› › Do Tax Incentives Increase 401 K Retirement Saving

Do Tax Incentives Increase 401(K) Retirement Saving? Evidence from the Adoption of Catch-Up Contributions

Author : Matthew S. Rutledge

Publisher :

Page : 37 pages

File Size : 44,53 MB

Release : 2016

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ISBN :

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Book Description

The U.S. government subsidizes retirement saving through 401(k) plans with $61.4 billion in tax expenditures annually, but the question of whether these tax incentives are effective in increasing saving remains unanswered. Using longitudinal U.S. Social Security Administration data on tax-deferred earnings linked to the Survey of Income and Program Participation, the project examines whether the “catch-up provision,” which was enacted in 2001 and allows workers over age 50 to contribute more to their 401(k) plans, has been effective in increasing earnings deferrals. Compared with similar workers under age 50, the study finds that contributions increased by $540 more among age-50-plus individuals who had approached the 401(k) tax-deferral limits prior to turning 50, suggesting that the older individuals respond to the expanded tax incentives. For this group, the elasticity of retirement savings to the tax incentive is quite high: a one-dollar increase in the tax-deferred limit leads to an immediate 49-cent increase in 401(k) contributions.



401(k)s & IRAs For Dummies

Author : Ted Benna

Publisher : John Wiley & Sons

Page : 354 pages

File Size : 44,55 MB

Release : 2021-10-26

Category : Business & Economics

ISBN : 1119817242

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Book Description

From the basics down to investing, get the most out of your 401(k) and IRA in any economic environment When you’re ready to start setting aside (or withdrawing) money for your retirement—whenever that might be—401(k)s & IRAs For Dummies is here for you! It covers both types of retirement plans because they each have valuable tax benefits, and you may be able to contribute to both at the same time. With the practical advice in this book, you learn how to manage your accounts, minimize your investment risk, and maximize your returns. Sounds like a win-win, no matter your situation or where you’re at in life. Written by a well-known expert and ‘father of the 401 (k)’ , Ted Benna, 401(k)s & IRAs For Dummies helps you keep up with the ever-changing rules surrounding both retirement plans—including the rules from the SECURE and CARES Acts—and avoid the mistakes that can lead to higher taxes and penalties. Additional topics include: Tax strategies before and after retirement Required distributions and how much you need to take Penalties for taking money out early and how to avoid them What happens to your or your spouse’s retirement plan after death or divorce The rules for taking money out of an inherited plan Methods for calculating required minimum distributions Special tax benefits for conversions to Roth IRAs How to recharacterize IRA or Roth contributions Why IRA based plans are a better options for many small employers Helping solo entrepreneurs and other small businesses pick the right type of plan Whether you’re just starting to think about a retirement plan, planning when to retire, or you’re facing retirement, you’ll find useful and practical guidance in 401(k)s & IRAs For Dummies. Get your copy today!



Getting Americans to Save

Author : David Kamin

Publisher :

Page : 82 pages

File Size : 49,11 MB

Release : 2016

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Book Description

According to the most recent literature, one of the primary systems for getting Americans to save more -- a system of tax-preferred retirement accounts -- is fundamentally broken and should be abandoned. This system of 401(k)s, Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), and other tax-preferred accounts cost the government about $80 billion per year, and influential new research by Raj Chetty, John Friedman, and co-authors -- among others -- suggests that tax incentives like these are unable to substantially increase private saving. However, this case against tax incentives is overstated. A comprehensive review of the literature suggests that tax incentives, in fact, probably can increase saving among many people -- and particularly among those participating who are financially unsophisticated and have low savings. Further, the findings of Chetty, Friedman, and co-authors have been both over-interpreted and misinterpreted in important ways. Based on this and an analysis of the trade-offs involved in choosing among instruments to encourage greater saving, this article concludes that tax incentives should be used, but they should be appropriately targeted and deployed, unlike in the current system. And they should be used in combination with a mandatory saving floor and nudges to increase saving above that floor. This is an “all-of-the-above” approach -- including the use of tax incentives -- that reflects the apparent variation in how people react to these instruments and that should achieve better outcomes than using any one or two of these instruments alone.



Automatic

Author : William G. Gale

Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield

Page : 282 pages

File Size : 11,3 MB

Release : 2011-12-01

Category : Business & Economics

ISBN : 0815703821

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Book Description

Automatic offers an innovative new way to think about how Americans can save for retirement. Over the past quarter century, America's pension system has shifted away from defined benefit plans and toward defined contribution savings programs such as 401(k)s and IRAs. There is much to be done to improve the defined contribution system. Many workers fail to participate and those who do often contribute too little, invest the funds poorly, and are not adequately prepared to manage funds while in retirement. To resolve these problems, the authors propose that employees should be automatically enrolled into a 401(k) plan when they are hired, with the right to opt out, change the amount that they contribute, or change investment choices if they choose. If the employer does not sponsor a 401(k) or similar retirement plan, they would be enrolled in a payroll deduction Automatic IRA. This vision of a transformed defined contribution system incorporates key positive features of defined benefit plans to improve retirement security. Employess contributions would increase over time, their investments would benefit from professional management and rebalancing, and they would receive lifetime income upon retirement. These automatic features will make the 401(k) and similar plans a more effective tool for retirement saving, and they can be extended to the many workers who do not currently have access to an employer plan. In Automatic, the authors present proposals to implement automatic features in all phases of the 401(k) and in IRAs for workers with no employer plan. They also draw from the experience of countries that have implemented automatic saving structures.



