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Summary Of The Pension Preservation And Savings Expansion Act
Friday April 29, 2005
· Making the
Savers’ Credit Refundable -
Increasing
the availability of the tax credit
included in the 2001 pension bill
for low and moderate-income savers who contribute to a workplace
retirement plan or IRA, by making the credit available to Americans regardless
of income tax liability.
· Enabling Tax
Refunds to Go Directly to Retirement Accounts - Allowing Americans to contribute some or all of their
federal income tax refund directly into their Individual Retirement Account
(IRA) through electronic means. This
will enable individuals and families to boost their retirement savings at a time
when they can often afford to save.
· Faster
Vesting - Extending the shorter vesting
periods for 401(k) matching contributions contained in the 2001 tax act to other
employer contributions (such as profit-sharing contributions). Reducing these vesting schedules from five
years to three years will simplify the rules and assist today’s mobile workers
in building their retirement nest eggs.
· Enhancing
Pension Portability - Building on the
significant portability improvements in the 2001 tax act by making it even
easier for employees to keep their savings in the retirement system when they
change jobs. Ensuring that workers
moving between tax-exempt and for-profit employers can roll over their after-tax
contributions and permitting direct rollovers from workplace retirement plans to
Roth IRAs (which today must be done in a cumbersome two-step process). Assisting non-spouse beneficiaries in
workplace retirement plans by allowing them to roll over their inherited
benefits into an IRA rather than being forced to take a taxable lump sum
payment.
· Making Today’s
Retirement Savings Opportunities Permanent – Making permanent all of the retirement savings and
pension reforms contained in the 2001 tax act – such as catch-up contributions,
small business pension incentives, and expanded IRAs and 401(k)s. These important provisions are currently
scheduled to sunset at the end of 2010, frustrating the long-term planning that
is critical for retirement savings.
Making permanent the savers’ credit (which is currently scheduled to
sunset at the end of 2006).
Expanding Workplace Plans and
Participation
· Promoting Automatic Enrollment and
Automatic Increase Designs - When an
employer-sponsored retirement plan includes automatic enrollment, employees will
automatically save unless they opt out.
Some plans also have an “auto increase” feature that automatically
increases employee contribution levels each year (unless workers opt out). Automatic enrollment has been repeatedly
shown to increase retirement plan participation and savings levels dramatically,
particularly among low and moderate-income workers. There are a number of provisions that would
effectively encourage such strategies.
Employers that adopt auto enrollment, auto increase and an accelerated
vesting schedule – and that commit to a certain robust level of contributions
for all workers – would be protected by a safe harbor. Clarifying that the adoption of automatic
enrollment is not prevented by state wage withholding laws, and directing the
Department of Labor to provide guidance on appropriate default investments to
use within auto enrollment arrangements (and for all un-directed
savings).
· Expanding Small
Business Pension Coverage – Creating
improvements to existing SIMPLE and SEP retirement plans to make these
simplified pension designs even more attractive to small business. Small employers will be permitted to make
additional contributions to SIMPLE plans on behalf of all workers. The bill will also conform the rules for
matching contributions made to SIMPLE IRAs and SIMPLE 401(k)s, providing greater
flexibility to employers to adjust their contributions based on business
conditions.
· Enhancing the
Retirement Security of State and Local Government Employees and Military
Personnel - Strengthening the retirement
plans of state and local government employees.
Facilitating helpful new pension designs for public safety workers and
improving the purchase of service credit rules that enable many teachers and
state and local employees to buy into a complete pension benefit in the
jurisdiction in which they finish their careers. Clarifying that National Guard members and
military reservists called up on active duty may continue contributing to their
workplace retirement plans if their employers pay them their salary differential
during their active duty service.
Uniformity and Regulatory
Simplification
· Uniform
Rules - Continuing the simplification
efforts begun in past pension bills by making the tax rules more uniform across
the different defined contribution vehicles (401(k), 403(b) and 457). It will also reform a variety of regulations
that have unnecessarily increased the cost and complexity of retirement plan
sponsorship and modify the IRS retirement plan sanctions program to establish
more reasonable penalties and encourage self-correction of
errors.
· Repealing Roth
401(k)s – These plans, which have
not yet come into effect, will add one more plan to a swamped market and lose
significant amounts of revenue over time.
Preserving Retirement Income
· Incentives for
Lifetime Payments - Allowing individuals
to exclude from taxation up to $2,000 in annual income drawn from qualified
(retirement plan or IRA) or nonqualified annuities that last a lifetime. Encouraging individuals to consider so-called
longevity insurance – a form of annuity that begins payment once you reach your
life expectancy – by correcting a glitch in the minimum required distribution
rules. Such longevity insurance
guarantees steady income in the final years of retirement and can be purchased
with a relatively modest portion of one’s retirement
savings.
· Reforming
Required Distribution Rules - Reforming the minimum required distribution rules,
which force individuals to begin taking their retirement money at age 70½, by
indexing this age to future increases in life expectancy. In addition, individuals with less than
$100,000 in their combined IRA and 403(b) accounts would be exempt from these
rules altogether, freeing many modest-income seniors from a complex set of
requirements aimed at those with significant assets. Finally, the excise tax for those who fail to
take their proper distributions would be reduced from 50% to 25% – enough to
deter gaming while avoiding draconian penalties on seniors who make innocent
mistakes.
· Ensuring that Workers Receive Earned
Benefits - Improving upon the
automatic rollover provision enacted in the 2001 tax act by providing that
retirement plan payments of under $5,000 may be sent to the Pension Benefit
Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) when employees have not made an affirmative election
regarding where to send their rollovers.
Building on a successful PBGC program to match workers with benefits they
have earned under terminating defined benefit plans by establishing a similar
program for terminating defined contribution and multiemployer plans.
· Continuing Post-Enron Reforms – Including providing for pre-tax financial planning,
creating a large tax on golden parachute payments when a company goes into
bankruptcy, and allowing for greater diversification of
savings.