A tax tsunami is coming at the end of this year. The higher your adjusted gross income (AGI), the closer you live to the coast where the tsunami will hit. This will be your last opportunity to safeguard your assets in a lifeboat and avoid getting swamped with taxes.

At the end of 2010, the Bush tax cuts will expire and tax rates will go up across the board. Even the 10% bracket will rise to 15%. There will once again be a marriage penalty on two-income families. A phaseout of itemized deductions and personal exemptions will return. The child tax credit will drop to half. The death tax will return at 55%. The capital gains tax will rise from 15% to 20%. Tax on dividends will increase from 15% to 39.6%.

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And these are just the first wave of tax increases for 2011. Obamacare rolls out additional taxes each year clear through 2014. Taxes will be higher, but the country will still be in financial trouble. Like a merchant in danger of going bankrupt, the government is trying to raise prices to stay solvent. Cutting overhead, nearly always the solution, isn’t even being considered.

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It is time to take as much of your business elsewhere as you can before these rate hikes come into effect. Mercifully the government has provided a way for you to get a massive amount of your net worth out from under the growing tax burden. It is time to drive a Brink’s truck through the legal loophole of Roth conversions this year. For those of you unwilling to take advantage of this opportunity, the road to serfdom is the default.

If you have an income over $100,000, this is the first year you can take money from your traditional IRA, pay tax as though that money is ordinary income and convert it to a Roth IRA. This procedure is called a “Roth conversion.”

There are many reasons to do a Roth conversion this year. Each of them is a new tax burden being laid on the most productive members of society.

Traditional IRAs get you a tax deduction now, and you can delay paying taxes until after your investment has grown. With a Roth IRA there is no tax deduction when you deposit the money. But the investments grow tax free rather than tax deferred. Qualified distributions from Roth IRAs are not subject to any income taxes. Roth IRA accounts are to your advantage if your tax rate will be higher when you withdraw the money than it was when you contributed.

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September 20, 2010