When you grow older, it is your responsibility to take care of your future, particularly when you reach your retiring age. Retirement preparation involves a lot of investments, and this investment should start today if you want to enjoy a big yield of returns as you retire.
Taking advantage of the IRA is necessary if you want to get the most out from your earnings. IRA or Individual Retirement Accounts are savings accounts for your retirement that offer tax advantages and a lot of other benefits. You can open this type of account through an online brokerage, a personal broker, an investment company or through a bank.
Some of the things you need to know about IRA are:
– There are 4 types of IRAs, and this include ROTH IRAs, traditional IRAs, Saving Incentive Match Plan for Employees (SIMPLE) IRAs and the Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRAs.
– Money or any investments invested in Individual Retirement Accounts cannot be withdrawn before you reach the age of 59 and a half without paying a huge amount of tax penalty, which is 10% of the total amount you will withdraw.
– There are yearly income limitations that will apply to deducting contributions to the traditional IRAs and contributing to the Roth IRAs.
– IRAs are for long term retirement savings accounts. If you decide to take it early, you will defeat the purpose of investing in it by declining your retirement assets.
More about IRAs are silver IRAs. More and more aspiring retirees are interested in silver IRAs simply because they know the value of silver and they also want to invest in other tangible assets and not just on paper assets, like bonds, stocks, etc.
But since Silver IRAs are getting more popular in recent years, there are a lot of confusions surrounding the regulations that govern them. If you are a new investor, you might think that it is just easy to start up and manage it. You might also believe that silver IRAs will allow you to withdraw money from your account and buy yourself silver bars and coins from a shop.
Also, there are some who think that they can keep their silver at home or anywhere they want, and show it to their friends if they want to. There are a lot of specific things about silver IRA you need to know before pursuing it. Failure to learn more about the regulations will end you up disappointed, worse, penalized instead of earning from this investment.
To help you understand more about silver IRAs, reading below is strongly advised.
Rules on Silver IRA Rollovers
Rolling over the fund from a traditional IRA that is already existing should be done according to a specific timeframe. There are two options, one is the administrator handling your old account will connect with a silver IRA administrator or two, the administrator of the old account will give you the balance you asked from your old IRA by check.
If you decide on considering the latter, it is important that you move these funds immediately to the new silver IRA administrator. One of the rules of the IRS or Internal Revenue Service, is that the account owner should finish the financial transfer in just sixty days.
When you failed to follow the 60 day allowance, the IRS will not treat the transfer as rollover but as distributions.
Also, you are only allowed to do the rollover more than once in a year. Although, the limitation does not apply to transfer of funds from an existing IRA to an already existing silver IRA.
Rules On The Silver That Are Allowed
Just so you know, not all kinds of silver counts are allowed in this IRA. There are particular coins that you are allowed to choose from. Coins that the Internal Revenue Service labels as “collectibles” are not allowed to be held in the silver IRA.
If they are certified or graded by one of the accredited grading companies, these coins are also not allowed.
The lowest level of purity for silver coins is 99.9% pure. There is also a permitted list of mints from which the coins can come from. The silver coins that are allowed in the IRA are 1 ounce versions and larger.
Rules On Custodial Maintenance
A custodian or a trustee is an essential part of owning a Silver IRA. The rules are very strict on this requirement. You have to remember that you must not have the silver stored in your custody. To have this type of IRA properly maintained and set up, you are obliged to choose from one of the approved silver IRAs custodians to handle your account and store your silver bars and coins.
If you decide on buying your silver from a shop selling them and then transfer it to your administrator, do not think that the metal will be considered valid, as it won’t be. It cannot be included in your IRA because by doing this, you are not following the rules set by the IRS.
Even keeping the silver for just one day, you are invalidating the inclusions of the silver for the Silver IRA. If you violated this rule, the IRA money you use to get and store the silver will then be considered as a distribution from your account, hence, will be subject to taxes and penalties.
If you want your IRA account to operate and progress, you need to allow the IRA administrator to take charge of literally all the transactions on your account on your behalf. You can give them the sell and purchase orders and they will be the one to buy the silver and once obtained, they will send it to the 3rd party depository you chose, where it will be stored and insured.
Some of the silver IRA administrators are accredited as depositories as well, but this is not as usual. Most administrators are working with one or few of the major, accredited national depositories. There are only a few things you are directly involved in your silver IRA, and these are, giving orders to your administrator so they can work on distributions, disposals, and acquisitions. There is also a chance that they may give you advice for transactions as such.
On the side of the depositories, they also have rules they need to adhere to in order to comply with the regulations set by the IRS for Silver IRAs.
Before they can be considered as IRA storage facilities or vaults, they need to be approved by the IRS first. They need to charge yearly storage fees, so they can take IRAs. They are obliged to hold silver metal in vaulted locations that are insured until the time you decide on selling your silver.
Rules About IRA Distributions and Contributions
Contributions are being handled with Silver Individual Retirement Accounts same as how traditional IRAs are being handled. The contribution rules in the IRS are the same. For any year, a limit is applied on up to how much you can only contribute on that specific year.
In the year 2015 and 2016, the dollar limit amount is five thousand five hundred dollars for silver IRAs, which are actually self directed IRAs, and the same limit goes with the rest of the other forms of IRAs.
There is actually a provision given to individuals who are not up to date with their investment and are more than 49 years of age. This being the case, the limit increases to $6500 every year, and this is to give assistance to those who want to catch up with their retirement savings. In the case that you exceed more than the $6500 mark, the exceeded fund will be taxed at a rate of six percent every year until the time you withdraw your money.
In terms of the rules for distribution for Silver IRAs, the rules are just the same compared to all other IRAs. At any time you want, you can sell your silver without any penalty, as long as the funds of the silver remain in your IRA account.
If you decide on selling your silver, then take the funds as a distribution before your reach your retirement age, then it will be treated as a distribution and will be penalized and taxed as early withdrawals.
These Individual Retirement Accounts will also allow you to have your custodian send the silver to your house. This will also be considered a distribution and the taxes of it will be based on the amount of the silver on the time you will take the silver out of your silver IRA.
Soon, when you decide to sell your silver, all and any gains will be taxable at a capital gain rate of 28%.
Now that you know much about silver IRA, you are now ready to invest in it. Make sure to follow the regulations set by the IRS as through this, you can enjoy all the benefits you can get from this investment.