[1:37] Steve covers the principles of a manager of a Check Book IRA LLC or the plan administrator doing minor work on a property owned by their plan. There’s no hard fast rule but common sense needs to be used.
Transcript
Working On Your IRA-Owned Property
Often times I get asked the question, “How much work can I do, as a manager, on my property owned by my checkbook IRA or by my solo 401(k)?” Well you can do managerial duties and there’s no hard and fast rule in the code about how many nails you can drive or how many shingles you can put on that roof. Obviously, if you’re a manager, a couple shingles blow off, you crawl up there if you have ability and you fix it instead of calling a contractor. It’s just a few– you know, there’s no real rule. You know, can you replace ten but not eleven? You just do what a manager would do. You know, somebody breaks a window– you go buy and you have the capability of fixing the window, you go do that. Or changing the locks on the door, maybe making one little patch where the doorknob went through the dry wall when somebody slammed the door. But if you were going to put all new windows in and you were a contractor, you know, you can’t do that. Because that’s not being a manager. You can’t get paid for doing that, you can’t do it for free. If you’re a roofer, you can’t put a whole new roof on because you have that ability. You can’t work for the LLC, you can’t give that; that could be an excess contribution to your LLC. So you just have to use common sense. Do what a manager would do and if it’s more than that, then pick up the phone, call a contractor that’s not a prohibited party, and have them do that and that gives you that hands-on control with a checkbook IRA.