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Want to contribute to my Roth IRA for 2011. I know my salary won't exceed the Modified Adjusted Gross Income limit, but I'm worried that future investment gains might make my MAGI go past the 107K-120K threshold. Of course, I have no idea if I will make more money from my investments this year (it can go either way), but my concern is if I do.

My question is: Can I contribute to my Roth IRA without knowing what my investment gains will be for the year?

I already checked the IRS docs and this issue isn't clear to me.

Edit

One more question: Given that I have a lot of investment loss carry-forwards (probably more than the best case of what I expect to make), does that net against my AGI so that I probably don't have an issue in contributing to my Roth IRA?

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I would contribute to the Roth over the course of the year assuming the worst case scenario (actually the best base from another POV, since you're making more money!). Save the rest of the money in a regular account, and make your final, "top off" contribution when you compute your final AGI for 2011 taxes.

You have until April 15, 2012 to make tax year 2011 contributions.

I'm in a similar situation due to my wife's overtime, which is very variable from year to year. At this point, I don't make any IRA contributions until I do my taxes.

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  • Thanks for response. do you have any idea if net loss carryovers can offset investment gains when computing Adjusted Gross Income (as per my 2nd question)?
    – Kamil Sindi
    Commented May 27, 2011 at 17:47
  • @Hydra: Only if you have realized capital gains. Capital gains can be offset by losses -- but only up to $3,000 per year. (You can retain these losses for life.) You cannot offset dividend income.
    – duffbeer703
    Commented May 28, 2011 at 22:11

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