Handbook of Public Economics

Author : Martin Feldstein

Publisher : Elsevier

Page : 744 pages

File Size : 16,90 MB

Release : 2002-01-25

Category : Business & Economics

ISBN : 0080544193

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Book Description

The Field of Public Economics has been changing rapidly in recent years, and the sixteen chapters contained in this Handbook survey many of the new developments. As a field, Public Economics is defined by its objectives rather than its techniques and much of what is new is the application of modern methods of economic theory and econometrics to problems that have been addressed by economists for over two hundred years. More generally, the discussion of public finance issues also involves elements of political science, finance and philosophy. These connections are evidence in several of the chapters that follow. Public Economics is the positive and normative study of government's effect on the economy. We attempt to explain why government behaves as it does, how its behavior influences the behavior of private firms and households, and what the welfare effects of such changes in behavior are. Following Musgrave (1959) one may imagine three purposes for government intervention in the economy: allocation, when market failure causes the private outcome to be Pareto inefficient, distribution, when the private market outcome leaves some individuals with unacceptably low shares in the fruits of the economy, and stabilization, when the private market outcome leaves some of the economy's resources underutilized. The recent trend in economic research has tended to emphasize the character of stabilization problems as problems of allocation in the labor market. The effects that government intervention can have on the allocation and distribution of an economy's resources are described in terms of efficiency and incidence effects. These are the primary measures used to evaluate the welfare effects of government policy.





Do Low-Income Workers Benefit From 401(k) Plans?

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Publisher :

Page : 0 pages

File Size : 50,45 MB

Release : 2011

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ISBN :

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Book Description

401(k) plans â€" the main retirement savings vehicle for millions of workers â€" allow participants to save on a tax-deferred basis. This tax incentive is more valuable to workers in high-income families than workers in low-income families because they face higher marginal income tax rates. Not surprisingly, then, studies of the distributional effects of 401(k)s find that they mainly benefit high-income workers. However, these studies assume that employer contributions to 401(k)s do not affect the total compensation that each worker receives â€" that is, every worker “pays forâ€ŗ employer contributions in the form of lower wages. This brief challenges this assumption, testing whether employer contributions may actually increase total compensation for low-income workers, who may be more reluctant than high-income workers to accept wage reductions in exchange for retirement saving contributions. The brief is organized as follows. The first section provides background on 401(k)s, specifically their tax treatment and the rationale for employer contributions. The second section explores the traditional theory of how fringe benefits affect workersâ€TM total compensation and why the theory might not uniformly hold for employer contributions to 401(k)s. The third section describes an experiment to test this theory and presents the results. The final section concludes that additional employer 401(k) contributions appear to reduce wages only modestly for low-income workers, resulting in higher total compensation for these workers. These results suggest that traditional analyses may understate the benefits that 401(k)s provide for rank-and-file workers.





RetireSMART!

Author : Mark Anthony Grimaldi

Publisher : Page Publishing Inc

Page : 180 pages

File Size : 22,95 MB

Release : 2019-09-26

Category : Business & Economics

ISBN : 1644628902

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Book Description

In his acclaimed first book, The Money Compass, practicing economist Mark Anthony Grimaldi enlightened his readers by showing them how their 401(k) plans benefited no one but Uncle Sam. In this follow-up, he dives deeper into the subject and proves once and for all that a 401(k) plan might be the single biggest hindrance to a secure Tax Free retirement. This accomplished economist will give you a guide on how you can improve your retirement with 3 simple steps. So if you would rather "spend" your retirement savings as opposed to "spend" your retirement savings paying taxes, buy this book and follow his 3 simple steps and RetireSMART!



U.S. Private Saving and the Tax Treatment of IRA/401(k)s

Author : Alun Huw Thomas

Publisher : International Monetary Fund

Page : 38 pages

File Size : 42,10 MB

Release : 1996-08

Category : Business & Economics

ISBN :

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Book Description

The effect of the tax treatment of IRA/401(k)s on U.S. personal saving is examined using household survey data from the Survey of Consumer Finances. The results suggest that the tax treatment of IRA/401(k)s encouraged households to increase the share of assets held in the form of pension savings, at the expense of saving in the form of housing equity. Some evidence also was found to suggest that the tax treatment of pension savings similarly affected the flow of saving. In particular, the data appeared to reject the hypothesis that the tax treatment of IRA/401(k)s increased total personal saving.