Two Basic IRA Rollover Rules

Two Basic IRA Rollover Rules

by Robert Ruby

IRA rollover rules are pretty easy to understand if you read the information the IRS puts out to help you know all the ins and outs. But since an IRA custodian does the IRA rollovers for you, and fills out all the paperwork, you don't have to worry too much about the rules. Even so you may want to have a general idea of what the IRA will allow so you can plan ahead.

There are exceptions to many IRA rollover rules, and I will not go into those more complicated IRA rollovers, but I will explain two of the most common rules for you to have in your memory bank should you need to do a rollover in the near future.

One of the basics of the IRA rollover rules is the time limit for making the rollover. Typically a rollover is from one account to another, which is done simultaneously, but you can take up to 60 days to do the rollover.

For example, if your IRA was in the stock market and you sold your stock on July 8, 2008 and you wanted to invest the proceeds into real estate but you haven't found the right property yet, you have 60 days or until Sept 6, 2008, to find the right property for your IRA rollovers in order to avoid paying taxes on the amount of stock you sold.

Another one of the rules is you generally have to wait at least one year between rollovers from the same IRA account. An example would be, if you have two IRA accounts, IRA-1 and IRA-2 and you want to do an IRA rollover from IRA-1 to a new IRA-3 on July 8, 2008, you would not be allowed to another rollover from IRA-1 or IRA-2 until July 8, 2009, one year later. However, the rollover between IRA-1 and IRA-3 does not prevent you from making a rollover from your IRA-2 account into an IRA-4 account during the period between July 8, 2008 and July 8, 2009.

There are many reasons why you may want to roll your IRA funds into another type of account. With the ups and downs of the stock market, you my want to put your IRA money into a self directed IRA where you can invest your money in real estate.

Another reason may be the company's stock you are in are performing poorly and you want to move the funds into another company's funds. Whatever the reason keep track of the dates you do your rollovers, so you will be sure to fall within the IRS guidelines for the above two scenarios. For other IRA rollovers check with your IRA custodian to find out specific IRA rollover rules that may apply to your situation.