Quote:
Originally Posted by BobC
And exactly why I said MAYBE in the future. LOL
They do currently allow somewhat non-traditional things like precious metals to be held in IRAs, which definitely falls into Warren Buffet's non-productive asset category.
|
I'm sure you saw the case with McNulty v. Commish, where the couple got hammered for holding gold in their IRA and storing the gold at home. They were keeping about $411K in gold at home. Apparently it was based on some brilliant idea on the internet from a shop selling gold online. The couple made a few other missteps, and ended up paying over $300K in taxes and penalties on their IRA of about $700K.
In terms of any gold held in your IRA, basically you can't have unfettered access to the gold, because the law requires independent oversight by a third-party fiduciary. So even if Congress amended the statute to permit cardboard to be held in retirement accounts (a pretty big if), barring a change to the independent oversight from a third-party fiduciary requirement, you couldn't keep your cardboard at home to have and hold and enjoy.
Naturally, as you noted, the vault approach would seem to likely solve the sticky wicket of needing independent oversight by a third-party fiduciary, although I guess we can debate how much oversight you're getting from a vault, and the more cynical among us might even question the fiduciary aspect.