You can have millions of liquid assets and not have any income and be eligible for income related thresholds.
You dont need to be taking advantage of net operating losses or charitable deductions for any of this.
If Thiel made this contribution for tax year 1998, then this would be before they even took any external funding. It's quite conceivable that he received an exceptionally low salary that year and relied on savings.
There was some snark that was edited out.
> Plenty of founders are receiving salaries below that threshold in 2021, even after raising money.
Yeah, that's the mechanism, but being in a position to decide what what your taxable income will be is a loophole in itself, one that's pretty much only available to the wealthy and people who run businesses. I'm sure Thiel was both at the time.
mmmm not a loophole, the government encourages entrepreneurship and created tax deferred plans because social security is flawed and inadequate and pensions also shouldnt be expected by the general population
Having a self directed IRA with some good trades in it is the expected outcome