Income Tax Relief with your Fixed Annuity

Even though fixed annuities provide equally security and tax deferred interest accrual for hundreds of thousands of retirement savers, the annuity proprietors cannot appreciate income tax relief forever. That is maybe their main disadvantage, as all interest income that's dispersed from an annuity is taxed at the annuity owner's top marginal tax bracket--eventually.

However, you will find three instances in which one can gain some income tax relief when taking distributions from annuities. The 1st scenario applies to little (or big) company owners who declare an operational loss for the year on their tax returns. So long as the company is not regarded as a passive activity, the loss can be utilized to cancel out other kinds of income, including investment income. For example, if a shopkeeper realizes an operating loss of $15,000 in a given year, then he or she could take a $15,000 annuity distribution that exact same yr and credit the loss against the income, therefore effectively making the annuity withdrawal tax-free. This is a good way to make use of an apparently bad loss for income tax relief.

An additional good way to exempt your fixed annuity distribution from taxation is to specify a certified charity as the named beneficiary on the contract. Once you die, the charitable organization will then receive the proceeds of the annuity, with no income or estate tax liability. This provides double tax relief-both income and estate.

A 3rd method to appreciate income tax relief with your fixed annuity would be to use the proceeds to pay for long-term care expenses. Health-related expenses that exceed seven.5% of a taxpayer's modified gross income are fully deductible on schedule A of form 1040. The majority of long-term care costs may very easily exceed that quantity, often running in excess of $40,000 in a single year. Even by itself, that kind of expense will be eligible a taxpayer to itemize, regardless of whether she or he would be able to do this otherwise. For instance, a married couple filing jointly would have to have itemized deductions in excess of the regular deduction of $11,900 in order to claim them. However a $40,000 long-term treatment bill will put most filers far over this threshold. If a couple hypothetically posseses an adjusted gross income of $32,500, then seven.5% of that's $2,437.50. Therefore, all long-term treatment costs in excess of that amount, of $37,562.50 could be deductible on schedule A of the 1040. So if they got a $40,000 fixed annuity distribution to pay the costs, over 90% of the income could be sheltered.

While no one looks forward to heavy medical expense, properly used, it can offer substantial income tax relief.