'Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul': Economists propose axing 401(k), IRA tax benefits to help fu

[Hoodat]

'Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul': Economists propose axing 401(k), IRA tax benefits to help fund Social Security — but some retirement experts are lashing back

Serah Louis  •  5h

A new brief from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College makes the case for scrapping tax benefits on retirement plans like 401(k)s and IRAs, potentially adding billions of dollars in U.S. tax revenue each year.

Economists Alicia Munnell and Andrew Biggs argue how subsidies for these retirement plans, which they say fail to “significantly boost national saving,” could be diverted to fund Social Security instead — which is set to run short of cash by 2033.

“It makes little sense to throw more and more taxpayer money at employer plans and IRAs,” the duo wrote in the brief. “In fact, the case is strong for eliminating the current tax expenditures on retirement plans and using the increase in tax revenue to address Social Security’s long-term financing shortfall.”  .  .  .

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/talk-about-robbing-peter-to-pay-paul-economists-propose-axing-401-k-ira-tax-benefits-to-help-fund-social-security-but-some-retirement-experts-are-lashing-back/ar-BB1iI1NL

[Hoodat]

“It makes little sense to throw more and more taxpayer money at employer plans and IRAs,”

Wait just a damn minute.  No one is throwing taxpayer money at my IRA.  These people are pure evil.  Looters, through and through.  They see money.  They go after it.

[Hoodat]

could be diverted to fund Social Security instead — which is set to run short of cash by 2033

Social Security is already out of cash.  They are currently paying out more than they bring in, which means they are having to go to the Fed and ask them to print up more money for them to spend.

[bigheadfred]

You should be able to opt out of SS taxes instead.

[cato potatoe]

We know Americans will not consent to pushing back the age of full benefits.  Somebody is getting looted when the time comes — almost certainly the upper wage earners.  It also is hard to imagine the present capital gains or income tax rates getting extended beyond 2025.

[andy58-in-nh]

These people always talk about your money as though it were only yours because the government agreed to let you keep it.

[DefiantMassRINO]

In the late 1980s, Congress eliminated the tax donation for Personal IRA, and the 1987 Wall Street and bank crash followed shortly behind.

You know what else contributes to Social Security cash shortfall ... 20 years of offshoring.

I fully expect the Government to screw me over in retirement for doing the right thing, just as they have screwed me during my life, and during the lives of my parents.

If the Government and Wall Street see a pile of money lying around, they find new excuses to get their grubby little hands on them.

As a newly minted high net worth individual (for paying off my mortgage), I have all new Wall Street friends looking to help me manage my "wealth".

The Canadian trucker protest was a sample of what may come - Government denying people access to money they have in banks.  If it's in a financial institution, the Government, the Fed, the Treasury, and Wall Street could sequester our savings without notice or choice.

I'm seriously considering keep a small amount of my savings "offline" - cash?, silver coins?, gold coins?, collectibles? - outside the American financial system in case the Government seizes people's bank accounts.

Sooner or later the $30 Trillion tab is going to come due, and the Dems see anyone who is not depenedent upon Government welfare as "rich" ... after they hide their money, they will come for ours.

Wall Street Kleptocrats and Government Kleptocrats want it all.  It's a race to see who steals it first.

This may sound paranoid, but so was taking off your shoes in the airport security line before 9/11.

[roamer_1]

I'm seriously considering keep a small amount of my savings "offline" - cash?, silver coins?, gold coins?, collectibles? - outside the American financial system in case the Government seizes people's bank accounts.

I think a side hustle, even after retirement. Keep a bunch of it spinning well past when you hang up your spurs.

I don't know where I'm going now, but I bet I will keep my computer lab going in various states... And fixing smalls - buy/sell in that vein... Maybe flipping cars, though I don't know that I can physically do that yet.

But I can pretty easy spin up a few thousand a month in return, with little real work involved.
And if a lot of it happens to be cash... 

But a schedule C is a powerful thing, especially if you are barely showing profit.
Not sayin, jussayin.

[berdie]

Doing away with the tax deferral will also discourage employers from providing an "employer match".  But I guess it will prevent a total seizure of the accounts...for a while any way.

[cato potatoe]

Sooner or later the $30 Trillion tab is going to come due, and the Dems see anyone who is not depenedent upon Government welfare as "rich" ... after they hide their money, they will come for ours.

One thing "The Left" have in common is zero respect for property rights.  Yes, I fully expect them to confiscate assets of responsible people, through means testing them out of Social Security, changing the Roth IRA rules ex post facto, moving qualified retirement accounts into a government bond, and whatever else is necessary to bring about EQUITY.

Maybe the worst thing Dumbya signed into law was the HEART Act of 2008, which treats all assets sold the moment an American renounces his/her citizenship.