FAP Turbo

Make Over 90% Winning Trades Now!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Tax Deferral As An Investment Strategy

By Don Burnham

Deferring taxes is the kind of investment strategy that can be carried out on your income, by which your income tax is paid later in exchange for money invested currently. The advantage of tax deferral is that you get to make more money which you can in turn invest immediately.

For example, say you manage deducting $1000 from your taxable income in the current year and then you invest that amount into an account that gives you interest. As a result of this, you get to pay around $200 less in income tax for the current year. Therefore you are gaining $200 more as compared to if you hadn't invested the $1000. So if you add the deferred $200 to the already invested $1000, your investment adds up to $1200. The other kind of tax deferral that investors often opt for is deferring the amount of tax to be paid for interest earned. The invested amount is taxed, but the interest earned becomes free of tax.

Another type of tax deferral used by investors is the deferment of taxes paid on interest earned. The dollars invested have already been taxed, but any interest earned is tax free.

Investment Vehicles Tax deferred accounts shelter your money from taxes until you begin making withdrawals in the later part of your life, when you're likely to be in a lower tax bracket. The type of investment vehicles best for you depends on your situation.

You could opt for the plan 401(k). This vehicle is open for you only if your employer offers it. This will allow you to make contributions that are deductible by tax but grow as deferred tax until you start withdrawing the money. Depending on your employer, your 401(k) might come with a bonus, when your employers add to your contributions, doubling it. You could make anywhere between 25%-100% on your contributions, if your employer adds to it.

This plan helps you to contribute a larger amount to your retirement plan than any other such plan. You can contribute up to $9,500 and your employer can match that with up to $30,000 annually. You can also arrange for the bonuses that you receive to be directly added to this plan to help grow your investment money faster. If you wish to retire from the job or plan on acquiring more freedom with the kind of investment you make, you could easily roll over your assets into an IRA. The 401(K) plan is the best suited for the newbie at investing and those who do not know where and when to invest their money in.

The 401(k) is the best suited plan for somebody who is new at investing or does not know what kind of stocks to invest in.

Another type of plan offered by an employer is the 403 (b). This plan is for public school and non-profit organization employees and it is tax deductible and tax deferred. You can contribute up to $9,500 of your annual gross income each year to this plan.

With 403 (b) plans, beware of a few cautions. Your contributions are generally invested in a tax-sheltered annuity, which may have heavy sales charges and low guaranteed rates.

Anybody who earns an income or the spouse of somebody who earns any kind of income can have their own IRA and contribute to that yearly to a maximum of $2000. The earnings that you make are not subjected to tax till you start withdrawing from it, however a penalty will be charged if you are less than 59 and a half years of age. Even though the money might not be tax deductible, the investment will be tax deferred.

The type of investments you can make with your IRA dollars depends on the custodian, but you generally have many more investment options with an IRA than you do with any of the employer sponsored investment plans.

The Keough Plan is another such plan that is available for people who are self employed or who work for businesses that are unincorporated. Under this plan, you get to contribute up to 25% of your income every year with a maximum of up to $30,000. You can contribute most with this plan than any other IRA plan, and all your earnings become tax deductible and tax deferred. There are options to choose from in this plan, that is, you could choose to pay according to a fixed percentage every year or a variable percentage or a fixed amount. A lawyer should be best able to guide you in what suits you the best.

The SEP or the Simplified Employee Plan is the other type of vehicle which is open to only those companies that have less than twenty five employees. According to this plan you can contribute up to $7,000 yourself and your employer can contribute the rest with the maximum of $30,000. However, at least half of the employees of the company must participate in the plan for it to function.

All of these investment vehicles fall into one of two categories : qualified plans or non-qualified plans.

The 401(k) and the 403(b) are the plans that are qualified. These are those employer sponsored investment plans that offer good benefits but depend upon the kind of plan that the employer draws up. For example, the 403(b) plan needs you to invest the money in tax sheltered annuities. As compared to this, 401(k) offers a wider selection of more conventional investment options, such as fixed interest annuities, company stocks etc. but is yet restricted as compared to the non - qualified plans.

The second category of retirement plans is nonqualified plans. Nonqualified plans generally allow more freedom as to when, or if, a contribution has to be made, and they also offer more latitude in the type of investments that can be made. All IRAs fall into this category. Generally, investors have more control over their investments in a nonqualified plan than with a qualified one. Usually they are easier to work with, have less regulation, and require less reporting. Often, contributions to these plans can be deducted as a business expense.

There are also two asset categories, in which all the above vehicle fall into: debt and equity. If you are an investor, you are either the owner or the creditor. Equity owners are available for all the free money flow which exceeds the debt to be paid of the underlying economic body. Creditors will of course be high on priority where agreed upon future interest or the payment of principles is concerned.

When you opt for a certain retirement plan, you ought to be sure of the investments that are permissible with it. Try to not open an account that will not give you the freedom to select the kind of investment plan that you want, whether they are debt or equity investment plans. - 23212

About the Author:

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home