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Starting your IRA planning
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May 3, 2000: 7:52 a.m. ET
CPA's guidebook is good way to begin finding information to avoid taxes
By Ed Slott
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - You'll have to address the problem sooner or later, so stop procrastinating about retirement planning.
But for many IRA owners and people with other large retirement accounts, the reason for not planning is not always procrastination. It's finding a place to begin  your quest for an IRA tax plan that is right for you and your loved ones.
Where do you even begin to break down the IRA rules so that they can be digested? The IRA tax rules are incredibly complicated, even for the experts. And you have to know the rules or you and your IRA beneficiaries will suffer the financial consequences.
You can always read the rules directly from the Internal Revenue Code, and the Proposed Regulations, but no taxpayer deserves that kind of torture. There is a better way to get started learning about the key IRA provisions -- and here it is.
Ask a question at www.irahelp.com
IRAs made simple
A new guidebook has just been released that painlessly takes you through the key IRA tax provisions that you need to know to get started. Barry C. Picker, a CPA from Brooklyn, N.Y., has written a gem that is required reading for anyone who has an IRA called "IRAs at 70-1/2, Barry Picker's Guide to Making Timely IRA Decisions." This concise guidebook is the first IRA book that you can actually read and understand in one sitting, which is a monumental achievement when dealing with anything that explains IRAs.
I am highly impressed with this IRA masterpiece and proudly recommend it to my clients and to other tax professionals, attorneys and financial planners. It sits on my desk at all times for quick reference. The soft-cover guidebook includes the IRS life expectancy tables that you will need to plan and calculate IRA distributions.
On page 12, you'll find the most valuable nugget of all: Barry Picker's "Age 70-1/2 Checklist." This one item alone can enable your IRA beneficiaries to parlay your IRA exponentially for their benefit instead of losing 70 percent or more of it to the IRS.
And just in case you are reading this and wondering why am I raving about this book, let me tell you that I have no financial interest. I make no money telling you about it. In fact, as an IRA tax adviser myself, Barry Picker is actually a competitor. So that should tell you how good his book is.
His book is also easy on your eyes because it is in larger print and includes roomy worksheets you can use to compute minimum required distributions. All that is packed into only 24 readable pages. It's not only the best IRA value available, it is highly accurate and reliable.
Reliability seems to be what concerns IRA owners most. It is common, in this highly perplexing area, to receive a variety of answers to the same IRA question. This is why you must educate yourself when it comes to your IRA or other retirement account. You should also seek out an IRA tax adviser, a new type of tax specialist. But even if you are retaining a tax adviser, you still must be educated and informed on the issues, so that you can evaluate the advice you are receiving.
The most important issues for IRA owners must be dealt with before you reach what the tax law calls your Required Beginning Date (RBD). That date is April 1 of the year following the year you turn 70-1/2. If you will turn 70-1/2 in July 2000, then your RBD is April 1, 2001. If you will turn 70 years old in July 2000, then you will not be 70-1/2 years old until January 2001, and your RBD would be April 1, 2002. But don't wait until you reach 70-1/2. Start planning now.
The earlier you start becoming familiar with IRA planning, the better prepared you'll be to make the right 70-1/2 decisions. The key is to get involved and address the issues that most IRA owners avoid because they don't know where to go for understandable IRA information -- without being intimidated by the shear volume and complexity of the related tax rules. Now you know where to start.
You will find that if you start easy, for example, with Barry Picker's IRA guidebook, the rules are really not that bad and mistakes can be avoided. But if you ignore your IRA, Uncle Sam will undoubtedly be first in line to cash in on your life savings. 
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