Filing in November and Funding an IRA?

[bluetick]

Hi All,

Got two quick questions for you.  Made no money in 2016, got a new job in 2017. It might be in my best interest to file an extension for my taxes so that I could use my 2016 taxes as the basis for my student loan payments for one more year. The way it's worked out I'll have to refile for my income based repayment in November. is there a way to extend filing taxes until November? I won't need to pay anything and will be receiving a refund.

Also after preliminary doing my taxes it looks that I'll increase my refund by about $1,300 if I fully fund an IRA. I have $3,000 in a brokerage account at Vanguard. Do you think it's reasonable to liquidate the brokerage account and basically transfer that money into an IRA from a taxes perspective?

[terran]

"Taxpayers requesting an extension will have until Monday, Oct. 15, 2018, to file."

Filing an extension does not give you more time to contribute to an IRA. That deadline is still the regular tax filing deadline (April 17th this year)

I can't think of a scenario in which it makes sense to keep money in a taxable brokerage account instead of contributing to an IRA that you wouldn't other. If the money is intended for some kind of shorter term savings (emergency fund or house downpayment for example) you may want to contribute to a Roth IRA as the contributions (not the gains) can always be withdrawn penalty and tax free.

Ignoring the shorter term savings aspect, a traditional IRA is what will save on current year taxes (both will reduce the taxable income the taxable account would throw off), and whether Roth or traditional makes the most sense is all about marginal tax rate now vs expected marginal tax rate at withdrawal