? re timing on 2010 Roth & filing tax return

[Deleted]

I have an appointment to have my taxes done on 2/26. I have only contributed $100 to my 2010 Roth so far, but I hope to add $5900 by the 4/15/11 deadline. Is it still OK to do my taxes on the 26th? Should I try make the deposit now? I plan to contribute $6k but still need to save about $1k….not sure what to do here.

Question #2: If you asked the above questions to your CPA (who has done your taxes for the last 4 years) and received no answer in over a week, would you him?

[haapai]

You're making the appointment to have your tax return prepared, but not necessarily filed.

[jeffreymo]

Sure of course you can do your taxes on 2/26 - you will only be able to list your $100 roth contribution.

On April 15th (actually the 18th this year) you could do an amendment to your return and list the remaining contributions that you have made.

[Urban Chicago]

Forgive my ignorance, but are contributions to a ROTH even listed on the return? I thought you listed contributions to a traditional IRA and distributions from a ROTH?

[haapai]

They can show up if the filer's income is low enough to qualify for the savers' tax credit. In that case, they may show up on Form 8880 and they may affect the amount of tax.

Usually it's possible to file a perfectly adequate and accurate return, delay filing it, and wait for the filer to call and say that the Roth contributions have been made. There's usually no reason to make any changes to the return or prepare a return that will be right only after the deposits have been made.

There's also some possibility that income is too high to allow a Roth contribution.

The CPA may be stalling because he can't determine with absolute certainty that neither of the exceptions apply.

[haapai]

It might be interesting to see how the folks over in tax corner would answer this question.

[Plain Old Petunia]

Jan 27, 2011 9:43:22 GMT -5 jeffreymo said:

Sure of course you can do your taxes on 2/26 - you will only be able to list your $100 roth contribution.

On April 15th (actually the 18th this year) you could do an amendment to your return and list the remaining contributions that you have made.

Bad advice.

Yes, you have until 4/18/11 to make your Roth contribution for 2010. You don't need to amend anything.

If your CPA has not answered in a week, that is because s/he is swamped. S/he may not even be in the office, as this time of year is typically when a lot of audit work is done. This is also rush time for 4th quarter payroll returns and other miscellaneous returns (sales tax, mill tax), which are all due Jan 31st.

If you feel that in general your CPA is not responsive to you, then yes, you might look for another. But to base that decision on unresponsiveness during a time when many inflexible deadlines are demanding his/her attention is, imho, unreasonable.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

A Roth deposit for the tax year is not reportable on your tax return. I have been making Roth contributions for years and never reported it anywhere on a tax return.
You can make your deposit right now, at the full amount, assuming you are under the threshold limit, and be done with it.

[tcu2003]

Anyone know what the income limit is for contributing to a Roth for 2010?

[haapai]

If you're up for a slog through Publication 590, here it is www.irs.gov/publications/p590/index.html

I just went there because I could have sworn that the contributions deadline for IRAs was the earlier of when you filed or the April deadline. While I'm still convinced that such a rule once existed, it no longer does. Now you can make previous year contributions right up to the April deadline.

[tcu2003]

Thanks for the link, haapai. Now I need to go figure out if our modified AGI is less than $176,000. Anyone know what you do if you're over this and you've already made Roth contributions for that year? Thanks to a couple of good bonuses (and first year being married so first year combined income), we're going to be close to this, which I didn't expect.

[haapai]

If you scroll down that index page, you'll eventually encounter a tab entitled "What if You Contribute Too Much" in the Roth IRA section. I wouldn't be too freaked out by the 6% penalty that they lead with, if you bear with them, several ways of avoiding the penalty are mentioned.

I suspect that calling up the custodian of the IRA and simply stating that you have contributed too much will lead to a pretty good explanation of your options.

[Plain Old Petunia]

Just call your custodian and say "I contributed X too much, please give it back". As long as you remove the excess contributions before 4/18/11, there is no penalty.

[jeffreymo]

Jan 27, 2011 12:19:12 GMT -5 Plain Old Petunia said:

Jan 27, 2011 9:43:22 GMT -5 jeffreymo said:

Sure of course you can do your taxes on 2/26 - you will only be able to list your $100 roth contribution.

On April 15th (actually the 18th this year) you could do an amendment to your return and list the remaining contributions that you have made.

Bad advice.

Yes, you have until 4/18/11 to make your Roth contribution for 2010. You don't need to amend anything.

If your CPA has not answered in a week, that is because s/he is swamped. S/he may not even be in the office, as this time of year is typically when a lot of audit work is done. This is also rush time for 4th quarter payroll returns and other miscellaneous returns (sales tax, mill tax), which are all due Jan 31st.

If you feel that in general your CPA is not responsive to you, then yes, you might look for another. But to base that decision on unresponsiveness during a time when many inflexible deadlines are demanding his/her attention is, imho, unreasonable.

I guess I interpreted the OP's statement of "doing" taxes as actually filing taxes which apparently was wrong. Either scenario makes it kind of a silly question.

[Deleted]

Either scenario makes it kind of a silly question.


What's so silly about it?

[jeffreymo]

Jan 28, 2011 9:31:48 GMT -5 @selma said:

Either scenario makes it kind of a silly question.


What's so silly about it?

I apologize. That comment was uncalled for. I just meant that anyone can "do" there taxes whenever they want. I could technically start doing my taxes on January 1st before I have any documentation (W2's, 1099's etc.) - than go back and correct everything after I received it - and then file.

[mwcpa]

One can make a Roth contribution for 2010 as late as 4-18-11 this year (normally it's 4-15).

A Roth issue can come into play would be if your tax professional was tracking the basis in the Roth for you and you told them you contributed 6,000 bit only did 5,000.... that could cause issues if you take a non qualified distribution from the Roth...

Another Roth issue would be if you claimed the retirement savings credit on form 8880... if you took the credit based on a 6,000 contribution and only contributed 5,000, there would be an issue...

[Deleted]

Thanks, all. Well, I learned a few things here.

Of course I should have realized that meeting with my tax guy doesn’t mean I have to file my taxes that day. (duh!)

I didn’t think about whether or not this Roth contribution was needed to do my taxes. I doubt it, (I'm still working and make <$100k) but the Fidelity statement said “important tax document enclosed”.

I could make a $6k contribution now, but to be on the safe side I want to wait until I see what my refund will be. I changed my exemptions so I’d have a smaller refund. Although I don’t need the refund to make the contribution, I want to make sure I don't OWE.

I like my CPA and will keep my appointment, but think he should have somehow responded to my question. Where I work, there is no way a client's call or email would go unanswered for a week. No way…regardless of how busy we are or how late we had to stay. So I don't know…..I've always worked at aggressive law firms. Maybe things are different in the accounting world. (or maybe….as I've been told before…my expectations of others are just too high.)

[DVM gone riding]

I report my Roth cont on my tax return every year-but my understanding is that this loosely monitored and not nec required and I wouldn't expect it to affect my taxes now or in the future at all.
The limit all depends on your marital status, last I heard it was 90k but they adjust it up every year. Any "roth" bank web site would have this info.