The Roth Solo 401K Plan is the ultimate tax-free retirement solution for the self-employed. With federal and state income tax rates expected to increase in the future, gaining the ability to generate tax-free returns from your retirement investments when you retire is the last surviving legal tax shelter. With a Roth Solo 401K you can make almost any investment tax-free, including real estate, tax liens, precious metals, currencies, options, and private business investments and once you hit the age of 59 1/2 you will be able to live off your Roth 401K assets without ever paying tax. Imagine if someone told you that if you started making Roth 401K contributions in your forties and by just generating a modest rate of return, you could have over a million dollars tax-free when you retire. With a Roth 401K, live off the Roth 401K investment income tax-free or take a portion of your Roth 401K funds and use it for any purpose without ever paying tax.

The Roth Solo 401K Plan Advantages

Power of Tax-Free Investing: One of the main attractions to the self-directed Roth Solo 401(k) plan is based on the fact that qualified distributions of Roth earnings are tax-free. As long as certain conditions are met and the distribution is a qualified distribution, the Roth solo 401(k) plan participant will never pay tax on any Roth distributions received. The advantage of contributing to a Roth solo 401(k) plan is that income and gains generated by the Roth 401(k) investment can be tax-free and penalty-free so long as certain requirements are satisfied. Unlike with a pre-tax solo 401(k) plan contributions, contributions to a Roth solo 401(k) are not tax deductible.

The power of tax-free investing can be best illustrated by way of the following examples:

Example 1: Joe, a self-employed consultant began funding a Roth solo 401(k) plan with $3,000 per year at age 20 and would continue on through age 65. At age 65 Joe would wind up with $2.5 million at retirement (assuming they earn the long-run annual compound growth rate in stocks, which was 9.88 percent from 1926 to 2011). Not a bad result for investing only $3,000 a year.

Example 2: Ben, a self-employed real estate agent, who is 30 years began funding a Roth solo 401(k) plan with $8000 and wanted to know how much he would have at age 70 if he continued to make $8000 annual contributions and was able to earn at an 8% rate of return. Ben did some research and was astonished that at age 70 he would have a whopping $ 2,238,248 tax-free which he can then live off or pass to his wife or children tax-free.

Example 3: Mary, a self-employed real estate investor, who is 35 years began funding a Roth solo 401(k) plan with $13000 and wanted to know how much she would have at age 70 if she continued to make $13000 annual contributions and was able to earn at a 10% rate of return, which she felt was possible based off her past real estate investment returns. Mary did some research and was astonished that at age 70 she would have a whopping $ 3,875,649 tax-free which she could then live off or pass to her husband and children tax-free.

I am sure it may be hard for some of you to comprehend that putting away just a few thousand dollars a year in a Roth Solo 401(k) plan can leave you with millions of dollars tax-free. Its as simple as making annual contributions to your Roth Solo 401(k) Plan and then generating tax-free returns from making real estate or other investments with your solo 401(k) plan.

High Contributions: A Roth Solo 401(k) combines features of the traditional 401(k) with those of the Roth IRA. Like a Solo 401K Plan, the Roth Solo 401K Plan is perfect for any self-employed individual or small business owner with no employees. The Roth Solo 401K Plan contains the same advantages of a Solo 401(k) Plan, but as with a Roth IRA, contributions are made with after-tax dollars. While you don’t get an upfront tax-deduction, the Roth 401K account grows tax-free, and withdrawals taken during retirement aren’t subject to income tax, provided you’re at least 59 1/2 and you’ve held the account for five years or more.

The Roth Solo 401(k) can offer advantages to self-employed individuals who wish to maximize their ability to generate tax-free retirement savings while receiving the ability to invest in real estate, precious metals, private businesses or funds tax-free and without custodian consent.

Unlike a Roth IRA, which limits individual Roth IRA contributions to $5,500 annually ($6,500 if the individual is 50 years or older), in 2015, with a Roth Solo 401(k) account, an individual can make Roth (after-tax) contributions of up to $18,000, or $24,000 for those 50 or older by the end of the year — allowing individuals to stock away thousands of dollars more in tax-free retirement income than they would through a Roth IRA.

A Roth Solo 401(k) is perfect for sole proprietors, small businesses and independent contractors such as consultants. The Roth Solo 401(k) plan is unique and so popular because it is considered the last remaining legal tax shelter available. There are so many features of the Roth Solo 401(k) plan that make it so appealing and popular among self-employed business owners.

Unlimited Investment Opportunities: With a Roth 401(k) Plan or Roth 401(k) plan sub-account, you can invest your after-tax Roth 401(k) Plan funds in real estate, precious metals, tax liens, private business investments, and much more tax-free! Unlike with a pre-tax 401(k) Plan, with a Roth 401(k) account, all income and gains would flow back tax-free to your account. As long as you have reached the age of 59 1/2 and have had the Roth 401(k) account opened at least five years, you can take Roth 401(k) Plan distributions tax-free. In other words, you can live off your Roth 401(k) Plan assets or income tax-free. With federal income tax rates expected increase, the ability to have a tax-free source of income upon retirement may be the difference between retiring early or not.

Loan Feature: While an IRA offers no participant loan feature, the Roth Solo 401k allows participants to borrow up to $50,000 or 50% of their account value (whichever is less) for any purpose at a low interest rate (the lowest interest rate is Prime which is 3.25% as of January 1, 2015). This offers a Roth Solo 401(k) Plan participant the ability to access up to $50,000 to use for any purpose, including paying personal debt or funding a business.

Offset the Cost of Your Plan with a Tax Deduction: By paying for your Solo 401(k) with business funds, you would be eligible to claim a deduction for the cost of the plan, including annual maintenance fees. The deduction for the cost associated with the Solo 401(k) Plan and ongoing maintenance will help reduce your business’s income tax liability, which will in-turn offset the cost of adopting a self-directed Solo 401(k) Plan. The retirement tax professionals at the IRA Financial Group will help you take advantage of the available business tax deduction for adopting a Solo 401(k) Plan.

Cost Effective Administration: In general, the Roth solo 401(k) plan is easy to operate. There is generally no annual filing requirement unless your solo 401(k) plan exceeds $250,000 in assets, in which case you will need to file a short information return with the IRS (Form 5500-EZ).

Exemption from UDFI: When an IRA buys real estate that is leveraged with mortgage financing, it creates Unrelated Debt Financed Income (UDFI) — a type of Unrelated Business Taxable Income (also known as UBTI or UBIT) on which taxes must be paid. The UBTI tax is approximately 40% for 2015. Whereas, with a Roth Solo 401(k) plan, you can use leverage without being subject to the UDFI rules and UBTI tax. This exemption provides significant tax advantages for using a Roth Solo 401(k) Plan versus an IRA to purchase real estate.

To learn more about the Roth Solo 401(k) Plan, please contact a 401(k) expert at 800-472-0646.