i believe this is the correct way to look at it: "I have looked into this recently as well.. I was able to get more clarification when looking into real estate investing, etc, via a IRA. In these scenerios, they speak of UBI in terms of you buying a rental property via your IRA, yet you try to collect "mamangement fee's" outside of the IRA for running the rental 's (or try to contract to yourself for maint, etc). Another example was investing in a partnership via your IRA (hedge fund, business deal, etc), where you as an individual earn income from the deal OUTSIDE of the IRA. Basicly, the jist of it from what I could tell was that you can't use IRA funds to invest in an entity that you also happen to derive taxable income from OUTSIDE of the IRA. You can't take your retirement account, start a hedge fund/business/etc, and then take some sort of salary from that business. If you derive any income from the business entity outside of the IRA, then it's a no-no."
Michael: To answer your question about the laptop, I would buy another Toshiba Laptop off the top of my head. However, I haven't investigated them in over a year and the last one I used was very disappointingly slow. Unless things have changed recently, the hard drives in laptops are inferior to desk top computers for speed and dependability. Prices are coming down so you get more for your money. I can't imagine trading with a laptop for a number of reasons but plenty do. I trade from home with solid internet connections and speed so why not use a regular computer? As I've said on previous post I have a server that is only a Celeron 500 which runs quite a few Pentium III 500's which are more than adequate for my needs and they are considerable. I trade all day long with multiple brokers and have zero problems. Everything runs so smoothly I have to go with "if it ain't broke why fix it?" So, I'm not the one to consult because I'm obviously prejudiced toward them. I can fix a regular box in 5 minutes if necessary. I even have a spare or two around. I think a laptop is a security problem too. I'd hate to have anyone walk off with all my info.
Vhehn: I answered you in the other thread but since you posted this I'll respond. What you say is the SIMPLE stuff. That will certainly get you in trouble. But what you fail to get is the Roth is NOT a day trading vehicle. Period. If you trade it frequently, and do all the things that would get you trader status for instance, you've answered your own question. You're a frequent day trader and your dead! I gave you a link to a law firm to get it in writing. No one will tell you over the phone or in a letter. You have to hire them. They do the research because off the top of their head they don't know either. Practically no one makes the kind of money trading indexes that would warrant high priced legal guns. But if you are accumulating profits in a Roth at a substantial rate and size as I was, you will owe the money down the road and it ain't pleasant. If you have enough money at stake again I suggest you hire someone like the one I gave you or pick another because you're not saving taxes if you wind up paying more than 23%.
show me a case or an irs opinion or its just speculation. i doubt if there are any. thats why they call it a grey area.
Here is my experience the LAST time I went to a COMPUSA. I quickly found what I wished to purchase ($20 item). and went to the checkout lanes to discover they were all closed-1:30 PM on a weekday. After spending 5 minutes trying to get someone's attention, I was told to pay for it at the customer service desk. When I got there I found 1 COMPUSA worker handling returns with 2 people ahead of me. When I asked if there was another salesperson to process my purchase, he said he was the only one. Not wishing to have to wait, perhaps 10 minutes, I threw the package on the counter and walked out, never to return.
My last response on this matter because I already know the answer. Where would you find this information other than tax cases and opinions handed down by the tax court? That's why I suggested competent legal counsel. Can't afford it? Chances are you don't need it then. So no problem. It is not worth it to me to pay MORE than 23% ever! Not in the future or down the road. And when you couple this with the fact you may be criminally liable as well, who needs it? The taxes and penalties are more than the original 23% and then you still owe the 23% too. Where's the percentage (pardon the pun) in that? Life is too short to deliberately stick your head in a vise and let them squeeze it. Unfortunately, I live in the real world, and I'm still being surprised even at this late date that what is supposed to be isn't. As far as grey area- you be the one to set them straight. Okay?
until the irs or a tax court rules competent legal counsel does not have the correct answer either. they only have an opinion just like you. you have decided that you don't want to take the chance of trading in an ira. fine, but that does not make you right. you have yet to show any proof that you are right. you keep throwing around phrases like you think you are some kind of bigshot trader. you might be surprised what some other people on this site have for an account size.
If you stick a 10,000 rpm SCCI hard drive in it you'll think you have a turbo boost. Not to mention the added reliability- rock solid. Never lose your data. They might have faster IBM SCCI now. Been a couple years since I bought hard drives. A guy was selling new IBM SCCI on ebay and I bought a half dozen. If you buy one make sure it is IBM and not made by Fujitsu like the regular hard drives are now. I used to have a list of the worst hard drives. It went something like this, from worst to best: Seagate, Fujitsu, Maxtor, Western Digital, IBM. (from experience seeing them fail in use in relatively short time frame like less than one year).
Didn't you believe takenoprisoners' words? He was audited by IRS and paid the penalty. Please post all the IRA discussion to the IRA thread, this one is intended for laptops.
Oh, I'm giving you real information allright. The worst part if you discovered it was okay for you that doesn't help me one damn bit. That's not the way it works. Again, my last word on the subject. Do what you think is best for you. Just trying to be helpful. I told you the proper way about going about it rather than bury your head in the sand. I don't care about what others have- what matters to me is only what I have and I want to hang onto it and build.