Search found 2369 matches

by lstone19
Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:46 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Quarterly Taxes and Roth Conversion
Replies: 10
Views: 550

Re: Quarterly Taxes and Roth Conversion

Things to keep in mind:
- Estimated payments and withholding are never FOR any particular income. They are merely payments on your tax account that will be reconciled on your 1040.
- Regardless of how much income you have, the maximum for which timely payment is required is the lesser of 90% of this year's tax or 100% (110% for high-income taxpayers) of last year's tax (the safe-harbor amounts). While estimated payments are considered paid on their actual date of payment, withholding is considered by default to be equally distributed across the year (hence your tax accountant's statement you can have it all withheld in December). Any amount in excess of that safe-harbor amount can be paid on 4/15 without penalty.
by lstone19
Wed Mar 27, 2024 12:23 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 6053
Views: 1037064

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

I buy money market funds at Fidelity in my CMA every month. Question: Does MM interest accumulate once I place the order (it takes 1-2 days to execute) or once the purchased MM is settled in my CMA account? Does frequent MM buying negatively affect the interest? I thought MMFs settle same day. Enter your order on Monday before market close and it settles Monday. AFAIK, all MMFs declare dividends daily but pay them monthly. Regardless, your money is always somewhere overnight (and interest and dividends are paid based on where your money is overnight) - if it's not in the MMF, it's in the CMA core earning interest at that rate. More specifically, everything is based on settlement date. For instance, if I place an auction T-Bill order on Tue...
by lstone19
Wed Mar 27, 2024 11:01 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 6053
Views: 1037064

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

I buy money market funds at Fidelity in my CMA every month. Question: Does MM interest accumulate once I place the order (it takes 1-2 days to execute) or once the purchased MM is settled in my CMA account? Does frequent MM buying negatively affect the interest? I thought MMFs settle same day. Enter your order on Monday before market close and it settles Monday. AFAIK, all MMFs declare dividends daily but pay them monthly. Regardless, your money is always somewhere overnight (and interest and dividends are paid based on where your money is overnight) - if it's not in the MMF, it's in the CMA core earning interest at that rate. More specifically, everything is based on settlement date. For instance, if I place an auction T-Bill order on Tue...
by lstone19
Tue Mar 26, 2024 1:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 6053
Views: 1037064

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

Update: as suggested by the Fidelity customer service agent, I called and talked to someone in fixed income. They told me that it was not possible to establish a link with treasury, direct to send cash directly to Fidelity. Is that true? I know it’s not possible to set it up on the Fidelity side, but it seems quite surprising that I wouldn’t be able to set it up on the treasury, direct side, as I have with Schwab, Ally, LendingClub, Synchrony Bank, etc. I have no experience with a trust TD account to a trust Fidelity account but had no problems linking and then transferring from a personal TD account to our joint Fidelity CMA. I'm guessing your issue is that you specified the trustee name rather than the trust name or maybe even adding the...
by lstone19
Tue Mar 26, 2024 11:09 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: H&R Block tax software and two 1099-R
Replies: 2
Views: 222

Re: H&R Block tax software and two 1099-R

Nyc10036 wrote: Tue Mar 26, 2024 10:57 am Do I create two entries in H&R Block?
Yes, It's not a big deal. Enter them separately and it will do the right thing. You probably could combine them since you know there's an exception covering you for under 59-1/2 but entering them as received will provide you a better trail if you get audited or there's a question down the line.
by lstone19
Tue Mar 26, 2024 9:00 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: An unintended visit from "Aunt IRMAA"?
Replies: 41
Views: 7263

Re: An unintended visit from "Aunt IRMAA"?

Hi friends, The March update is now up from the finance buff, we have one more update and one more chance to fiddle with our 2023 income before tax day (finance buff update will come 4/10), but for now here are the numbers I have a spreadsheet that tracks this using the same formula the Finance Buff and the government uses. The MAGI brackets are rounded to the neared $1,000 (single) / $2,000 (joint). My spreadsheet shows the unrounded 0% inflation assumption number which for the most recent is $105,419 (single) so approaching rounding up to $106,000. The March CPI-U to be released on 4/10 needs to go from 310.326 (Feb) to 310.801 to kick the 0% inflation number to $106,000 (single) / $212,000 (joint). Of course, there are five more months ...
by lstone19
Mon Mar 25, 2024 7:36 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Wife's name not on the deed
Replies: 6
Views: 1164

