Tag: prohibited transactions
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Best Ever Real Estate Show: Checkbook Self-Directed IRAs and Solo 401(k)s
5 Common Self-Directed IRA and IRA-LLC Questions
What is a Self-Directed IRA?
A self-directed IRA, or SDIRA, is an IRA that can be invested in assets that are not available on brokerage platforms. The most common SDIRA investment is real estate, but an SDIRA can hold private loans, private stock, tax liens, tax deeds, mortgage notes, livestock, mineral rights and nearly anything else. Section 408 of Tax Code disallows only life insurance and collectibles for IRAs; everything else is allowed. In addition, S-corp regulations don’t allow IRA shareholders for small business corporations. Self-directed IRAs are held by specialized trust companies that are qualified to administer such accounts.
What is an IRA-LLC? What is Checkbook-Control? Checkbook Control IRA?
Continue reading “5 Common Self-Directed IRA and IRA-LLC Questions”
How To Buy A Retirement Home With Retirement Funds: SDIRAs, IRA-LLCs, Solo 401k Plans
Can I Buy A Retirement Home With My Self-Directed IRA, Solo 401k, or DB Plan?
You can buy your dream retirement home with your self-directed IRA, IRA-LLC, Solo 401(k), or Defined Benefit Plan. Your IRA Checkbook and Checkbook 401k can be used to purchase real property worldwide – Playa del Carmen, Mexico to Beijing, China and anywhere in-between. However, you must be aware of the prohibited transaction tax rules that apply to real estate investment. This post will address key questions about purchasing a vacation home with tax-favored retirement accounts. Continue reading “How To Buy A Retirement Home With Retirement Funds: SDIRAs, IRA-LLCs, Solo 401k Plans”
Beyond Prohibited Transactions: The Step Transaction Doctrine
Mastery of the Prohibited Transaction Rules of IRC 4975 may lead the self-directed investor to contemplate some clever deal structures to work around those.
Suppose you own an income producing property that you’d like your Solo 401k or Checkbook IRA to purchase, but knowing that as a “disqualified person” you can’t transact with your IRA you initially conclude that it can’t be done. Suddenly, you experience an epiphany – you could transfer title to the property from your name (or your LLC’s name) to your brother’s name, and he would subsequently sell the property to the self-directed retirement account. Eureka!
That stroke of brilliance has been had by many others and the courts have developed some judicial doctrines to analyze and characterize such transactions. One such doctrine is known as the Step Transaction Rule. Continue reading “Beyond Prohibited Transactions: The Step Transaction Doctrine”
Beyond Prohibited Transactions: The Plan Asset Rule
The Plan Asset Rule
There’s a lesser known extension of IRC 4975 in the Code of Federal Regulations that discusses something known as the Plan Asset Rule. In a nutshell, the Plan Asset Rule says that when retirement plans own a “significant” share of an entity, all of that entity’s assets are treated as assets of the retirement plans for purposes of the prohibited transaction rules.
The implications of this can be staggering; if retirement plans collectively own a significant portion of an entity, all the disqualified persons of all the retirement plan investors are disqualified persons to that entity. Continue reading “Beyond Prohibited Transactions: The Plan Asset Rule”
Beyond Prohibited Transactions: The Exclusive Benefit Rule
Beyond Prohibited Transactions: The DOL Interpretive Bulletin
Benefiting from tax-advantaged retirement funds before retirement age would be a beautiful thing, especially for those of that leverage the power of Solo 401(k)s and Checkbook IRAs. But, as that would defeat the intent of those accounts, the Prohibited Transaction Rules of IRC 4975 were created. Although written broadly, the innovative investor can contrive many ways to circumvent those rules.
However, beyond the letter of the law, the IRS has some additional tools at its disposal with which to counter creative strategies. Those include the Step Transaction Doctrine, the Exclusive Benefit Rule, and the Plan Asset Rule. For cases in which those rules may not apply, the IRS has the Department of Labor Interpretive Bulletin ERISA IB 75-2. Continue reading “Beyond Prohibited Transactions: The DOL Interpretive Bulletin”