By Sarah Brenner, JD
IRA Analyst

October is upon us. This means fall is in full swing. Along with football, pumpkin-spice everything and stocking up on candy for trick-or-treat come four important October 15 deadlines you will not want to miss!

1. Did you contribute too much to your traditional or Roth IRA for 2018? Maybe you were 70 ½ or over in 2018 and made a contribution to a traditional IRA. Or, maybe your income ended up being higher than you expected and it turned out you were ineligible for the Roth IRA contribution you made. If you made an excess contribution to your traditional or Roth IRA for 2018, you will want to fix that mistake by withdrawing the contribution, plus net income or loss attributable. Your deadline for getting this done and avoiding the 6% excess contribution penalty is October 15, 2019.

2. While Tax Reform did away with recharacterization of Roth IRA conversions, recharacterization of tax year contributions remains an option. Have you changed your mind about which type of IRA to which you wanted to make your 2018 contribution? Maybe you contributed to a Roth and now you think a traditional IRA is a better fit, or vice versa. October 15, 2019 is your last chance to recharacterize that contribution to the other type of IRA.

3. While your income does not affect your ability to make a traditional IRA contribution, it may affect your ability to deduct it if you, or your spouse, are a participant in an employer plan. If you later discovered that your 2018 traditional IRA contribution was not deductible, October 15, 2019 is the deadline to correct this problem. If you miss the deadline, the contribution must remain in the IRA as a nondeductible IRA contribution.

4. Employers who are interested in establishing and funding a SEP IRA for 2018 may have a little more time to get this done. The deadline for making a SEP contribution is the business’s tax-filing deadline, including extensions. For some businesses that date is October 15, 2019.

https://www.irahelp.com/slottreport/four-october-15-deadlines-you-don%E2%80%99t-want-miss