Year end tax tips can be helpful when tax planning to help you save BIG this tax season. Bridget and John offer various tips that can help you plan, particularly as the year end approaches.
Income Flexibility: Before retirement, individuals typically have limited control over their income, especially if they are W-2 employees. However, once retired, there is more flexibility in drawing income from various sources, which can be strategically managed for tax purposes.
Deductions: Maximizing deductions, such as contributions to a donor-advised fund (DAF), is crucial before retirement. Consider donating appreciated stock or bunching charitable contributions into one year to maximize itemized deductions.
Maximizing 401(k) Contributions: Ensure you are contributing the maximum allowed to your 401(k), as many people assume they are but are actually not.
Roth IRA Contributions: There are many benefits of contributing to a Roth IRA or using a backdoor Roth IRA strategy. The key advantage is the tax-free growth of investments in Roth IRAs. Contributions must be made while earning income, which means once retired (and without earned income), you can't contribute to a Roth IRA.
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs): Contributing to an HSA is another tax strategy if you have access to one. Contributions to HSAs are tax-deductible, and withdrawals for qualified medical expenses are tax-free.
Don't wait until it's too late! Jump into tax-focused financial planning before the year ends to take advantage of deductions and tax-saving opportunities!
Resources:
- Alliance of Comprehensive Planners: https://www.acplanners.org
- John's firm website: https://www.trinfin.com
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TRANSCRIPT:
Bridget: Hey, John, it's that time of year again. It's time to take a look at your taxes and do some tax planning. This is where the action is with taxes. So let's talk. Hi, I'm Bridget Sullivan Mermel. I've got a fee-only financial planning practice in Chicago, Illinois.
John: And I'm John Scherer. I've got a fee-only financial planning practice in Middleton, Wisconsin. And before we dig into tax planning, I want to remind everybody to hit that subscribe button and help other people find this information on YouTube. And with that, I'm looking forward to digging in. We said it's that time of the year. I started to think about Thanksgiving or maybe Christmas or Hanukkah and presents and treats. And then you brought up taxes. So I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
Bridget: Well, this is the time of year to plan your taxes, and that is where you can save money on taxes. It's with planning. It's not with actually doing the tax return. And most of the tax provisions need to be done before January 1st, so before December 31st.
John: Right.
Bridget: This is the time to think about it.
John: We think about tax season being spring, right? Oh, yeah. Tax season. April. No, no, the effective tax season is now. Before the end of the year, we can actually make a difference. That's so awesome. What are you telling clients? What kind of conversations are you having about tax planning before the end of the year?
Bridget: Let's talk about pre-retirement, so this is before you retire. And a lot of our clients are one to five years away from retirement. Some are earlier, but these are still going to apply. The thing about before you retire is that you can't control your income. So when you have a W2, some people ask, “Are there any loopholes?” You got all your income just showing up every year on the W2. You get it, the IRS gets it, and you have to pay tax on
it. So once you retire, you're going to have a lot more flexibility about where you get your income.
But in general, people don't really understand that because you can get the same amount of money, but take it from different sources, and it'll show up on your tax return in different ways. There's a lot more tax maneuvering to be done on the income side. So before retirement, you want to try to get as many deductions as you can. And so, let's just go through these deductions. First, let's talk Donor-Advised Funds.
These are itemized deductions. and we've done a whole episode on Donor-Advised Fund. But you got to think, okay, can I contribute to charity, perhaps with appreciated stock, maybe grouping my deductions in one year so that I'll be itemizing this year if I'm not itemizing otherwise, and is this year the year to do it so that I can put a bunch of my deductions, probably the deductions I'm going to want until I'm seventy and a half? And in most cases, all while I'm still working. What say you?
John: Yeah, that's such a great idea. And the thing that comes to mind that we talk about a lot with folks is that when your income is the same year over year, there're fewer things that we can do. As you just described you get a W2 every year, you get a paycheck. When you have changes in your income from a tax standpoint, that's when there's some strategy or more strategy that comes into being. And as we start to talk with these folks, as you approach retirement and you think, hey, in two years, three years, my income from a cash flow standpoint will decrease, so my taxes are going to be a lot lower than they are this year when I'm getting that W2 income, which shows up on my paychecks.
That's the delta that we talk about a lot. Tax deductions today are more valuable at my current tax rate than they will be in two years when I'm retired and maybe living off money in the bank. We tend to talk about cash flow in retirement rather than income, and we specifically use that word because what I care about in retirement is that money shows up that I can spend. I don't care whether it comes from the dividends of my investments or the interest from the bank or at principal or 401k or whatever. I just want to care about that cash flow thing.
And if you think about it, if we've got money in the bank, let's say I'm going to retire next year, I’ve got a CD that matures in January, my spending is $100,000, and the CD is for $100,000. Great. I've got my cash flow for my first year of retirement, but what's my tax situation? When that CD matures, that's not taxable income to me. My taxes might be zero, but yet my cash flow is $100,000. So that's that difference that we're talking about here. And so that idea I think is important to understand and think about. I need money to live on.
