Bidding at Tax sale with one bidder number.

[Newton Boykin]

As a long time purchaser of tax certificates in various states and for various entities, I was wondering about the feasibility of utilizing an LLC for the sole purpose of bidding and assigning out certificates to various IRA's which would be my own and my families IRA's. This LLC would only do an assignment the same day of the tax sale to the various IRA's. The custodian would then fund the request for purchase directly to the county from the appropriate Equity Trust account and no money would ever change hands between myself and the county for purposes of purchasing the certificate. The LLC setup for the sole purpose of bidding and assigning the certificates then would be the only bidder card I would need to use and I could assign the certificates without my single member LLC ever taking actual ownership of the certificate. Would this scenario pass muster for the self dealing rule in a Roth? Yea or nay please give the reasoning behind your answer. Alternatively, would a checkbookIRA be a better idea so long as the only use for it would be to fund tax sale purchases from my and my wife's accounts? This question presupposes the county would allow the bidding with one bid number and then assigning out to the various entities directly after the sale.

[Ned Carey]

If I understand your question yes this would be self dealing. You didn't say who would own the LLC doing the bidding. If it is you then you cannot assign to your IRA.

I think you are on thin ice here. How can the LLC assign the lien if it doesn't own it? The fact you are providing the service of bidding is also likely a violation even if title is never in the bidding LLC.

While the IRS may have trouble discovering such a sham, I sure wouldn't put my entire IRA at risk for pure convienience.