nothlit

nothlit t1_jeazotk wrote

It's perfectly fine to choose "Married Filing Jointly" on the W-4, but if your spouse also works, then you have to follow the instructions in Step 2: "Complete this step if you (1) hold more than one job at a time, or (2) are married filing jointly and your spouse also works. The correct amount of withholding depends on income earned from all of these jobs."

The problem is a lot of employers use an online payroll system that offers a barebones web form to fill out in place of the actual W-4, and don't bother pointing you to the real form for instructional purposes.

Here's the full form with instructions: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

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nothlit t1_jaerzkb wrote

Schwab charges a transaction fee to buy Vanguard mutual funds in a Schwab account.

You can avoid this by:

  • Only buying Vanguard mutual funds in a Vanguard account, or
  • Only buying Schwab mutual funds in a Schwab account (SWPPX is the Schwab equivalent of VFIAX), or
  • Buying commission-free ETFs in any account (VOO is the ETF equivalent of VFIAX)
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nothlit t1_jaecnha wrote

Age in bonds is a relatively conservative approach and one that many people consider to be outdated. Most target date funds from Vanguard, Schwab, and Fidelity have about 10-15% bonds until you reach about 20-25 years away from the target date, then they start down a glide path arriving at around 60-70% bonds by the time you reach the target date or a little after.

14

nothlit t1_jadcu64 wrote

That’s not an error.

Unlike contributions, conversions go by calendar year. You created $6000 of basis in your traditional IRA for 2022 by making a contribution designated for 2022, but you didn’t actually use up that basis in 2022 since you did the conversion in 2023, so it hangs around on line 14, to be carried over to next year’s Form 8606 line 2. You’ll report the conversion on the 2023 8606, not the 2022 8606.

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nothlit t1_jad4kyc wrote

> Edit: what if I just put it into my personal Roth IRA since the taxes have already been taken?

20% is the default withholding. You may end up owing tax at a higher or lower rate than 20% based on how much overall income you have this year. You can make more than one deposit as part of a rollover. You could deposit this check and then also deposit a second check to make up the missing 20%. As long as you indicate that both deposits are part of a rollover, it’s fine. If you only deposit this check but not the missing 20%, then the missing 20% will be further subject to an early withdrawal penalty when you file your taxes.

> And then select 2022 rolll over instead of 2023 contributions? Can I do that?

You don’t have to select a year for a rollover

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nothlit t1_jad3rdu wrote

You deposit this check in your bank account, then you write a new check for this amount + the missing taxes and deposit that into your new 401k or IRA as a rollover within 60 days. Then when you file your 2023 tax return you’ll be credited for the withheld taxes, which will reduce the amount you owe or increase your refund by that amount.

2

nothlit t1_j6p7uwu wrote

It depends on whether you have any pre-existing pre-tax money in your IRA(s). If there is none, then the conversion is 100% nontaxable because it consists of 100% nondeductible basis from your traditional IRA. If you have existing pre-tax IRA money, then the conversion has to be a proportional mixture of pre-tax and after-tax (nondeductible) amounts, and is taxable in the same proportion.

1

nothlit t1_j6ozc2c wrote

You should be maxing traditional 401k and then pursuing one or both of the backdoor options in addition to that. In which case the comparison is not traditional vs. (backdoor) Roth, it's backdoor Roth vs. taxable brokerage.

Also, you aren't taxed on the conversion step of backdoor Roth because the traditional IRA contribution is nondeductible (unless you have lots of existing pre-tax IRA money, in which case there are other considerations).

5

nothlit t1_j6ot7dl wrote

No, there is no way to account for that on this year's taxes. You will have to deal with contacting the IRS directly about last year's overpayment.

Edit: u/meamemg raises a good point that one of your payments last year may have been accidentally applied to the wrong tax year. In that case, if it was applied as a 2022 payment, you can claim that payment on your 2022 tax return. But if both were applied as 2021 payments, then you're back to contacting the IRS to straighten it out.

1

nothlit t1_j6oir04 wrote

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/form-1099-k-frequently-asked-questions-general

> You should include all fees (e.g., selling fees, payment processing fees, etc.) associated with the sale of your personal items in your basis when computing your gain or loss on the sale. See Publication 551 for additional information. In general, you should adjust your gain or loss on the sale of your property by the amount of expenses and fees paid to facilitate the sale.

1

nothlit t1_j6oi9i1 wrote

> Edit: I’m reading about One Indirect IRA rollover a year. Does this mean one Trad to Roth conversion. Customer service said I am limited to one and couldn’t do more which I didn’t know about. So trying to understand if that’s the case

The customer service person told you wrong.

Here, straight from the IRS:

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/rollovers-of-retirement-plan-and-ira-distributions

> The one-per year limit does not apply to: > > * rollovers from traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs (conversions)

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