternative to a taxable account would be to put the excess into an individual 401K:
https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/accounts/small_business_retirement/individual_401k_plans
It's for self-employed people, and has many of the same benefits of an employer sponsored 401K plan. I'm pretty sure it has higher contribution limits than an IRA, but I'm not an expert in that area, so I'll defer to others more informed than I.
That option would be tax-deductible when you make contributions, and it would shelter the dividend payments over the years, but would be taxed as regular income rather than long term capital gains when you start drawing it down.