DH 401K Maxed Out, What about me?

[Anonymous]

find another job before you file your taxes, then file an ss-8 with your tax return. he will be on the hook for your payroll taxes.

barring that, ask him to convert you to W-2 status. he will say no. then you can decide whether to live with it or report him and have him get rid of you.

[Anonymous]

FYI. Odds are his bookkeeper should be w2 also. She acts at his direction I assume.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FYI. Odds are his bookkeeper should be w2 also. She acts at his direction I assume.

OP here - she does bookkeeping for many other small businesses. never comes to the office, works remotely. we send her receipts etc. So I do think she fits the definition of true 1099.

As an update, I spoke with my boss. we are changing my status from 1099 to W2. he was fine with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

For the 401k - get an FEIN from the IRS using your name, have your 1099 show this FEIN instead of your SS. Use the FEIN to open a individual 401k (fidelity has one with no fees, very easy to set up). You can put 17,500 in it, plus up to 20% of your business net profit - so if you made 30k and had no expenses you could put 23,500 in for the year. It would not work for 2013, as I believe the account had to be opened by 12/31.

Good info. I need input from CPA/Tax Attorney.. I have over $300K in 401K assets at 2 different companies. Both are decent performers and easily come very close to market performance. I do a backdoor Roth annually so don't want to roll the 250K into an regular IRA but would like to transfer this money into an Individual 401K so I can have better control on investments and money can grow tax-deferred.

I'm currently unemployed. Can I do this even if I don't have any current income as a self-employed person? If I never find work again, will that cause problems? If I later find a W-2 job can I continue to hold this Individual 401K?

A more basic question.. Is the individual 401K treated like a regular 401K for the purpose of not being counted for the backdoor Roth process?

Thanks!