Retirement for a split W2/1099 Employment

[bcc865]

Hi Everyone,

Just had a question about retirement account limits. I do part time work at an academic institution and also work in the community as an independent contractor. I've already put my max of 18,000 into my organizational 453b for the year and wanted to know if I am still eligible for the max contribution on 53,000 into a personal 401K. I have tried to research this but keep getting conflicting answers. Is the 53,000 max for ALL retirement accounts? Or just my personal 401K and my voluntary contribution to my W-2 employer is a separate entity.

Thanks for the help!

[litovskyassetmanagement]

As an IC you can indeed put $53k into the solo 401k, but if your salary deferral goes into the 403b plan, your $53k has to come from profit sharing only (~20% of your 1099 income).  However, if your 1099 income is relatively low, say $53k only, you can still contribute the entire amount into the solo 401k in the following way:

1) ~20% profit sharing (in this case $10600)

2) After-tax (that can be converted to Roth) - the rest (up to $53k).

To do after-tax would require a custom plan document as most solo 401k plans don't allow for this.