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COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) created an individual retirement arrangement—usually referred to simply as an IRA—to allow people who had no other employer-sponsored qualified plan to have certain tax support for a retirement program. That was the initial legislative action. To participate, you needed to be employed and not a participant in a pension, profit-sharing, or other qualified plans.

These early ERISA provisions offering tax benefits to individuals funding IRAs have been extended in subsequent legislative actions to include:

• Unemployed spouses;
• Qualified retirement plan participants; and
• Taxpayers prefer tax-free distributions instead of deductible contributions.

Early expansion of the IRA provisions added a spousal IRA that is designed to provide retirement assistance to uncompensated homemakers. It was also expanded to allow employees who are covered under an employer-sponsored qualified pension or profit-sharing plan to contribute to an IRA.

Since that earlier ERISA expansion related to IRAs, new IRAs have been added, including Roth IRAs that offer tax-free qualified distributions rather than deductible contributions. To differentiate the newer Roth IRA from its earlier cousin, the original IRA is now referred to as a “traditional” IRA.

Learning Objectives:

After reading the course material, you will be able to:

• Apply the rules governing eligibility for and contributions to traditional and Roth IRAs;
• Identify the requirements and benefits related to a spousal IRA;
• Apply the tax treatment rules concerning contributions to and distributions from traditional and Roth IRAs; and
• Distinguish between traditional and Roth IRA distribution rules.

Who Should Attend:

• All Certified Public Accountants (CPAs)
• Enrolled Agents (EAs)
• Tax Return Preparers (TRPs)

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Qualifies and Approved with all State Boards of Accountancy and the following sponsorship’s: