Retirement Strategies For Small Business Owners
InvestopediaForbes AdvisorThe Motley Fool, CredibleInsider
As a small business owner, you are completely responsible for your own retirement planning. If you have employees, you may feel responsible for helping them plan for a successful retirement. The considerations and retirement savings plans that work you, as a small business owner, should be paramount when planning for both your own retirement and that of your employees.
Tips For Retirement Planning
- A financial advisor can be a great partner in retirement planning, helping you nail down your retirement timeline and building an investing plan to get you there. Finding the right financial advisor that fits your needs doesnt have to be hard. SmartAssets free tool matches you with financial advisors in your area in 5 minutes. If youre ready to be matched with local advisors that will help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
- Take time to consider how much money youll need to retire comfortably. A retirement calculator can help you pin down how much you need to retire and how much you need to save to get you there.
Retirement Plan Options For Small Businesses
Jan 8, 2021 | Blogs, Business Planning, Retirement Plans
The SECURE Act and CARES Act may complicate the decision.
SIMPLE-IRAs. SIMP ESEP 401s. . Citations.
Advisory services through Cambridge Investment Research Advisors, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor. Cambridge and Strategic Wealth Design are not affiliated. This communication is strictly intended for individuals residing in the states of AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, FL, KY, MO, MT, NV, NM, NY, OR, TN, TX, UT, WA. No offers may be made or accepted from any resident outside the specific states referenced.
The information being provided is strictly as a courtesy. When you link to any of these websites provided herein, Strategic Wealth Design makes no representation as to the completeness or accuracy of information provided at these sites. Nor is the company liable for any direct or indirect technical or system issues or any consequences arising out of your access to or your use of third-party technologies, sites, information, and programs made available through this site.
Also Check: 50 Best Places To Retire
A Small Business Retirement Plan Attracts Talent
Setting up a retirement account for your small business is a powerful recruiting tool for three reasons:
First, you demonstrate a strong conviction that your business is going to be around for a long time. Would you want to apply for a company that could be gone in just a year? An employer-sponsored 401 proves that you have a long term financial commitment with your business and your employees.
Second, employer-sponsored retirement accounts cost less than what you might think. In June 2016, average costs in private industry for retirement and savings benefits were $1.27 per hour worked, or 3.9% of total compensation. However, that average cost drops to $0.78 per hour when you only consider businesses with 1 to 99 workers. In comparison, averages costs of health insurance benefits were $2.58 per hour worked in the same period.
Third, you allow your employees to effectively reduce taxable income for this year and defer those taxes until retirement when theyre more likely to be in a lower tax bracket. For example, in 2017, a single filer with a $60,000 annual salary would have a tax liability of $10,738.75. With a $7,000 contribution to a traditional 401, that same individual would reduce her tax liability to $8,988.75! On the other hand, if the same individual were to contribute the same $7,000 to a Roth 401 rather than a traditional 401 then she pays taxes now, but that money would grow tax-free forever. Nobody can deny the tax benefits of saving for retirement.
Solo : Best Retirement Plan For Maximizing Contributions
If you’re self-employed or a business owner with no employee other than your spouse, you’re eligible to establish a self-employed 401. Also known as the solo 401, this is the retirement plan of choice for business owners who want to maximize their contributions to their retirement plans. The plan is suitable for sole proprietors, partnerships, C corporation and S corporation business owners. This plan offers the greatest possible contribution among retirement plans as it recognizes that you are both employer and employee. As an employee, you can contribute up to 100% of compensation, up to the annual contribution limit of $19,500 in 2021 and has been increased to $20,500 for 2022. If you’re 50 or over, that goes up to $26,000 . Plus, you can make the employer contribution of up to 25% of compensation for a total maximum contribution of $54,000. Note that the total employer/employee contributions cannot exceed $58,000 for 2021 and $61,000 for 2022. If you are over the age of 50, you can add in the catch-up contributions of $6,500 increasing your total up to $67,500 for 2021.
You May Like: Mobile Home Retirement Communities In Arizona
Benefits Of A 401 Plan For Small Businesses
Small businesses may benefit from several tax advantages by offering a traditional 401 plan to their employees. For starters, eligible companies may be able to claim plan startup tax credits of up to $5,000, for three years, to cover the costs of starting a 401 plan. This can reduce the amount of taxes a business may owe. Small businesses may also qualify for deductions by offering an employee match and an additional tax credit by offering an auto-enrollment feature to their plan.
Savings Incentive Match Plan for Employees 401s may be more advantageous than traditional 401s for small businesses because employees are immediately vested, and employers dont have to handle non-discrimination income tests. These plans are similar to SIMPLE-IRAs, but carry an additional benefit of allowing employees the option to take out loans against their accounts.
