I qualify for foreign earned income exclusion. This shows as a negative on income on the tax form. If I convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, the IRS will withhold some taxes. Since my income is negative, can I get these taxes back at the end of the year? Alternatively, can my negative income offset capital gain taxes?
Using the Turbotax program, it takes the value from form 2555, and places it as a negative number in form 1040. Reading the instructions from form 2555, it says to place the value in parenthesis which indicates a negative, correct?

Accounting: Weighing the pluses and minuses of Roth IRA conversion
Also: Finance bill excludes extension of COBRA subsidy

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Roth conversion may impact financial aid
A Roth conversion could impact your student’s financial aid package, but you can address the problem.

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CCH released the amounts on 9/29/09 to subscribers of their service.

in most situations I have found that if you want to rollover funds from say a 401K to a Roth IRA, you must first rollover into a traditional or rollover IRA then convert that into a Roth… Of course you may incur fees and other costs to do so.

My question is, could you get around those fees by (using TDAmeritrade’s $500 minimum as an example) Opening a Roth with $500 and then rolling over additional funds from an existing 401K into the Roth? Or would you still have to rollover into a traditional IRA?

The government claimed that Social Security would come to us “as a right” and that “it would never be taxed” and that 1% would be “the most we would ever pay.” Since the government was wrong about all of those things regarding Social Security, why would anyone trust what the government says about Roth IRAs twenty to forty years from now?

Does anyone really believe that they won’t be taxing Roth IRAs before long? Our government, Democrat or Republican, is facing $170 trillion in unfunded liabilities this century. There is no way they can afford allowing people to receive tax-free payments. Why would anyone believe that this would be the case, in a country where everything is always taxed and laws are always changed?

After all, even the Constitution is ignored. McCain-Feingold restricts speech, Kelo restricts property rights, HCR violates Equal Protection clause, etc. Who in their right mind thinks something as small as a Roth IRA will survive?

Even the beloved little HSA will be scrapped under the House and Senate versions of Health Care Reform. How many people donated to those thinking they’d be around forever and they didn’t even last a few years!?

I don’t completely understand exactly how they work at all, to be honest. But my math teacher recently showed us that contributing a couple thousand dollars a year every year for about 10 years at least 40 years before retiring could end up giving you over a million dollars upon retirement. Now, I see it’s not quite so simple. I have several questions….

1) Do taxes play any part in Roth IRAs? Or is it just you deposit, watch it grow by the rate, and then withdraw the exact amount?
2) Can a minor make an account? According to this – http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/drt/archive/2008/dt080130.html, it appears it is possible. However, it also seems that you need an income to put money into it. Would buying/selling misc. things (some virtual goods, others real goods) over the internet qualify as an income that I could cite if putting money into a Roth IRA?
3) How often is the interest compounded? Or does it vary?
4) What’s the rate? Or does it vary?
5) Are you guaranteed anything, or is it possible your money will all disappear?

My consulting business did well enough this year that I had a bit of money due to the IRS. I planned on setting up an IRA this year since I’m in my mid-twenties. I like the tax-free potential of the Roth, but I also need to lower my AGI this year. Would it make sense to open and contribute a portion of my wages to a traditional account and deduct what I need to break even on taxes, and throw the rest into a Roth account? Not exceeding the $4,000 limit on contributions of course… The fees on the accounts should be negligable, considering that I’m working primarily with an Internet broker.
25% is my current tax bracket.

I’ve just graduated college and started my first full-time job a couple months ago. Lately I’ve been reading articles about Roth IRA’s and how young people should consider them because they can save a huge amount of money by the time they retire with the smallest amount of input (since they’re getting started earlier). I know I’m still young, but I want to set myself up for a comfortable future. I’m making $35k/year salary, but my company does not have a 401K plan (as of yet).

I would like to try putting away $250 a month in order to create a nest egg for when I retire (and maybe allow myself to retire a little earlier?). Is a Roth IRA the way to go, or is there something better I could do with my money to allow it to increase over the years? I don’t know much about this stuff and don’t even know where to start. I do know that IRAs have something to do with investments, which is risky and scares me a little…

Converting to Roth IRA Too Taxing? Consider Roth 401(k).
This tax season provides a one-time-only-opportunity that helps spread taxes owed over two years for people who may want to convert some or all of their traditional IRAs into a Roth IRA.

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