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Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

advantaira.com

151–160 of 306 posts

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#151

The income has already been taxed. The economics are identical to other qualified retirement plans. This is simply more about restricting freedoms and making excuses for targeting Peter Thiel personally.

>The income has already been taxed Uhh... have you heard of capital gains tax? (And capital loss deductions).

The income contributed to a Roth is post-tax. This is economically equivalent to a 401k. Equivalent.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#152

The whole article is predicated on the lie that low and middle income earners are buying private placements and LLCs in their IRAs. They are not. Full stop.

That's false. I know for a fact that tens of thousands of middle class people are doing this today.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#153
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The killer is the "The bill also prevents investing in an entity in which the IRA owner is an officer." which is generally how the checkbook IRA is structured (IRA owner is the Manager of the single member LLC that is wholly owned by the IRA). Sec. 138314. Prohibition of Investment of IRA Assets in Entities in Which the Owner Has a Substantial Interest. To prevent self-dealing, under current law prohibited transactio…

This is the killer, indeed. Checkbook IRAs are amazing retirement tools if you're interested in using some of your retirement money in high-risk, high-reward investments. My retirement fund benefited enormously from the Q3 2020 crypto market gains, which would not have been possible without my LLC. It's hard to see this as anything other than removing all the peasants from the market so that the big dogs can have it…

I don't think too many "peasants" have LLCs so they can use their IRAs to invest in crypto.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#154
post #146
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm actually pretty fiscally conservative but I think it's ridiculous that someone abused the intent of a Roth IRA by accumulating $5 billion into it. The whole purpose of IRAs is to encourage regular people to save for retirement. It was not meant to provide billionaires tax loopholes to avoid paying millions or even billions of dollars in taxes. It's kind of like playing a game with someone. 99% of the people are f…

Congress is preventing all people from investing in private companies within retirement accounts, not just rich people. Adding the cap is fine but preventing private company investment is asinine.

Preventing all people from investing in private companies or closing a loophole that the law was never intended to allow?

Because anyone can continue to invest in private companies. You just can’t get tax free growth from them.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#155
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The modern 401(k) practices emerged from one of these then-obscure tax codes, which I view as an unabashedly good outcome.

401(k)'s started to became popular in the 1970s because they allowed management to increase their tax-advantaged compensation relative to labor, whereas defined-benefit plans had stricter and more effective rules regarding management/labor compensation disparities. Then during the 1980s as corporate accounting schemes became more sophisticated preference for 401(k)'s and other defined-contribution plans exploded beca…

> But corporate interests have succeeded in selling the narrative that pensions are unreliable and inequitable, while 401(k)'s are more reliable and equitable. In fact pensions are categorically more equitable, and any less reliability (which is a dubious claim, notwithstanding the many high profile pension failures over the years--nobody reports on someone's 401(k) fund vanishing during a recession) is a consequence of lobbyists phenomenal success in killing legislation and enforcement efforts responsive to corporate financial accounting schemes.

Those lobbyists must be doing a terrible job, since the Pension Protection Act of 2006 strengthened the reliability of defined benefit pensions.

The problem is defined benefit pensions are extremely risky for beneficiaries since the existence of an employer decades into the future is a huge risk, as are changes in a world where things change quickly and many people do not stay at the same job for many years.

And they are risky for employers in that expecting every employer to also function as an insurance company selling annuities and survive as long is expensive and ridiculous to execute. That is how you end up with so much corruption and money wasted because so many people have no idea what is going on (and the root cause for taxpayer funded DB pensions being a quagmire since voters have no idea what is going on).

There is zero reason an employer cannot just give the normal cost (the present value of the benefit accrued during the year) to an employee, and the employee put it in VOO rather than the employer doing the same and then having to pay actuaries and fund managers. I am happy I do not need to pay finance people who have been obviated by automation.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#157

The income has already been taxed. The economics are identical to other qualified retirement plans. This is simply more about restricting freedoms and making excuses for targeting Peter Thiel personally.

> The income has already been taxed This is not true - traditional IRA contributions are made pre-tax.

You’re wrong and confusing people here. Roth’s are post-tax at investment, not taxed later. Traditional and 401k are pre-tax at investment, taxed on distribution. Economically equivalent.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#158
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The killer is the "The bill also prevents investing in an entity in which the IRA owner is an officer." which is generally how the checkbook IRA is structured (IRA owner is the Manager of the single member LLC that is wholly owned by the IRA). Sec. 138314. Prohibition of Investment of IRA Assets in Entities in Which the Owner Has a Substantial Interest. To prevent self-dealing, under current law prohibited transactio…

This is the killer, indeed. Checkbook IRAs are amazing retirement tools if you're interested in using some of your retirement money in high-risk, high-reward investments. My retirement fund benefited enormously from the Q3 2020 crypto market gains, which would not have been possible without my LLC. It's hard to see this as anything other than removing all the peasants from the market so that the big dogs can have it…

Peasants with LLCs... Sure. And using crypto as an example only strengthens the argument that what you're doing is a tax dodge.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#159
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a way to end a statement that you feel so strongly about that you're indicating to others no amount of arguing or talking with change your opinion on it. Your mind's made up and you believe in that statement so strongly that you believe it to be unequivocally universally true.

Announcing closed mindedness.... not something I would ever want to do but I can see how its helpful in letting people know not to waste their time. Is there a reverse of this? As in, I have an opinion but am open to hearing others and their rational

I think “announcing closed mindedness” is pretty reasonable when it’s something that’s just a fact. 2+2=4, full stop.

Re: Self directed IRAs under attack in proposed tax bill

#160
post #137
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

401(k)'s started to became popular in the 1970s because they allowed management to increase their tax-advantaged compensation relative to labor, whereas defined-benefit plans had stricter and more effective rules regarding management/labor compensation disparities. Then during the 1980s as corporate accounting schemes became more sophisticated preference for 401(k)'s and other defined-contribution plans exploded beca…

While it's not an inherent property of defined benefit pensions, they also tended to be structured in a way that tended to primarily benefit long tenure in an organization--US military being one of the most obvious traditional examples. Switch jobs every few years? You probably weren't going to collect much in the way of a pension. I'm not sure how much the switch has been about "corporate interests." As people becam…

The answer to that shift in employee tenure is simple: shift away from employer managed pensions to independent management, same as for health insurance. That shift was incomplete because corporate focus shifted to draining pensions and centering compensation packages around mechanisms that favored management and especially executives (401(k)'s, stock options, etc), not adapting pensions to employment trends.
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