Re: Wife's name not on the deed

Since you live in California, you do not want to curse your wife (or anyone) with probate. You should either add her to the house as Joint Tenants, or retitle the house "Husband TOD Wife", or put it in a trust. I would lean towards the last option, since there's always the chance that you die together (slim, but possible) and you need to cover all outcomes. If all your Joint property is community property, then the survivor gets a step on in cost basis when one of you dies. I would recommend some reading up on all this, the Nolo Press book "Plan your Estate" by Dennis Clifford is quite good, cheap education. Then see a lawyer to get it cleaned up. (Me, I'm a die-hard DIY and I used Willmaker for my perfectly legal, simp...
by lstone19
Mon Mar 25, 2024 9:33 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: TaxSlayer backdoor Roth IRA help
Replies: 30
Views: 4900

Re: TaxSlayer backdoor Roth IRA help

I've never used TaxSlayer (I use TurboTax) but there seems to be some misconceptions (and I do realize this topic goes back to 2018), the first of which is that what you input to as what was on your 1099-R gets sent to the IRS as part of your tax return. AFAIK, that is not true so the IRS will not know that you changed 2a (taxable amount). Also AFAIK, the "taxable amount not determined" checkbox is basically saying to the IRS (keep in mind that a 1099-R goes from the payer to the IRS with an information copy to you) to ignore the value in 2a because the payer doesn't know if it's correct. It's then on the taxpayer to determine the taxable amount. As I said, I've never used TaxSlayer but it appears their way of having you tell it w...
by lstone19
Sun Mar 24, 2024 6:06 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Understanding Inherited IRA with delayed RMDs
Replies: 17
Views: 886

Re: Understanding Inherited IRA with delayed RMDs

I'm in the same situation with an IRA inherited last year. If I just do the minimum the first nine years, the balance in 2033 is likely to push us into going over an IRMAA tier. So will basically take it as fast as I can subject to our target maximum AGI each year since now that we're into the decumulation phase, I've made it our primary cash source and making it part of the cash portion of our AA. I could eke out a little more tax deferral but it would be so small that it's really not worth it. We’ll be able to comfortably stay well under Medicare IRMAA with roughly equal withdrawals from the inherited IRA. So many moving parts to think about, including potential income tax bracket increases in 2026, ACA subsidy, etc., all of which aren’t...
by lstone19
Sun Mar 24, 2024 4:30 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Understanding Inherited IRA with delayed RMDs
Replies: 17
Views: 886

Re: Understanding Inherited IRA with delayed RMDs

Ah, it’s starting to make sense. I found p590-b, and the calculation roughly matches what the inline calculators are saying, which left me scratching my head, because I was expecting a formula for ten years rather than my spouse’s life expectancy. Obviously, taking only the RMD amount is going to leave a lump sum in the last year, which I would rather not do. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! I'm in the same situation with an IRA inherited last year. If I just do the minimum the first nine years, the balance in 2033 is likely to push us into going over an IRMAA tier. So will basically take it as fast as I can subject to our target maximum AGI each year since now that we're into the decumulation phase, I've made it our primary ...
by lstone19
Sun Mar 24, 2024 3:53 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Understanding Inherited IRA with delayed RMDs
Replies: 17
Views: 886

Re: Understanding Inherited IRA with delayed RMDs

No, you use the single life expectancy from Publication 590-B Appendix B and then follow the reduce the factor by 1 for each subsequent year until the tenth year when 100% needs to be distributed. But it's not clear to me if you go back to the life expectancy in 2022 and then reduce from there or if you start with 2024 number due to the 2022 and 2023 RMD deferral. I'm guessing the former so if the 2022 life expectancy was 30, then it would be 28 this year and your RMD this year would be 1/28 of the 12/31/23 closing balance, then in 2025 it would be 1/27 of the 12/31/24 closing balance, etc. until 2031 (not 2032 AFAIK) when you need to distribute the remaining balance.
by lstone19
Sun Mar 24, 2024 3:31 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 6053
Views: 1037064

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

CuriousGeorgeTx wrote: Sun Mar 24, 2024 2:29 pm How does Fidelity handle the timing and visibility of bill pay transactions? I have been unhappy that in most cases, Ally bill pay takes the funds on the due date whether or not the check has been cashed, and there is no way of telling (short of calling them) if the payment has been completed. I’m not as worried about the float as the murkiness.
Fidelity does not debit your account until the bill pay check clears. Check images are then available on-line.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: No way to stop estimated tax penalties from accruing if you pay after January?
Replies: 39
Views: 4361

Re: No way to stop estimated tax penalties from accruing if you pay after January?

