09/04/09 - Retirement Plan Solutions for 70+ Workers

By: John Pitlosh,CFP, MST

The rules of the game may change when you hit the milestone age of 70.5, but the fruits of putting money into a retirement account are not out of your reach until you formally and fully retire. If you find yourself still working at this point of your life, you are probably either trying to seal a crack in your nest egg caused by the market or you are one of those people who will only be ready to retire when they pry your cold dead hands from your desk. Either way, knowing you have options can make a difference in your bottom line.

In the year you turn 70.5, the tax system puts the lid on Traditional IRA contributions and pulls the plug on your retirement accounts in the form of required minimum distributions (RMDs). When you are earning wages and pulling out RMDs, the tax consequences can result in higher tax rates and an increased percentage of your Social Security benefits being subjected to taxes. 

When your taxable income starts to bulge during that period of your life, continuing to put money into a retirement plan or Roth IRA can still be useful. Let's take a look at the major differences among the most popular retirement plan options and examine how to structure your plans to optimize your distributions.

Retirement Account Highlights

Traditional IRA
Once you turn 70.5, you are no longer allowed to contribute to a Traditional IRA. In addition, you must begin the process of taking annual RMDs.

Roth IRA
Anyone with earned wages may contribute to a Roth IRA, and there is no mandate requiring the contributor or his or her spouse to make RMDs.

Traditional 401(k)
Regardless of age, if you are still working you can continue to contribute to a 401(k). As long as you own less than 5% of the business you are working for, you are not required to take RMDs.

Roth 401(k)
Regardless of age, if you are still working you can contribute the full amount of your salary deferral to a Roth 401(k) ($22,000 for 2009). Like the traditional 401(k), RMDs are required once you separate from service or if you own more than 5% of the business that employs you. This is a key difference between a Roth 401(k) and its Traditional Roth IRA counterpart.

Retirement Plan Showdowns

Traditional IRA vs. Pretax 401(k)  
If you are older than 70.5 you lose the ability to contribute to a Traditional IRA. On the other hand, there is no age restriction placed on the 70+ crowd for contributions to a 401(k), so this option is still a possibility. In many cases, the golden-age worker is usually some kind of self-employed consultant or contractor, so these people need to be aware of the RMD requirements placed on the 5% or greater business owner. At first glance, the idea of contributing to a plan that requires you to take RMDs each year sounds silly, but if you do the math it's really not a bad deal.

Example - Pretax 401(k) In 2009, a 75-year-old self-employed worker making $80,000 contributed $22,000 to his new 401(k); the plan has a December 31, 2009, balance of $22,000. The 2010 RMD for the now 76-year-old worker will only be $1,000. If you take the end of year balance of $22,000 and divide it by the RMD factor of a 76-year-old, 22, you end up with a taxable distribution of $1,000. After all is said and done, the net result for the individual would be a $21,000 deduction.

The point here is that the opportunity to save is not drastically diminished because you have to make RMDs while you are working. 

***Winner by Disqualification: Pretax 401(k)

Roth IRA vs. Roth 401(k)
If you are over 70.5 and you are working, you will have the ability to contribute to both types of accounts. While the income restrictions governing who can contribute to a Roth IRA can be difficult to overcome, it isn't impossible. The reason it isn't impossible involves how the income ceiling for the contribution is determined. Because the income ceiling doesn't factor into RMDs, Roth conversions and rollovers, a lot more people can qualify. On the other hand, the Roth 401(k) has no income limitations that you need to deal with. However, you need to be aware that Roth 401(k)s are eventually subject to RMDs.

***Winner for Easiest Contribution Category: Roth 401(k)
***Overall winner and Winner of the Final Destination Category: Roth IRA

Additional Strategies

Consolidate and Plug Your RMD Hole
It is almost a certainty that an individual working into his or her 70s will have multiple IRAs and other types of retirement plans floating around. As a result, those floating accounts will be forced to make annual RMD withdrawals. If that same individual owns less than 5% of the business he or she is working for and the plan administrator allows it, this person could roll over any existing IRAs and retirement plans into his or her current employer's plan. This is true as long as the individual has not separated from service and is still working.

Once the individual successfully rolls over the existing assets into the employer's plan, he or she should be relieved of having to take annual RMDs from those assets. The wild card in this scenario is almost always the plan document and administrator. If everything is copacetic and you are able to reduce your RMDs while you are working, you will have the opportunity to create room for doing a Roth conversion or the relief of evening out your tax burden until you fully retire.

State Income Tax "Filter"  
While it depends on the state in which you live and file your taxes, some states that impose a state income tax provide more favorable tax treatment to individuals who make contributions to and take distributions from IRAs and other qualified plans. In Illinois for example, the government doesn't add your 401(k) contributions back into your state income calculation; it also allows residents to subtract most distributions from IRAs and qualified plans from income.

"State tax filter" loopholes do exist because states want to encourage their residents to stay in-state and not jump ship for no-income-tax states like Florida or Texas when they retire. That said, the loophole can be a noose if you work in a state like Pennsylvania and then retire to a state like California. In that situation, you can get taxed on the way in and the way out. How you incorporate these existing loopholes into your savings strategy will depend on your goals and your particular set of circumstances, including your CPA's advice!
 

Example - Taking RMDs From a Roth 401(k) An individual who could take a look at this strategy is someone who is more than 70 years old, is self-employed and is making contributions to a Roth 401(k). In this case, if you alter your savings strategy by contributing to a pretax 401(k) and converting an outside IRA instead, you might be able to reduce your state income tax burden and avoid having to take RMDs from your Roth 401(k), which is an after-tax account.

Conclusion
The working crowd over 70 still has the ability to save and defer taxes through Roth IRAs and qualified plans that don't exist for their retired peers. By incorporating these and other tools into their overall strategy, the nearly retired may be able to legitimately reduce their overall tax burden to a targeted beneficiary. However, the targeted beneficiary for retirement plans isn't always the contributor, so each individual's strategy should take into account that individual's specific goals as well as the surrounding facts and circumstances. Any individual attempting to take advantage of these strategies needs to be aware that the rules surrounding their implementation are complicated and the laws can change overnight. At the end of the day, any plan incorporating these or similar types of strategies should only be executed after receiving sound advice from a qualified tax professional in consultation with you retirement plan administrator. 

 

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