For Entrepreneurs A Simple IRA May Be Best
Q: I own a small decorating business and I'll be the first to admit that I don't know anything about taxes or retirement plans. I'd like to set up a 401(k) or an IRA or some other kind of retirement plan for me and my three employees. What are the various retirement plan options available for a small business owner and in your opinion, which would work best for me?-- Wanda S.A: Wanda, I appreciate your confidence in my humble opinion, but asking me for financial advice is like asking Donald Trump for a recommendation on hair care products. I can tell you what works best for me and my business, but you'll need to do your homework and seek professional advice to figure out what would work best for you. As a side note, I hear that Donald Trump is coming out with his own line of hair care product soon to be called "Big Head." The formula is 1% mousse, 1% liquid nails, and 98% hot air.
It should be a big seller among the high brow, comb-over crowd.Here's my best advice on retirement plans: find yourself a financial advisor (or financial planner) who is has experience working with small businesses and have him or her explain the options available and make a recommendation as to the type of plan best suited for you and your business. When I say "financial advisor" I'm not talking about your know-it-all brother-in-law or your accountant. I'm talking about a broker or financial planner (or other licensed professional) who has a proven track record of making his clients money and is an expert on IRAs, 401(k)s, mutual funds, etc.The best way to find a good financial advisor is to ask for referrals from your most successful friends and associates. Find the richest, stingiest man in town and ask who his advisor is. Meet with several advisors, explain your situation, and ask for their recommendations.
You should also make sure the advisor is a good fit for your personality and your business. If all goes well you will be doing business with this person for many years to come, so make sure the relationship feels comfortable to you and that you are confident in the advisor's ability to manage your money.Let me give you a quick overview of a few of the retirement plans available to small businesses so you at least have an idea of what's out there before you start your search for a good financial advisor.As a small business you basically have three types of retirement plans that you can take advantage of: the Self-Employed 401(k); the Simplified Employee Pension Plan or SEP IRA, and the Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees or SIMPLE IRA. Each allows you to make pre-tax contributions to the plan, which lets you save for retirement and lessen your taxable income by the amount of the contribution. Your investments also grow tax-deferred until withdrawal.A Self-Employed 401(k) is an option for self-employed individuals or business owners with no employees other than a spouse. The business can be a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or a corporation, including S corps.
You can make salary deferrals to this type of plan of up to $14,000 for 2005.Next is the Simplified Employee Pension Plan or SEP IRA. A SEP is an option if you earn a self-employed income from a full or part time business, even if you are covered by a retirement plan at your fulltime job. A SEP allows you to contribute up to 25% of earned income, up to $41,000 for 2004 and $42,000 for 2005.My preferred type of retirement plan is the Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees or SIMPLE IRA. The SIMPLE IRA was created to make it easier for small businesses with 100 or fewer employees to offer a tax-advantaged, company sponsored retirement plan.With a SIMPLE IRA you and your eligible employees may contribute up to 3% of earned income (with a maximum contribution of $10,000) on a pre-tax basis to individual SIMPLE IRAs. You must deduct Social Security and Medicaid from your gross income, but you can then make your SIMPLE IRA contribution before other taxes are levied, effectively lowering your taxable income.As the employer you must make "matching" or "non-elective" contributions into your employees' SIMPLE IRA accounts.
Matching contributions means that the business matches the elective deferral contributions made by employees. For example, if the employee opts to contribute 3% of his salary to the plan, the employer must match the 3% contribution.At first you might cringe at matching your employees' contributions, but as the business owner and an employee yourself this can be great news. As an employee of your own business you can contribute up to $10,000 to your SIMPLE IRA and the business can then match your contribution dollar-for-dollar, which means that you can put up to $20,000 in tax free dollars into the plan per year. The cost of the contributions is also deductible as a business expense.The non-elective contribution option requires that the company contribute 2% of every employee's earned income to the plan on the employee's behalf regardless of whether or not the employee contributes to the plan himself. For 2005 the maximum contribution you would be required to make is $4,200.Like a traditional IRA, you can withdraw money from a SIMPLE IRA at any time; however distributions within the first two years of participation are subject to higher early withdrawal penalties than traditional IRAs or Roth IRAs.
