Did you make a contribution to your Roth IRA in 2021 despite being ineligible to do so because your income was too high? Or maybe you made a contribution to a traditional IRA despite having no income? If you did, you could be facing a 6% penalty on the excess amount each year that it remains in your retirement account. While that may not be a huge number, it’s still a bad idea to give the IRS any more of your money than necessary. Luckily, you can remedy the situation and avoid the penalty all together–provided your make the correction before October 17, 2022. Every year, the IRS allows for the correction of excess IRS contributions within six months following the tax deadline (it should be noted that the six month deadline this year is October 15, 2022, which is a Saturday…the IRS therefore made the deadline the following Monday). There are really two main ways to correct and excess contribution: You can recharacterize it or withdraw it. It’s up to you to decide which works best for your situation. Once you make the correction, it’s as if the excess contribution never existed in the eyes of the IRS. Given that the deadline is less than a week away, if you make an excess contribution, you need to move to correct it as soon as possible. Like, now! If you have a financial advisor or wealth manager you work with, I encourage you to reach out to them as soon as possible. Furthermore, I would also encourage you to take steps to make sure you avoid making excess contributions in the future.