Yeah, but it's not necessarily taxable money, depending on your circumstances. I know you try to get people in that same spot. And then we take a look at, hey, next year if my tax rate's going to be like 0 or 10% or something like that, and this year my tax rate is 22% or 24% or 35% or whatever. Golly. And I'm giving money to my church and to United Way and to the hospital and these sorts of places, how can I put that money to use and make the tax deduction today at 24% and not take it next year at 0%? That’s the concept, which is exactly the same thing as you were describing. It's a really powerful thing as you start to approach retirement.
Bridget: Yeah, absolutely. So, donations in general and Donor-Advised Funds, if you're itemizing. And you can create itemizing by putting a bunch of years deductions together. And again, we put this all together in a different episode. So here we have some basic, I call it, financial hygiene. Make sure you're maxing out your 401(k). Now people think they are. Guess what? Take a look at your paycheck and make sure you add more if you haven't, because that’s one of the things that we look at consistently.
And people think they're maxed out, but they're not. It’s just normal, so make sure you're maxing out your 401(k). And then we've got contribute to a Roth IRA or a backdoor Roth. Why don't you talk that through? Because this isn't as much of a play on difference in tax rates. This is a different rule that we're going to be talking about. But go ahead and talk about that.
John: In a year or two or three, whatever, I'm retiring, so I'm not going to have earned income. As a result, my tax situation is different. That's what we've been talking about so far. But this one that you just brought up (and we do the exact same thing as you do) is you can make contributions to IRAs, Roth IRA or regular IRA to the extent you have earned income during that calendar year. So in two or three years when I retire, if I don't have any wages, I don't have any earnings, I can't put money into an IRA. I can't put money into a Roth IRA. But today, while I have wages, I can.
So it's not a matter of tax arbitrage necessarily, but using IRAs, especially the Roth IRA, whether you can do it directly or do that backdoor Roth thing. But putting money into a Roth IRA has tax advantages over time. When money is in Roth, it grows tax free, basically. There’re some caveats, but that's essentially what we're talking about. And so, taking advantage of the ability to put money into a Roth IRA that's going to produce tax advantages down the road can be really beneficial. Again, today I've got that ability while I'm working, but when I stop working, I don't have that ability, because that's how the tax law works. So it’s not about saving taxes today, but putting ourselves in a good position for the future.
Bridget: There's one caveat with that. Say you're retired but your spouse has some income. You've got a little bit of income. You're making at least $8,000 from a W2, or you retired that year, and you still have part year wages. And I've actually told people to retire in February, just so that we could do the Roth for that year. So you don't have to have a ton of income. And it could be your spouse's income. In that case your spouse would want to have $8,000, assuming they're over 50, so you'd want to have $16,000 of spouse income and then you could both Roth IRA or backdoor Roth IRA contributions.
John: Yeah. One thing that just popped into my mind as we're having this discussion is that we've got a client, who is divorced, so she doesn't have a spouse. But she was getting alimony. And you have to check the rules. I believe it's technically titled as alimony or maintenance, but that counted as wages for the purposes of putting money into a Roth IRA. And I think it had to tie in with, hey, it's not my current spouse, but my ex-spouse paying me this, but there's a place in the law, and you have to look up the details.
Don't take this and go and do it right but take a look. If you're getting alimony, check and see if that counts as income. Because there is a circumstance where it does. And again, it can be a spot where I got money sitting in my checking account or my investment account. I can put it into Roth IRA to the extent I have that alimony or support. It makes no tax difference now, but all the future growth is tax free. That can be a nice place to have some extra tax bang for your buck.
Bridget: Yeah. Last suggestion. And this is again, only if you have this. Make sure you're contributing to the max to your health savings account if you've got one of those.
John: Yeah, that's great.
Bridget: I would say 10% or 15% or maybe 20% of the people have those, but for those who do, make sure you remember to use that and put the money in. Although I think you have until April 15th in that case. But it's really, again, better tax hygiene to just do it before the end of the year, because then you've got it all done, and it's easier to do your tax return, for your tax preparer or yourself. So with that, I think it's a great time to, wrap it up. I'm Bridget Sullivan Mermel. I've got a fee-only financial planning practice in Chicago, Illinois.
John: And I'm John Scherer. I've got a fee-only financial planning practice in Middleton, Wisconsin. Both Bridget and I are taking on new clients, so we'd love to hear from you. But if you like what you hear on our show, and you'd like to find an advisor in your local area, we're both members of the Alliance of Comprehensive Planners, a group of nationwide, tax-focused financial advisors. And you can find an advisor in your area by checking out acplanners.org.
Bridget: And don't forget to subscribe.
At Sullivan Mermel, Inc., we are fee-only financial planners located in Chicago, Illinois serving clients in Chicago and throughout the nation. We meet both in-person in our Chicago office and virtually through video conferencing and secure file transfer.
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