| Probably the same thing as when applied to other investment
instruments: what you've put into it, usually including any
fees you paid, in addition to the capital you put in.
Thus, your basis in an IRA would be the money you've put in
over the years, as well as any fees you paid to have the IRA
transferred from place to place. You deduct this from the
total value to determine your capital gain, to oversimplify
things. (You do the same thing for stocks, bonds, etc.)
I'm sure you can find an explanation of this somewhere in the
BMT::INVESTING conference.
Tom
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| It seems that an IRA may have two "basis": your deductible basis
and your non-deductible basis. All interest earned is tax-deferred:
when you get it you pay tax on all that you take out. Your
deductible basis is the same: when you take back that money that
you did not previously pay taxes on, then you will have to pay taxes
on all that you take back. The deductible basis is zero.
When you take back non-deductible money, you will have a "basis"
because you already paid taxes on it (it was not deducted).
Rick
Merrill
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