CrisisAverted wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:28 pm My main issue is that you cannot due an estimated tax payment formally for 2023 now. When you try to do it now it says that you're only able to make a 2024 estimated payment. Otherwise, you can just do a regular payment but I'm hesitating because I want the system to recognize the payment is for estimated taxes, if that makes sense.
It matters not what you call it. It's just a payment on your tax account. And because some systems won't let you make a late estimated payment, this is a situation that 2210 doesn't really handle well (and from what people have posted, TurboTax does not handle correctly). So make a payment and then do as the IRS asks and let them calculate the penalty.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 23, 2024 3:06 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: No way to stop estimated tax penalties from accruing if you pay after January?
Replies: 39
Views: 4361

Re: No way to stop estimated tax penalties from accruing if you pay after January?

Looks like I am in the same boat. Completely forgot the January 2024 payment for tax year 2023. Can I just pay my entire tax bill now for 2023 and will the IRS contact me about underpayment penalties/interest? Not sure how that gets calculated. Yes, the IRS prefers that you not submit 2210 (only submit it if one of the Part II reasons applies) and let them calculate the penalty and send you a bill. Bummer--OK, anything to do proactively to limit interest accrual and/or penalties? I guess that would just be to immediately file our taxes and pay the complete balance owed? Is it possible to negotiate the interest after the IRS sends a bill? Something like a "this was completely my fault and I just forgot to pay...can I get a break on at ...
by lstone19
Sat Mar 23, 2024 8:30 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: No way to stop estimated tax penalties from accruing if you pay after January?
Replies: 39
Views: 4361

Re: No way to stop estimated tax penalties from accruing if you pay after January?

CrisisAverted wrote: Sat Mar 23, 2024 2:06 am Looks like I am in the same boat.

Completely forgot the January 2024 payment for tax year 2023.

Can I just pay my entire tax bill now for 2023 and will the IRS contact me about underpayment penalties/interest? Not sure how that gets calculated.
Yes, the IRS prefers that you not submit 2210 (only submit it if one of the Part II reasons applies) and let them calculate the penalty and send you a bill.
by lstone19
Thu Mar 21, 2024 9:10 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 6053
Views: 1037064

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

New Fidelity customer here and just getting started with the account. I was surprised to see an ACH debit to my fidelity Brokerage returned due to "insufficient funds". Interestingly my account showed more than enough available "cash" in the core MMF - from a paycheck deposit 5 days ago (last friday, debit attempted the following wednesday). How do I know which portion of it is "available"? Very unfortunate. How was the paycheck deposited? If direct deposit (ACH push to Fidelity), the the money should have been available immediately for withdrawal. But if you merely mean you deposited a paper payroll check, it would be subject to the normal check deposit policy. A payroll paper check is just another check in F...
by lstone19
Thu Mar 21, 2024 9:08 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Fidelity as a one stop shop
Replies: 6053
Views: 1037064

Re: Fidelity as a one stop shop

Secondly - what is faster to push or pull EFT to Fidelity from external bank account? Did a pull and today a Fido rep said it will take 9 days to clear i.e. funds able to be withdrawn (insane). It depends what you want to do with the money. Money pulled to Fidelity is available immediately for investment but is subject to their clearance policy for withdrawal and transfer to other Fidelity accounts. Fidelity is not a bank so deposits are not subject to the same clearance policies that apply to banks. Money pushed to Fidelity is available for all purposes as soon as it arrives. How soon it arrives is largely dependent on the ACH processing schedule of whatever financial institution that is doing the pushing (e.g. I belong to a credit union ...
by lstone19
Tue Mar 19, 2024 9:08 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: TurboTax is not asking for vesting/release information or from my 3922 form for ESPP
Replies: 5
Views: 484

Re: TurboTax is not asking for vesting/release information or from my 3922 form for ESPP

TT appears to have stripped a lot of the ESPP stuff from the interview. All it did this year was ask for the adjustment amount. And if you have it, that's all you need. All the prior year's interview stuff did was confirm what I already knew. It appears the old way is still there in forms mode but with no interview. You need to know what to put where. But since all you really need is the adjustment amount, there was no reason to mess around with that. None of what you used to input from 3922 is sent to the IRS with your tax return. SnowBog, 3922 is a form sent by employers to their employees (and I assume to the IRS) that provides supplemental information on ESPP stock. It's titled "Transfer of Stock Acquired Through an Employee Stock ...
by lstone19
Mon Mar 18, 2024 5:40 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth IRA recharacterization and tax
Replies: 22
Views: 1075

