ON THE MONEY
Hamill: Why using your IRA to aid your kids can backfire
Q: My daughter was recently married. She and her husband currently rent an apartment but would like to find a house to help plan for a family. They have found it financially impossible to get a mortgage to buy a decent home. They recently asked me if I would be able to buy a house and rent it to them or to loan them the money to buy a home at favorable interest rates and payment terms. I am financially secure but don鈥檛 feel comfortable with buying a home or loaning money because it would exhaust most of my liquid assets. I do have a rollover IRA with more than $2 million. I am 63 years old and do not need the IRA funds until I am forced to start taking distributions. I raised the possibility of using my IRA funds to buy a home for them to lease or to lend money to them to buy a home. I have read about self-directed IRAs that can be used for these purposes and wonder if this is a possible solution for their house hunting problems.
Unfortunately, the IRA rules will not allow you to help them with their house search. The result of either of your suggestions would be disastrous for your tax situation.
I am well aware of the difficulty that young people have buying a house in today鈥檚 market with current interest rates. But your IRA will not be a solution.
In general, an IRA can invest in a variety of assets. It is possible for an IRA to purchase a house and to lease that house.
It is also possible for an IRA to loan money to another person. This may include a loan to purchase a home where the loan is secured by a mortgage.
The problem is that there are certain restrictions imposed on the account owner from receiving benefits from the IRA without adverse tax consequences.
More broadly, the restrictions apply to certain transactions between the IRA and 鈥渄isqualified persons.鈥
A section of the tax law imposes an excise tax on transactions between a plan and a disqualified person.
The statute lists 鈥減rohibited transactions鈥 that will trigger the excise tax. Using plan assets to benefit a disqualified person is prohibited.
Where the plan is an IRA, the consequences of prohibited transactions with a disqualified person are more severe.
Instead of an excise tax, the IRA becomes disqualified as of the first day of the year that the prohibited transaction occurs.
Certain family members are disqualified. The tax law has a variety of related-party rules and family can be defined differently for each provision.
For an IRA, disqualified family includes a spouse, a lineal descendant, a spouse of a lineal descendant and any ancestor of the plan owner.
A sibling is not a disqualified family member, nor is a cousin, an aunt, an uncle, a niece or a nephew.
Unfortunately, both your daughter and son-in-law are disqualified family members. You must avoid prohibited transactions involving them and your IRA.
A prohibited transaction includes leasing property to a disqualified person. It also includes lending funds to a disqualified person.
In general, it is fine for you to set up a self-directed IRA to buy real estate that is leased to someone.
In general, it is fine for you to set up a self-directed IRA to loan money to someone.
However, if that someone, either for the lease or the loan, is a disqualified person, you will disqualify your entire IRA.
Both of your proposals involve transactions between your IRA and disqualified people. Both transactions are then prohibited.
If you follow through on either plan, the IRA will be disqualified. This will result in a deemed distribution of all plan assets to you.
This deemed distribution would be immediately taxed to you. The result is the same as if you took a distribution from the IRA to buy the house or to make the loan.
Your economic position will allow your IRA assets to accumulate tax-free until you are required to make withdrawals.
Don鈥檛 jeopardize that ability to defer taxes by attempting to follow through on either of your ideas to help your daughter and son-in-law.
Jim Hamill is the director of tax practice at Reynolds, Hix & Co. in Albuquerque. He can be reached at jimhamill@rhcocpa.com.