ER Securities in an IRA

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Have some owners/officers that bought company stock in their IRAs years ago and now they want to sell it. Problem is the company is the only willing buyer which would be a PT. Anyone aware of any court cases or anything that might give these guys a way out? I am thinking that they would not be granted an PTE for this.

[jpod]

Do they have an employer-maintained DC plan they can first roll the stock over to and then sell per the ERISA 408(e) exemption?

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I believe so. Can you give me more information? I am definitely not familiar with this.

[jpod]

The plan must be a plan maintained by the employer that issued the stock. ERISA Section 408(e) provides a complete exemption from the PT rules for purchase-sales of employer stock between a plan and the employer. There are some conditions, the most challenging being in a sale back to the employer the plan must receive at least "adequate consideration," and to be safe you pretty much need to get an independent valuation.

[My 2 cents]

Not someone who deals with IRAs, so I may be totally off base on this, but if a person has an IRA holding stock in a company partially or fully owned by that person, is the IRA (which is not an employer plan by definition) restricted in any way by the PT rules from buying more of that stock or selling that stock? Sure, there would be issues if the plan were sponsored by the company but as it is an IRA, do the PT rules get in the way? Wouldn't the IRA and the company be unrelated?