Re: Roth IRA recharacterization and tax

There is no problem doing a Roth conversion while having pretax money in your IRA. There are tax implications for sure. But a blanket ‘don’t do that’ is far too harsh imo. Do it if you want but realize it accelerates paying taxes on a portion of the amount rolled over. Yes, it can be done....but people who have done it seem to regret it more than like it. :? If my suggestion seemed too harsh, I'll try to do better next time. Tax implications and increased paperwork to track the remaining basis. For some situations, it may be necessary. I've never had any basis in a tIRA but given how much TT tracks in its carryover worksheets (including age of Roth conversions for the five-year rule), I would be surprised if it doesn't track tIRA basis. 86...
by lstone19
Mon Mar 18, 2024 11:06 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth Conversions and Turbotax issue
Replies: 8
Views: 1050

Re: Roth Conversions and Turbotax issue

Bunty wrote: Mon Mar 18, 2024 10:56 am
In my case, the Rollover IRA is clean. All the money is pre-tax. There is no post tax money in it. I understand the term "IRA basis" refers to the after-tax amount in your traditional IRA."

I am putting the basis as zero since all of money in this IRA is pre-tax.

Line 1 of 8606 is blank. Line 2 of 8606 is 132171 (the balance of pre-tax money in Rollover).
Line 2 is wrong. If all money in your tIRA is pre-tax, then your basis is zero. Line 2 is your prior basis, not your prior balance. With all money pre-tax, you shouldn't even be doing anything with Part I of 8606.
by lstone19
Mon Mar 18, 2024 12:13 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Over 80, take more than minimum RMD? Advice?
Replies: 18
Views: 1960

Re: Over 80, take more than minimum RMD? Advice?

From what I’ve read so far the advice included to do some IRA conversion to a Roth, or increase the RMD amount and then invest the unneeded money in our brokerage account to enhance the step up basis for inheritance. Alternatively, do a little of both —some Roth conversion and some extra RMD money. The status quo could still be a possibility with just do the yearly RMD. Financial decisions seemed a lot easier before retirement. So many unknowns especially with life span and long term health care concerns. Everything you don't need to spend should go in the Roth. There is no advantage to putting the money in your taxable brokerage. This. A dollar in Roth is worth more than a dollar in taxable. Since the cost of getting a dollar from a tIRA ...
by lstone19
Sun Mar 17, 2024 5:12 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Over 80, take more than minimum RMD? Advice?
Replies: 18
Views: 1960

Re: Over 80, take more than minimum RMD? Advice?

DCChak wrote: Sun Mar 17, 2024 4:33 pm If the assets are converted to the Roth, and the holder passes, do the heirs get the same bump up in basis as they do with assets in a brokerage account?
Basis has no meaning in an IRA. All distributions from an inherited Roth IRA are tax-free.
by lstone19
Sun Mar 17, 2024 1:07 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Confused about 1099-Q and 1098-T
Replies: 19
Views: 1506

Re: Confused about 1099-Q and 1098-T

Like others I suspected TurboTax was automatically coordinating education credits for you in the background. Are you sure this isn’t the case? Did you check forms view? Keep in mind the 1098t and 1099q are for different things and not meant to be paired. The 1098t exists to report qualified expenses like tuition and fees, as well as scholarships, for the purpose of education credits. Qualified expenses for 529s have a completely different definition in the tax code, which is why you can include room and board as a qualified expense. So don’t expect them to match at any point. I haven’t used TurboTax in awhile but I’d check to make sure education credits aren’t being claimed. Then backtrack and see if you entered the numbers correctly and i...
by lstone19
Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:23 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: K-1 from Commodity Index EFT held in IRA
Replies: 4
Views: 528

Re: K-1 from Commodity Index EFT held in IRA

The IRA is essentially a separate tax entity from you and nothing from the K-1 should go on your personal tax return. When I held a publicly traded partnership in my IRA, the K-1 went to the brokerage who took care of tax filing. The K-1 income was considered Unrelated Business Taxable Income but it was never enough to require the IRA to file anything.
by lstone19
Sun Mar 17, 2024 12:09 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Confused about 1099-Q and 1098-T
Replies: 19
Views: 1506

Re: Confused about 1099-Q and 1099-T

sks wrote: Sat Mar 16, 2024 11:20 pm All the amounts indicated is from the 1099-Q and 1099-T. After entering 1099-Q in TurboTax, it indicated $4142.
And had you entered the 1098-T (note it’s a 1098, not 1099. 1099s report income and distributions while 1098s report expenses you paid that you may be able to deduct or use for a credit)? TT asks for income first, then deductions and credits later.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 16, 2024 9:02 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Am I Only One Who Hates Having Left Over Pennies
Replies: 53
Views: 4496

