Merry Christmas - To the Wealthy, Love Congress & Obama

Now that the tax bill has passed, here come the additional Xmas gifts no one heard of.

Bloomberg outlines another gift to the rich, this time in the form of Roth IRAs.

The extension of current income-tax rates gives wealthy taxpayers the equivalent of an interest-free loan if they convert a regular Individual Retirement Account to a Roth by Dec. 31.

Investors in traditional IRAs pay taxes up front on conversions to Roth IRAs to get tax-free withdrawals later. Earners in the highest tax brackets who expected rates to rise next year were faced with reporting all the additional income from conversions on their 2010 returns. With the tax legislation, wealthy savers can now defer and use those tax dollars to earn something, according to Christine Fahlund, a senior financial planner at Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price Group Inc.

“It’s the deal of the century,” said Ed Slott, a certified public accountant in Rockville Centre, New York, and founder of website irahelp.com. “It’s like Congress is giving you an interest-free loan to build a tax-free savings account.”

What else is under that Congressional Christmas tree. How many homeless are there this Christmas, how many more layoffs, how many who cannot afford shoes?

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