April is for Filing Taxes—and Time to Open and Fund a New Self-directed IRA

Published on March 31, 2025

Tuesday, April 15, 2025 is the deadline for filing federal and state tax returns for tax year 2024. (Note that taxpayers who reside in a federally declared disaster area may have additional time to file and pay federal taxes.) But did you know you still have time to open a new IRA and make a contribution toward your 2024 taxes? If you already have an IRA, you also have until April 15 to make that tax-advantaged contribution for tax year 2024.

This applies to all types of IRAs—Traditional, Roth, SIMPLE (for small businesses), or SEP (for the self-employed). So, if you’ve been sitting on the fence pondering when to establish a retirement plan, there is still time to do so for 2024.

This also means that savvy investors who’ve been considering a self-directed IRA (SDIRA) may also open and fund a new self-directed retirement account by the deadline and apply it to their 2024 tax return. As with their regular counterparts, all types of IRAs may be self-directed, enabling account owners to build a diverse retirement portfolio that includes a broad array of alternative assets.

Real estate, precious metals, commodities, private equity funding, royalties, and more can be part of a SDIRA, providing a hedge against stock market volatility, with the potential for lucrative returns over time since these assets are not correlated with stock market activity. Plus, self-directed investors can take advantage of investment opportunities that align with their values or retirement goals more nimbly, since they make all their own investment decisions.

Supercharge your earning power

At Next Generation, we say that self-directing your retirement plan is a way to turbocharge your retirement savings. Taxpayers who can do so comfortably can increase their IRA’s earning power (and tax-advantaged savings) by contributing for both 2024 and 2025 by the April 15 deadline. In short, funding the self-directed IRA for 2024 up to the contribution limit plus contributing something now toward the 2025 limit enables you to boost your portfolio’s holdings and gives your investments more time to earn returns.

The contribution limits for 2024 are on our blog, here. The IRS website has published the 2025 contribution limits and changes to qualifying income ranges for all retirement plans here.

Making self-directed investments

1 – Open a SDIRA with an administrator that specializes in these types of retirement accounts and select a custodian that will hold the assets. Our starter kits provide step-by-step instructions for all account types.
2 – Make a contribution either with new funds or with a rollover from the same type of IRA.
3 – Identify the alternative asset you wish to include in your account.
4 – Conduct full due diligence about the asset.
5 – Send investment instructions to the self-directed IRA administrator to execute the transaction on behalf of the SDIRA.

Next Generation makes it easy

Next Generation covers both administrative and custodial aspects of managing self-directed investment accounts, with two sister firms under one umbrella that work together to streamline the transaction process for our clients.
• The Next Generation Services team handles all the paperwork and administrative tasks, such as maintaining accurate records of balances and transactions and submitting required reports to the IRS.
• Next Generation Trust Company is the custodian that holds and safeguards the assets within our clients’ SDIRAs and ensures compliance with IRS regulations regarding self-directed investments.

Boost your self-direction knowledge base

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We also invite you to check out past webinars that cover a range of topics related to alternative asset investing.