Financially, many of us associate April with filing taxes, but April 15th is an important deadline for funding your Individual Retirement Account (IRA), Roth IRA, and certain other retirement accounts.
If you had earned income in 2020 we would encourage you to review the contributions you made to your IRA or Roth IRA to be sure that you have maximized this opportunity to save for your retirement. You still have time to be fully funded for tax year 2020 as long as you make your contribution by April 15, 2021.
Thanks to the SECURE Act, traditional IRA owners can now contribute to their IRAs past age 72 as long as they have taxable income.
For tax year 2020 you can contribute $6000 to your account. If you are over 50 years of age, the limit is $7000. There are some income limitations that apply to both IRA's and Roth IRA's. We wrote about this recently HERE. Take a moment to read this if you're not sure about your eligibility this year.
With this in mind, if you exceed the 2020 IRA contribution limit, you may withdraw excess contributions from your account by the your tax filing deadline (including extensions). Otherwise, you must pay a 6% tax each year on the excess amounts left in your account.
If you do not have an IRA or Roth IRA account, there's still time to open and fund this account, but the days are slipping by quickly. So this would be one task not to put off! Your future self will thank you for planning ahead.
For more information about how much you can contribute now, and the best way to fund your account, give our office a call. We're always here to help!