Re: Am I Only One Who Hates Having Left Over Pennies

I have $0.03 in my Merrill Edge Roth IRA core holding (rounding from a mutual fund purchase). And it will sit there earning no interest (will round down to zero every month) for many months. But at some point, this Roth will be used as a source of cash at which point, the $0.03 will be transferred out along with other cash to join the pennies that live every day in our checking account. The three cents is only a problem if I obsess over it.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 16, 2024 9:00 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Confused about 1099-Q and 1098-T
Replies: 19
Views: 1506

Re: Confused about 1099-Q and 1099-T

Are you claiming any educational credits such as the AOTC? If yes, educational expenses used for that cannot be used for offsetting the 1099-Q distributions which may explain why TT thinks some is taxable. If no, there is no need to tell TT about the 1099-Q nor the 1098-T as with qualified expenses greater than the distribution, none of this will end up anywhere on your or your son's tax return (but keep good records since although not putting it on your return is the correct and only way to handle that situation, some people have reported getting automated letters from the IRS regarding not reporting the 1099-Q).

Regarding a distribution code, none is required on a 1099-Q so since there isn't one on the form, leave it blank in TT.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:03 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Quit claim deed has a lot of room for fraud
Replies: 28
Views: 3316

Re: Quit claim deed has a lot of room for fraud

Quitclaim are commonly misused when other better deed choices should be used such as a bargain and sale one. Quitclaim deeds don’t guarantee the grantor has an ownership interest. All it is doing is conveying whatever interest the grantor has - “if any”. That is why if there is an uncertainty as to whether a person actually has an interest or “not” in the property, the title company will often request a quitclaim deed as a safeguard. The one time I was grantor on a quit claim deed, it was to remove a potential title cloud. Five months after we married, we were selling the house my wife had owned pre-marriage. As five months of mortgage payments had been made with community property (this was in California), I had established an unspecified...
by lstone19
Sat Mar 16, 2024 11:52 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Roth IRA recharacterization and tax
Replies: 22
Views: 1075

Re: Roth IRA recharacterization and tax

I contributed $6500 to Roth IRA in 2023 but recently realized my MAGI is above the income limit. I contacted Vanguard and recharacterized $6500 plus earning (total of $7694.88) to my rollover IRA. I'm using TurboTax and entered the above information. TurboTax is saying my income is too high to deduct an IRA contribution and currently have a penalty (6% = $71) because I made an excess contribution of $1195 to my traditional IRA. It seems the earning part is considered excess contribution. My questions: 1. I thought since I recharacterized the total amount, it should be treated as non-deductible IRA. Why is the earning treated as excess contribution? It seems TurboTax is treating this as deductible IRA instead of non-deductible IRA. Is this ...
by lstone19
Fri Mar 15, 2024 12:37 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: [IRA Tax Reporting Question]
Replies: 6
Views: 382

Re: [IRA Tax Reporting Question]

I have one more clarifying question, please. Question: Is there an IRS publication that states an old 401K, still in place from a former employer, is not included on form 8606 line 6. The former employer's 401K remains as it was, but of course no longer receives contributions. There is a new, active, current employer's 401K. My understanding is that the old 401K is not "an outstanding rollover" since tax law does not require the old 401K to be rolled over. Thank you. There is no RMD involved - the person is 45. A 401k is not an IRA, even if you're no longer employed by the sponsoring employer. The instructions for line 6 say "Enter the total value of all your traditional, traditional SEP, and traditional SIMPLE IRAs as of De...
by lstone19
Mon Mar 11, 2024 3:23 pm
Forum: Personal Consumer Issues
Topic: Affordable "____@domain.com" email creation
Replies: 10
Views: 1223

Re: Affordable "____@domain.com" email creation

I use A2Hosting. I have the Startup Plan under their Shared Web Hosting services which is $12.99/mo ($2.99/month the first year when paid upfront). While it's billed as web hosting service, one of its included features is unlimited email. No per mailbox fees. While I do have a small website there, there is no need to have an extensive website. It was the most affordable option I could find for hosting a domain primarily for email (I have about 10 active email addresses (more when you count the aliases)). There is a full-featured control panel section for managing email - aliases, filters, forwarding, etc. They also can handle registering the domain and DNS.
by lstone19
Tue Mar 05, 2024 10:25 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Ticket is only available as an award ticket, should I change my rewards strategy?
Replies: 16
Views: 1176

Re: Ticket is only available as an award ticket, should I change my rewards strategy?