Solo 401 plans provide self-employed individuals access to tax-advantaged savings that traditionally employed individuals have. While self-employed individuals must start filing paperwork once their account has more than $250,000, small business owners can realize even more benefits by having their spouses participate and looking for plan administrators that dont charge setup and management fees.
What Is A Simple Ira
A SIMPLE IRA Plan is a savings Plan for employers with 100 or fewer employees. This Plan allows employees to contribute a percentage of their salary each paycheck and requires employer contributions.
- Employees may choose to make salary reduction contributions and the employer is required to make either matching or non-elective contributions.
- Employee contributions limits: $13,000 in 2019.
- Employee catch-up contributions limits: $3,000 in 2019.
- Employer must make a contribution each year of 2-3% of each eligible employees compensation.
- No additional contributions can be made
- Participant loans are not allowed.
Also Check: Best Retirement Plans For 20 Year Olds
Traditional Or Roth Ira
A traditional or Roth IRA are the most straight-forward options to start saving for retirement. If you dont plan on contributing a large amount each year, then these individual retirement plans are an ideal choice. Both the traditional and Roth IRAs are tax-advantaged plans with a 2020 contribution limit capped at $6,000 . These plans also allow you to roll over an existing 401 plan from a previous employer into a new individual plan.
The biggest difference between the traditional and Roth IRA is when the tax breaks kick in. For the traditional IRA, the tax break occurs in the year that your contributions are made, making them tax deductible when you file your return. For the Roth IRA, the tax advantage occurs when your withdrawals are made in retirementtax free. Always consider your tax position at the time of withdrawals to ensure a lower tax burden.
Retirement Plans For Small Businesses
As a small business owner, you may want to offer your employees a vehicle for retirement savings but dont know where to start. You may have heard that retirement plans are too expensive for small businesses perhaps you dont have the HR team you feel is necessary to handle it, and if you do start one, you worry that you will be a small fish in a big sea. These are common concerns shared by many small business owners.
Luckily, there are several options available to you and your company. RMB Capital has a Retirement Plan Solutions team that is made up of experts in corporate retirement plans and can help you identify the benefits of a retirement plan and evaluate the different types of options. A small business retirement plan has benefits for you, your employees , and your business.
Start Saving for Retirement Many small business owners either delay or entirely avoid saving for retirement due to their focus on the business. By starting to save earlier, you have more time to accumulate investment earnings and take advantage of the stock market.
Defer TaxesRetirement plans offer tax-deferred growth on earnings, and any employer contributions will be treated as tax-deductible business expenses. Many plans also allow you to defer taxes on your contributions, which provides additional tax benefits.
Attract and Retain EmployeesOffering a retirement plan for your employees can ensure you offer a competitive benefits package and help your business flourish.
Read Also: Best Companies To Retire From
Retirement Planning From The Experts
Are you a small business in or near Westlake Village in need of retirement for you and/or your employees? Look no further than The Ryding Company! Here are a few facts about your local retirement planning experts:
- » 40+ years as a leader in the ERISA plan administration community
- » Served expertise and quality compliance administration for over 2,500 businesses
- » Currently, manage over 1,000 ERISA retirement plans!
To find the retirement plan perfect for your local small business, keep reading to learn more about the options available to you! To speak with one of our retirement planning experts, call us directly at .
Interested In Starting A New Plan Take The First Step Here
Running a small business is hard, but running your 401 shouldn’t be. Fortunately, Vestwell can help. Vestwell is a digital retirement plan platform that makes it easier for you to offer and administer a company-sponsored 401 or 403. By combining technology with best-in-class retirement plans and user-first design, Vestwell offers a wide range of services to small businesses everywhere.
If you are an employer interested in setting up a 401 account for your business, you can contact Vestwell to determine if you are eligible to receive up to $16,500 in tax credits over three years, which can help cancel out administration costs. Interested? Learn more here.
You May Like: When Is It Too Late To Save For Retirement
A Decision With Many Ripple Effects
The impact around if and which retirement plan to choose for your business are far-reaching and warrant more than a casual look before leaping. Our team at ElementsCPA guides entrepreneurs from the perspective that tax is only one part of your business and profit model So its important to both know your numbers, and to think through the broader story of your business.
If this approach makes sense to you, wed love to chat Just reach out to our Design Team to arrange a Retirement Plan Comparison session, and let us confidently walk you through the right decision for your business.
A Solo 401 May Be Better Than A Sep Ira
The solo 401 even has another more subtle benefit that may make it a better pick than the SEP IRA for low earners or those who are using their business as a side gig.