Withdrawals within the first two years are subject to a 25% early withdrawal penalty. Withdrawals taken after the first two years are subject to a 10% early withdrawal penalty.As the employer, the advantages of a SIMPLE IRA include: company contributions to the plan are tax deductible as a business expense; plan documents are simple and easy to administer; administration costs are low; and there is no government reporting required by the employer.The advantages of a SIMPLE IRA for your employees include: contributions are immediately 100% vested; contributions and earnings are tax-deferred until withdrawal; employees can contribute 100% of earned income up to $10,000 for 2005; and employees can direct their own investments within the IRA.This is a complex topic and I've just tipped the iceberg here, but hopefully this will give you enough information to get the investment ball rolling.Here's to your success!.
Tim serves as the president and CEO of three successful technology companies and is the founder of DropshipWholesale.net, an online organization dedicated to the success of online and eBay entrepreneurs. Related Links: http://www.dropshipwholesale.net http://www.30dayblueprint.comCreating Estate Tax Savings For Your Child Using A Roth IRA
Parents must give serious thought to protecting their family through estate tax planning. While life insurance and trusts should be a part of every plan, Roth IRAs can be a simple tool for passing money to your child on a tax-free basis. Roth IRA First, we need a quick summary of the Roth IRA. A Roth IRA is an after-tax retirement vehicle that produces huge tax savings because all tax distributions are tax-free. That statement can a bit confusing, so lets break it down.
The downside of a Roth IRA is the fact that contributions are not tax deductible as with traditional IRAs or 401(k)s. The upside of a Roth IRA, however, is that all distributions are tax-free once the person reaches the age of 59?. So how can you use a Roth IRA to pass money to your child? Opening A Roth IRA For Your ChildOne of the biggest keys to retirement planning is "time". The more years you spend saving money for retirement, the more you should have when that blessed day arrives. Imagine if you had started...
Creating Estate Tax Savings For Your Child Using A Roth IRA
Ira > Creating Estate Tax Savings For Your Child Using A Roth IRA
New Program Announced that Helps People Finance Real Estate Using Their IRA or 401k
(ContentDesk) July 28, 2006 -- Sum Total Financial Management has launched a new program that allows people to leverage their IRA or 401k to buy a home, property, vacation home, or any other real estate investment. The new program gets you cash flow that you need to ease the pain of making mortgage payments. Why be in a cash crunch or borrow money from the bank when you already have money in your 401k or IRA? Call Terry Treudt at 866-654-7200 or visit http://usirarealestate.com today to find out how you can be living worry free in your new home..
New Program Announced that Helps People Finance Real Estate Using Their IRA or 401k
Ira > New Program Announced that Helps People Finance Real Estate Using Their IRA or 401k
Roth IRA Accounts
In order to understand Roth IRA Accounts, you first need to understand the concept of a Roth IRA. IRA is an acronym for individual retirement arrangements, wherein an earning person can contribute his money to a Roth IRA account. The advantage of this arrangement is that, though the contributions themselves are subject to tax deductions, withdrawals are not taxed. The advantage of this is that your income is allowed to grow tax-free.
This means while a contribution is made with after-tax money, there is no tax involved with the withdrawal, subject to certain conditions.
So in a way, the Roth IRA is a good way to convert income earned from dividends, interest, and capital gains etc. into tax-free money.
An individual cannot contribute more than $4,000 to the Roth IRA Account, though he may have a large number of such accounts. But the contribution limit to these accounts should not exceed $4,000.
A Roth IRA Account can be built from either contributions...
Ira > Roth IRA Accounts
Coffee Shops
For most harried career individuals, a visit to their coffee shops for a nightcap with friends and business associates is their idea of a relaxing evening. But have you ever wondered when the first coffee shop started?
The first coffee shop opened in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1554, while the first coffeehouse opened in Cornhill, London, in 1652. Boston welcomed its own version of this haven for coffee lovers in 1670, while Paris opened the doors of its first-ever coffee shop in 1671. It...
Ira > Coffee Shops