United's website shows me plenty of two-connection cash options for IND-CAI but all have connections in Europe (United from IND via a U.S. hub to FRA or LHR and then Egyptair). It would not show me any one-connection options although they exist some days of the week. Egyptair flies non-stop from EWR and IAD less than daily. United is not going to get you to JFK from IND (the last I knew, United is serving JFK only from SFO and LAX). While Egyptair shows decent fares from IAD but their website knows nothing about interior U.S. cities. It may be that no through fares are published. I would ask on FlyerTalk. That community is far more like to know why. Ask in the United Mileage Plus forum. Regular people usually think that "direct" m...
by lstone19
Sun Mar 03, 2024 11:04 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Questions on 1099-Rs from Fidelity for Backdoor Roth Conversion
Replies: 22
Views: 1386

Re: Questions on 1099-Rs from Fidelity for Backdoor Roth Conversion

careerdata wrote: Sun Mar 03, 2024 10:53 am Thank you for correcting my misunderstanding on the conversions! So my reaching age 59-1/2 this December is even more magical from a taxation perspective than I originally understood--all earnings on contributions and all earnings on any conversions after turning age 59-1/2 will be completely tax-free if we do need to take a distribution, as my Roth IRA account with Fidelity has also been open for more than 5 years? If so, then that is one nice benefit of getting a little older! :happy
Not just conversions after 59-1/2. Conversions after 54-1/2 qualify as soon as you reach 59-1/2. So the holding period for conversions is really the lesser of five years or the time remaining until you turn 59-1/2.
by lstone19
Sun Mar 03, 2024 8:36 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Questions on 1099-Rs from Fidelity for Backdoor Roth Conversion
Replies: 22
Views: 1386

Re: Questions on 1099-Rs from Fidelity for Backdoor Roth Conversion

… Regarding turning 59.5, which will happen for me in December of this year, does that impact any of the documentation requirements on page 7 of the instructions regarding what part of the Roth IRA accounts would be taxable upon distribution? … The IRS instructions say until the IRA is distributed so that is my document retention plan. It does say that on page 7 that you referenced. Perhaps I misunderstood that turning age 59.5 made the earnings on the Roth IRA contributions non-taxable, assuming the Roth IRA had been open for at least 5 years. My other takeaway from some of the discussion on this was that earnings on converted funds had to be aged five years, regardless of the age 59.5 threshold, to also be non-taxable. In any event, I wi...
by lstone19
Sun Mar 03, 2024 12:51 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: HSA ineligible contrubtions in CA
Replies: 2
Views: 509

Re: HSA ineligible contrubtions in CA

No. You cannot reverse a mistaken contribution yourself.

First, when it comes to HSAs (and IRAs), never just use words like transfer. By default, any money you transfer in is a contribution and any money you transfer out is a distribution. Having made a mistaken contribution, then distributing it would be doubling down on your mistake.

What you need to do is reverse the mistaken contribution and that needs Fidelity's help. If you look, you'll probably find a form for it or you can call and ask them how to do it.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 02, 2024 8:54 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Taxes 2022: Better to claim a college kid as a dependent? Or should the kid file their own return?
Replies: 24
Views: 6295

Re: Taxes 2022: Better to claim a college kid as a dependent? Or should the kid file their own return?

I have a question that is related, but doesn't appear to be answered. And, it may help the original poster as well. I'm in a similar situation. I'm filing as MFJ, and our adjusted gross income is somewhere over the maximum $180K. Because it's over the maximum, we aren't able to take any tax breaks, except for $500 for one qualifying child. He's 20, and a full-time college student. From what I see, it would be better for me to NOT claim him as a dependent, and lose that $500. However, he would then be able to take the American Opportunity Tax Credit, meaning he would receive a $1,000 refund. So bottom line is that I would give up a $500 credit, but he would receive a $1000 credit. My question is - how do I NOT claim him as a dependent? It's...
by lstone19
Sat Mar 02, 2024 8:39 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Questions on 1099-Rs from Fidelity for Backdoor Roth Conversion
Replies: 22
Views: 1386

Re: Questions on 1099-Rs from Fidelity for Backdoor Roth Conversion

careerdata wrote: Sat Mar 02, 2024 8:22 pm
celia wrote: Sat Mar 02, 2024 7:17 pm The Form 5498s for 2023 won't arrive until May since we can still contribute for 2023 up until April 15, 2024.

