Jeff Nabers’ Self Directed IRA & Solo 401(k) Blog

A question I get all the time is “Can I personally mow the lawn, maintain, and/or repair properties owned by my IRA LLC?” My answer is “No” which usually creates the response “But another company said I could.”

First, let’s summarize that the accountholder/participant of a retirement plan generally can’t have a transaction between themselves and their retirement plan. This includes the furnishing of services, sale of property, lending of money, and extension of credit between a plan and disqualified person (such as the accountholder). Next, let’s establish that active landlording means mowing the lawn, repairing, and fixing up properties, while passive landlording means collecting rent, paying mortgages/taxes/insurance, and contracting out the more active tasks to non-disqualified-persons. So is active landlording allowed? No, and I’ll provide two answers - the technical and the layman’s.

The Technical Answer

The argument for why active landlording for your IRA LLC’s property is not a prohibited transaction goes something like this…

As a general rule, the Internal Revenue Code provides (more…)

With tens of thousands of self directed IRA investors utilizing LLC structures to enjoy “checkbook control” authority of their self directed IRA investments, this post may serve as great news for those who aim to follow suit.

Solo 401(k) retirement plans can grant direct checkbook control without the use of an LLC or custodian.

The concept of custodian comes from Internal Revenue Code Section 408(a)(2) and is defined in Section 408(n). This entire IRC section 408 is devoted to Individual Retirement Accounts, or IRAs. The code basically explains that an IRA is normally a trust, and the trustee must be a bank. It then defines bank as a bank, trust company, or any company specifically approved by the IRS. This capacity of trustee to an IRA is known as “custodian”. This trustee role is simply that of investing the plan as directed by the accountholder.

A Solo 401(k) plan is a type of 401(k) that is designed for self employed individuals whose businesses have no full time employees. All 401(k) plans are qualified plans, and qualified plans do not have any special restrictions on who can serve as trustee.

So the significant difference is that with a Solo 401(k), the participant can actually be the trustee and handle (more…)

In a world where we see stories unfold such as:

• Enron
• WorldCom
• Tyco
• Subprime mortgage crisis
• Mutual fund mortgage overexposure and misreporting
• Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac accounting scandals
• Insolvency of Investment Bank Bear Stearns

…most Americans are running low on trust when it comes to financial service companies. Who can you trust?

This is an especially important question in light of my recent post about misinformation in the self directed IRA community. My answer: yourself. That is what self directed investing is all about. You have control of your assets.

With the checkbook control provided by an IRA LLC, there is no potential for fraud unless your IRA rollover is handled by someone other than a bank or trust company (aka custodian). With a Solo 401(k) you don’t even have to transfer your assets through a custodian in the first place.

Q: What should I be concerned about?

A: Prohibited transactions and tax compliance, although it is simple to address both concerns. You can search Google for “self directed IRA prohibited transactions” and “IRA UBIT tax” to learn about the basics of both topics. If a service provider claims (more…)