Tax Treatment of Individual Retirement Arrangements
This course examines the taxation of individual retirement arrangements (IRAs). In so doing, it discusses traditional and Roth IRAs, addressing the federal rules concerning: contribution limits and tax treatment; tax treatment of traditional IRA distributions, including regular, early and lifetime required minimum distributions; tax treatment of qualified and nonqualified Roth IRA distributions; required distributions at death; and IRA rollovers.
Federal tax policy is designed to accomplish numerous goals, from funding government to encouraging socially-beneficial actions such as saving for retirement. ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, created an individual retirement arrangement—usually referred to simply as an IRA—to encourage taxpayers who were not participants in an employer-sponsored qualified retirement plan to save money to fund their future retirement needs. These early ERISA provisions offering tax benefits to individuals funding IRAs have been extended in subsequent legislative actions.
This course discusses traditional and Roth IRAs, addressing the federal rules concerning: contribution limits and tax treatment; tax treatment of traditional IRA distributions, including regular, early and lifetime required minimum distributions; tax treatment of qualified and nonqualified Roth IRA distributions; required distributions at death; and IRA rollovers.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
- Apply the rules governing eligibility for and contributions to traditional and Roth IRAs;
- Identify the requirements and benefits related to a spousal IRA;
- Apply the tax treatment rules concerning contributions to and distributions from traditional and Roth IRAs; and
- Distinguish between traditional and Roth IRA distribution rules.
