You are a staff accountant at Anderson & Paul, a CPA firm located in downtown San Diego. A long-time client, Brady Patterson, has contacted you with a request. Brady is 32 years old, is beginning to think about saving for retirement, and has some questions. He is confused about the differences between a Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA and needs your advice. He wants you to prepare an Excel model that he can use to test the differences in a Traditional versus Roth IRA. Based on your discussion with Brady, the Excel model should cover a ten-year period. Your model should be comprised of the following parts:

Part 1: Input Section
Brady would like to be able to change the following items in the model:
Year analysis begins
Amount of the IRA contribution (only one contribution in this analysis – not one per year)
The tax rate at the date of contribution (assume the contribution is made on January 1 of the initial year)
Annual growth rate (constant growth throughout the analysis period)
The tax rate at the date of withdrawal (assume entire account balance withdrawn at end of the tenth year)
Prepare an input section where Brady can enter different values for the five variables listed above. It doesn’t matter what values you leave in the sections, only that when they are changed Parts 2 and 3 of the model are updated automatically.

Part 2: Tables for Roth & Traditional
Prepare one table showing the Roth IRA and one showing Traditional IRA balances over a ten-year period. The balances should grow by the growth rate and should reflect the taxes at contribution and withdrawal as appropriate for the IRA type. All of these values should change when inputs from Part 1 change.

Part 3: Graph Showing Roth & Traditional Balances Year-Over-Year
Prepare a graph showing the account balance at each year-end for the Roth and Traditional IRAs. The final year data point should be the net tax amount of the distribution. The lines on the graph should move as inputs from Part 1 are edited, which in turn affects values in Part 2.

Part 4: Client Note
Prepare a note to Brady explaining the main differences in the two IRA’s, and what factors might make one preferable over the other. This note should be typed out in your Excel model and formatted well.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

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