The solo 401 allows you to contribute up to 100 percent of your salary, up to the employees annual maximum. In other words, in 2022 the first $20,500 that you earn can be stuffed away in the solo 401, saving you on taxes. In contrast, the SEP IRA allows you to contribute at a 25 percent rate, so youd have to earn substantially more to reach the same contribution level.
On top of this benefit, the solo 401 allows you to max out the employer contribution, too. Once you hit the employee maximum, you can still contribute at a 25 percent rate from your companys remaining profits, up to the annual maximum. So in contrast to the SEP IRA, youre able to contribute more to your retirement plan at a lower level of income, all else equal.
Those are some of the biggest differences between the solo 401 and SEP IRA, but it can be useful to understand the full range of differences between the two popular programs.
Don’t Miss: How Much Is Social Security Taxed In Retirement
Retirement Plans Don’t Have To Add Cost
Although you want a retirement plan that benefits yourself and your employees, you also want to add value to the business. Implementing a retirement plan that requires significant time or money to operate won’t add to the business and could have a negative impact.
Your company must be sustainable to provide for your team, and inflation already has many people feeling financially strained and pessimistic. The global pandemic highlighted just how fragile many people’s financial situations are. In a 2022 survey, 7 in 10 Americans report that inflation is a big problem for the country. And only about 30% of people in the U.S. are very confident about living comfortably in retirement.
Providing a retirement safety net is important, as we see record numbers of Baby Boomers and Gen Xers delay retirement to stay in the workforce. Even before the pandemic, more than half of people aged 54-72 were still working.
Other Options For The Self
Those three defined contribution plans are among the most popular, but the self-employed should also be aware that they can set up a defined benefit plan. A defined benefit plan can allow you to sock away even larger amounts on a tax-deferred basis, but theyre better suited to consistently higher-earning individuals.
These are worthwhile to consider if your self-employment income is substantial, says Dan Sudit, a partner at Crewe Advisors in Salt Lake City. The contribution limit is based on a variety of factors including age, income, and years in business, but the annual benefit limit can exceed $200,000 a year.
However, defined benefit plans can be more cumbersome to set up and generally cost more to maintain. But if you contribute enough, those costs may be worth the trade-off.
In certain circumstances, depending on whether you make consistent contributions versus a large lump-sum contribution, it can be an effective tool in contributing substantially more dollars to your retirement savings than the other standard qualified retirement plans, Sudit says.
For most individuals, a defined benefit plan is not really a worthwhile option, but that depends on your individual financial situation and especially your income.
Read Also: Using Home Equity In Retirement
Compare Fidelity’s Small Business Plans
We offer retirement plans for businesses of every shape and size. Whether you are a sole proprietor, C corporation, S corporation, or partnership, chances are we have a plan that can work for your business. Visit the following product pages for more information. If you have a separate retirement plan established and would like to invest the assets in a Fidelity brokerage account, you may be interested in an Investment-Only Retirement account.3
no employeeswith only a few employees25 to 100 employees100 or fewer employeesWho contributesAccess to assets4Contribution featuresFees
Interested in a Fidelity HSA® for your small business? Learn more
Iras Are Still An Option For The Self
Even if you participate in a retirement plan as a self-employed individual including the SEP IRA or SIMPLE IRA you still have the ability to participate in a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA.
So you can max out your contributions in any of the above retirement plans and still take max advantage of your own personal IRA. For 2022, that means you can contribute up to $6,000 each year
Youll enjoy all the benefits of an IRA, including tax-deferred growth, and can take advantage of what many experts see as the best retirement account going the Roth IRA.
Also Check: What Is A Good Retirement Goal
Which Small Business Retirement Plan Is Best
How to choose the best retirement plan for your small business.
Getty
What is the best retirement plan for a self-employed person? Which is the best retirement plan for a small business owner? More importantly, which is the right retirement plan for you as a business owner and / or a self-employed individual? Choosing the best retirement plan for you and your personal financial goals will depend on a few factors. Those include how much you can save into a retirement plan, whether or not you have employees and when you are setting up the retirement plan. Is it during the tax year or when filing taxes? To name a few.
As a small business owner, you are likely busy running your business and havent had the time to research the best retirement plan for your firm. I would challenge you to remember that a penny saved is a penny earned, and a retirement plan can help you keep more of your hard-earned money. Take the time to plan for your future, and lower your current tax liabilities.
Even if you plan to never retire, because you love what you do, its still nice to achieve financial freedom and have the choice to not work anymore. At the very least, look at saving for retirement as a way to pay less in taxes.
Even if just getting started- you must get started saving for retirement.
Getty
The Small Saver Up to $6000
When business is good, putting away money pretax will become even more valuable.
Getty
The Medium Saver – $6,000 to $55,000
