Over the past 5-10 years, the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement has gained popularity on social media. The concept is simple – invest your money early and consistently so you can retire before age 65.
The goal of this newsletter issue isn’t to discuss how to reach that stage or whether it’s worth doing or sustainable long-term, but rather how you can withdraw your invested money efficiently and pay $0 in taxes.
There are three main types of retirement accounts:
- Tax-deferred
- Taxable
- Tax-free
Tax deferred
Tax-deferred accounts include your typical traditional 401(k) and 403(b) plans. When you retire, you can roll over your 401(k) or 403(b) plan balance into a Traditional IRA with no tax impact.
Withdrawing from your Traditional IRA before age 59 ½ will result in a 10% penalty.
However, you can avoid the penalty by using an exception found in the section IRS 72(t)(2)(A)(iv) called the “substantially equal periodic payment” (SEPP). It’s a method to establish a consistent withdrawal from your IRA without the penalty.
For example, say you are 50 y.o, have a $150,000 tIRA, and want to establish SEPP.
Using 5.79% as the interest rate, you will be able to withdraw $9,760/yr from your IRA without the penalty.
I discussed the SEPP method in depth in my prior newsletter.
In 2024, the standard deduction for a single individual is $14,600. This means that the first $14,600 of your income is not taxed at the federal level. Therefore, the goal of the SEPP method should be to generate at least $14,600 in income per year to avoid paying any tax on it.
Another rule for withdrawing from a 401(k) without the 10% penalty is the Rule of 55. If you quit your job in the calendar year when you turn 55 (or 50 for qualified public safety employees) or older, you can start withdrawing from your retirement plan.
Taxable account
A taxable account (also called a brokerage account) is another source of income for individuals looking to reach FIRE.
There are two main types of tax-efficient income generated from this account:
- Dividends
- Capital Gains
Both qualified dividends (QD) and long-term capital gains (LTCG) are taxed at preferential rates.
We can see that if you are a single individual, up to $47,025 of taxable income can be taxed at a 0% tax rate.
So, let’s say an investor has a $500,000 taxable account portfolio with a 75% cost basis.
Assuming the portfolio is invested in $VOO, the annual qualified dividend income is approximately $6,000.
This investor also sells $54,000 of stock, of which $40,500 is a long-term capital gain.
How much will the investor pay in taxes? Well, we have:
- $14,600 of SEPP
- $6,000 of QD
- $40,500 of LTCG
- -$14,600 standard deduction
Total taxable income = $46,500.
Since the taxable income is below $47,025, the dividends and capital gains are taxed at 0%. The SEPP is also not taxed because it’s below the standard deduction.
So, in total, this investor generated $14,600 + $6,000 + $54,000, or $74,600 of money withdrawn.
Tax-Exempt Accounts
Tax-exempt accounts include your Roth IRA or Roth 401(k) accounts.
For a Roth IRA, the contributions (money you invested) can always be withdrawn tax- and penalty-free at any age.
For a Roth 401(k), you would need to roll it over to a Roth IRA in order to withdraw your contributions.
If this investor wants to generate an additional $5,400, they can pull it from the Roth IRA and pay 0% in taxes.
Overall, they would generate $80,000 of cash, all tax-free, through strategic planning.
This is the power of proactive and strategic tax planning. Account diversification is also very important, as it allows you to withdraw from different sources strategically.
I hope you learned something new.
See you next Saturday, MC