Tony Novak profile picture
  "AskTony" column archive        


Categories

Most Popular

AskTony Archive

This Web site contains a compilation of more than a thousand consumer finance  columns written by Tony Novak from the 1980s through 2006, updated and reformatted for maximum usefulness today.  New material was added after 2010.

Content is the opinion of the author and does not represent the position of any other person or entity. Information is from sources believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed.

The author is paid for product endorsements and has an ownership or other financial interest in the businesses related to the topics covered.

New questions

Submit consumer finance questions at OnlineAdviser.org and health insurance questions at OnlineNavigator.org

Sponsored by:

FreedomBenefits.net Insurance Exchange - your source of valuable information on state and federal health reform benefits.

Core Health Insurance - America's favorite mini-med insurance  with affordable premiums, freedom to choose providers, optional PPO discounts and guaranteed eligibility regardless of medical conditions.

Please support the Web sites that make publication of AskTony services possible.

IRA to HSA transfer

originally posted: 11/22/2006  reposted: 2/18/2011 This post has not been recently reviewed or revised by the author and may be out of date. If you notice an error or are in doubt, please send a new question by email or ask for an update. Email asktony@tonynovak.com.

Q: Would an IRA to HSA transfer be beneficial to someone who is not presently taking distributions from a taxable IRA to take money out tax free and also get a deduction for the HSA contribution if that person expects to be in a high tax bracket when she must begin taking distributions?

A: Yes. There is no indication that the one time transfer would have any significant impact on future IRA distributions but there is a clear likelihood that the HSA would give a greater tax advantage than the IRA. In most cases that distributions from an HSA are tax free whereas normal distributions from an IRA are taxable. Also note that there are not likely any tax implications for an IRA to HSA transfer. In other words, there is no additional deduction allowance as indicated in your question. However, at the time this question was posted, the procedures for IRA to HSA transfers are not yet established so we might need to revise our advice in the future.

Summary

More resources:

Planning an IRA to HSA transfer