Q. I have been a retired CSRS employee for more than two years and understand that I can transfer my traditional IRA to the Thrift Savings Plan, where the expenses are much lower. Some portion of my traditional IRA contributions in my early career years was tax-deductible. How would that be treated when I move the funds to the TSP and eventually start withdrawals? Or do you recommend I transfer the traditional IRA to TSP since some of my funds are tax-deductible? A. I think you mean that your IRA contains money that has already been taxed. That is, contributions that were…
Browsing: Traditional IRA
Q. I read your article that Traditional IRA funds can be transferred to the TSP either before or after a person’s retirement. My question is, can I transfer SEP IRA funds into TSP after retirement also? How about 401K-SOLO? A. Yes and yes.
Q. I am a federal employee with substantial student loan debt. In an effort to maintain my taxable income as low as possible (I am on an income-based repayment), I contribute the maximum allowable amount to my Thrift Savings account. I would, however, like to contribute additional monies to a traditional IRA account but am uncertain if the tax code allows someone to “double dip” by contributing to more than one nontaxable account. The discussions I have read about this issue are inconsistent. I hope you can provide some insight, A. It is possible to contribute to both, but your…
Q. I am a federal civilian under the FERS system with less than 10 years of civil service. I am also a military reservist with 25 years of military service. I am not yet 50 years old and I do not intend to retire or separate from federal service in the next few years. I want to cease contribution to and close my TSP account, withdraw the entire amount immediately by rolling it over into a tradional IRA not associated with the government. I am unconcerned about any penalty I may have to pay. I could not find in any…
Q: I am 63 and have been retired since 2005. I have been laid off once and let go from a fee-for-service job. When I retired, I took out $25,000. I need to be able to take out more money as I am 3 months behind on my mortgage. Getting another job takes at least three months, once hired, because of credentialing. Can I take an emergency withdrawal? Do I have any other options? I am about to lose my home. A: If you’re talking about your TSP account, since you’ve already taken a partial withdrawal, you’re only access to…
Q. In your response to a question titled “Converting Traditional IRA to TSP and Roth” which was submitted on March 10, 2010, you pointed-out that any distributions from a traditional IRA in which there is a basis, would ordinarily be considered by IRS to consist of taxable (earnings) and nontaxable (basis) amounts; therefore, making tax-free distributions of the earnings in a traditional IRA to the TSP and converting the remaining basis to a Roth IRA would not be possible. However, in IRS publication 590, page 23, paragraphs titled: “Kinds of rollovers from a traditional IRA and Tax treatment of a…
Q. If I have a traditional IRA worth $100,000 with a basis (post-tax contributions) of $20,00, can I roll over $80,000 to TSP and the other $20,000 convert to a Roth? Would these two actions result in a tax-free transaction? A. Yes, a special rule allows for this to be done.
Q: After contributing $22,000, including age 50 catch-up contributions, in calendar year 2009, may I also contribute $6,000 to a traditional (nondeductable) IRA, which includes the standard $5,000 plus $1,000 age 50 catch-up? A: Your participation in the Thrift Savings Plan should not prohibit you from making the maximum nondeductible contributions to a traditional IRA in 2009.
Q: I will be retiring on Jan. 1. I recently contributed $50,000 to my Voluntary Contribution account. This is my first contribution to this account, and upon retirement I would like to transfer the entire balance directly to a Roth IRA. I have an existing Traditional IRA (never taxed and balance of approximately $65,000) and a Thrift Savings Plan account of approximately $245,000. My goal is to transfer the entire amount of my voluntary contibution directly to an existing Roth IRA upon retirement. My thought is that the only tax I would owe on this conversion would be the few…