My IRA has 47k liquid right now and I keep almost funding a lease option through it, then stopping

The custodian punt is actually telling you something useful: this structure sits in contested territory and they do not want to be the one holding the opinion.

The core question is what the IRA is actually doing in the deal. If the IRA is the optionee and then assigns the option for a fee, the IRS may characterize that assignment activity as the IRA operating a business rather than making a passive investment. That is where UBIT exposure comes in, not on the option fee sitting sheltered, but on whether the activity looks active. A single assignment on a two-year hold is a different argument than a pattern of assignments, but your custodian cannot make that call and neither can I. You need a tax attorney who has done this specific structure inside an IRA, not a generalist. That is not a delay tactic, it is the only way you get an opinion you can actually rely on if the IRS later disagrees.

The assumption doing the most work in your framing is that the yield difference between IRA-sheltered and personal-name income justifies the structural complexity. With a traditional IRA you are deferring tax, not eliminating it. With a Roth the compounding is tax-free but 47k is the base and you need the deal to actually execute cleanly inside the account to capture that benefit. If the activity triggers UBIT, some of that advantage compresses fast, trust rates hit 37 percent at a low income threshold, confirm the current figure with your attorney.

The risk you did not mention is the prohibited-transaction exposure. If you have personally guaranteed anything touching this deal, or if any disqualified person has involvement anywhere in the chain, the IRA could be disqualified entirely, not just the transaction.

You have a working version of this deal in your personal name. Running the first IRA execution on a live deal with a buyer ready and your attention split is a structural problem independent of the tax question.

What is the IRA type here, traditional or Roth, and has the option fee already been negotiated or is there still room to restructure the economics?

The option fee question is a real one and your custodian's non-answer is frustrating but also technically correct, because the answer depends on how the transaction is structured and characterised, and that determination belongs to a tax attorney or a CPA who specialises in SDIRA transactions, not a custodian. I want to be honest that I cannot give you the tax conclusion here either. What I can tell you is the frame that matters: inside a traditional or Roth IRA, income generally compounds sheltered, but if the activity looks like a business operation rather than passive investment, it can trigger UBIT (Unrelated Business Income Tax). A one-off option assignment reads differently than a pattern of them. The strategy guide for this entry flags that passive income, including certain assignment fees and interest, tends to sit cleanly inside the IRA, while anything that looks like an active business generates UBIT at trust tax rates that climb fast. An attorney can tell you which side of that line your specific structure lands on.

The second thing you raised is worth taking seriously on its own. You already run this deal type in your personal name and you know how it works there. Learning the IRA mechanics on a live deal with a tenant buyer ready and your attention split is a real execution risk, separate from the tax question entirely.

The 47k earning nothing is real pressure, but urgency from idle cash is a different problem than urgency from the deal itself.

What would actually change your decision here: is it the tax answer, the execution confidence, or both? Knowing which is the real blocker helps figure out the right next step.