The Form 5498s that you are looking at must be from past years and you should file them away with your copy of the tax returns for those years. Look at the year shown at the top of each form.
Thank you! The Fidelity documents say "2023 Form 5498 IRA Contribution Information" on the TIRA and Roth IRA versions for both myself and my DW. Could we have received the forms earlier than expected for some reason? Perhaps because we already reached our respective contribution limits for 2023?
The timing of the 5498 doesn't matter as it is not something you input to TurboTax. Just file them away.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 02, 2024 11:02 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: IRS attributed the interest it paid to the wrong year
Replies: 8
Views: 743

Re: IRS attributed the interest it paid to the wrong year

This year I received a statement of interest income from the IRS, incorrectly attributing the ~$300 paid in December 2022 to tax year 2023. A statement or a 1099-INT? If it doesn't say it's a 1099-INT (it can be a 1099-INT even if it's not in the familiar format), then it might just be informational and can be ignored since it's not actual 2023 income. If it is an actual 1099-INT, who does it say is the payor? Does it actually says Internal Revenue Service or does it say Department of the Treasury (1099-INTs for Treasury Direct say the latter)? I'm guessing the latter since when you pay taxes by check, you make them payable to the United States Treasury, not the IRS. And assuming it does say Department of the Treasury, having your Schedule...
by lstone19
Sat Mar 02, 2024 9:55 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: Annual travel insurance
Replies: 38
Views: 4954

Re: Annual travel insurance

NYCaviator wrote: Sat Mar 02, 2024 9:19 am Thankfully we don't have pre-existing conditions, and are below 70, so that hasn't been an issue. My go-to provider is GeoBlue though. They have a plan that does cover pre-existing conditions.
We use GeoBlue as well and will be buying an annual policy in April with enough foreign travel planned for the next year to justify an annual policy rater than a trip policy. As NYCaviator said, they do cover pre-existing conditions so long as you currently have active coverage.
by lstone19
Sat Mar 02, 2024 1:22 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue
Replies: 15
Views: 1939

Re: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue

Schwab alerted me to the expected completion date and Fidelity (but not ME) sent me an email that a transfer out had been requested. I think the delay is to allow you to say "NO! I did not initiate this." I am unimpressed with ME. I am even more unimpressed with ME. Tonight, 48 hours after the securities posted to my Schwab account, ME sent me an email about the transfer: "Here’s an update on your transfer request. We have received a transfer out request for your Merrill account ending in [redacted]. We’ll review and be in touch if we need anything else. To check the status of your request, please contact the receiving firm, as Merrill is unable to provide updates on outgoing requests. If you did not request this transfer, p...
by lstone19
Fri Mar 01, 2024 12:12 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue
Replies: 15
Views: 1939

Re: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue

BlackcatCA wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 12:06 pm Very glad to see that your transfer was successful. I am also in the midst of a transfer: pull out of ME, partial transfer. The stocks disappeared from ME the next day, but has not appeared yet in the other brokerage, so it is causing some anxiety.
That seems normal. Schwab alerted me to the expected completion date and Fidelity (but not ME) sent me an email that a transfer out had been requested. I think the delay is to allow you to say "NO! I did not initiate this." I am unimpressed with ME.
by lstone19
Fri Mar 01, 2024 9:14 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue
Replies: 15
Views: 1939

Re: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue

lstone19 wrote: Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:02 am
Bosro wrote: Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:13 pm Did the proper cost basis transfer over as well?
I don’t think it had but as it’s an IRA, cost basis is a don’t care for me.
Cost basis has transferred correctly and appears to match what ME had.

What's interesting is that I also transferred some from Fidelity and one of them has a zero cost basis. Going back through old statements, I can see when it went to zero when I sold some. So it appears that Fidelity's cost basis tracking on mutual funds in IRAs is a little funky but since it's an IRA, it's not something I care about.
by lstone19
Fri Mar 01, 2024 1:02 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue
Replies: 15
Views: 1939

Re: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue

Bosro wrote: Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:13 pm Did the proper cost basis transfer over as well?
I don’t think it had but as it’s an IRA, cost basis is a don’t care for me.
by lstone19
Thu Feb 29, 2024 5:42 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: TurboTax and estimated tax payments
Replies: 10
Views: 2001

Re: TurboTax and estimated tax payments

In TurboTax if you go into Forms Mode you can pull up the Estimated Tax Payment Options worksheet. You can then edit the assumptions made for estimated taxes including amount of withholding. Or in Step by Step mode click on Federal Taxes, then Other Tax Situations, then scroll down to W-4 and Estimated Taxes. Then you can modify the estimated tax assumptions. My playing with it (Desktop Premier) is you can edit income and deductions assumptions but while it will ask about withholding for 2024, it does not use. It always used the previous year's withholding unless you use "Overrride" to change it (and at least on most places in TurboTax, using Override makes you ineligible to e-file (it really shouldn't here as this has nothing to...
by lstone19
Thu Feb 29, 2024 10:25 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: TurboTax and estimated tax payments
Replies: 10
Views: 2001

Re: TurboTax and estimated tax payments

cheese_breath wrote: Wed Feb 28, 2024 10:18 pm Those TT estmated tax forms are useless. TT has no way of knowing what your income or deductions will be next year. As you discovered, all it can do is make assumptions based on what you do this year.
I agree. TT will let you tell it what your income will be but it assumes (and I have found no way to change this) that your withholding will be the same as the previous year. I use that part of TT for estimating what the tax will be on the income but handle calculating how much to pay for estimated taxes in my own spreadsheet.
by lstone19
Thu Feb 29, 2024 8:52 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue
Replies: 15
Views: 1939

Re: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue

Thanks OP for posting this. I am about to request a partial transfer from Merrill Edge (the self service one). Were you able to speak with someone at Merrill about this? Merrill site seems to be quite glitchy. I set up a buy trade last night but wanted to cancel today. The item has an active “Cancel” button but when I pressed it, it kept giving me an error that the trading system was down. It was around 3:30 pm EST, market closing time. 2 hrs later, I logged on and the trade was executed. Fortunately I have the funds… I wouldnt use Merrill but sadly it is the only way to keep BofA Platinum Honors status. No, I have not talked to anyone yet. But this has become stranger. Schwab late this afternoon showed receipt of the shares. So as of righ...
by lstone19
Wed Feb 28, 2024 11:24 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue
Replies: 15
Views: 1939

Re: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue

Thanks OP for posting this. I am about to request a partial transfer from Merrill Edge (the self service one). Were you able to speak with someone at Merrill about this? Merrill site seems to be quite glitchy. I set up a buy trade last night but wanted to cancel today. The item has an active “Cancel” button but when I pressed it, it kept giving me an error that the trading system was down. It was around 3:30 pm EST, market closing time. 2 hrs later, I logged on and the trade was executed. Fortunately I have the funds… I wouldnt use Merrill but sadly it is the only way to keep BofA Platinum Honors status. No, I have not talked to anyone yet. But this has become stranger. Schwab late this afternoon showed receipt of the shares. So as of righ...
by lstone19
Wed Feb 28, 2024 5:48 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: New Construction Home: Cash buyer
Replies: 8
Views: 1400

Re: New Construction Home: Cash buyer

We bought a new construction home from a well-establish production builder a little over a year ago. Our real estate agent advised that inspections were not necessary on new construction since the city is inspecting as construction proceeds and instead advised an inspection prior to the one-year warranty expiring. Needless to say or I wouldn't be writing but we should have had inspections done. The pre-end of warranty turned up a major construction error. It includes a code violation so the closing never should have occurred. Turns out the inspector trusts the builder and many of the inspections are "drive-by." And it exposed one of the problems with production builders which is too much of it is "construct by numbers". ...
by lstone19
Wed Feb 28, 2024 2:17 pm
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: ACATS from Merrill Edge issue
Replies: 15
Views: 1939

ACATS from Merrill Edge issue

I initiated a partial ACATS transfer (one mutual fund position) at Schwab pulling from an account at Merrill Edge. It was submitted last Thursday and by the next morning, Schwab provided an update that completion was expected on 2/29 (tomorrow). The same day, I logged into ME and saw that the securities (all whole shares of the mutual fund being moved) were already showing as pending transfer but already removed from my positions. So far so good. This morning, I logged in and all the shares are back in the ME account and account history shows as if nothing ever happened. Meanwhile, Schwab still says completion expected tomorrow. Has anyone has something similar happen with an ACATS transfer from Merrill? I'm wondering if it's a display glit...
by lstone19
Wed Feb 28, 2024 11:37 am
Forum: Personal Finance (Not Investing)
Topic: RMD Tax Withholding
Replies: 50
Views: 5147

Re: RMD Tax Withholding

It doesn't really matter, just do whatever yields enough withholding. Based on our tax situation, I find it far easier to just do estimated payments via my IRS account (safe harbor with adjustments) and withhold nothing from anywhere. This is because my total annual income is relatively variable. So I estimate current year's needs when I do prior years taxes - then adjust quarterly payments if something changes significantly. Minimal time, minimal interaction with IRA custodians etc. Estimated payments are extremely quick and easy - no forms, no time lag. We're the same except that it's because our AGI is stable (we target an AGI for the year and get there with Roth conversions). So I already know now what 90% of this year's taxes will be ...