Free Republic

One of the great senators of the modern era was William Roth, by whose vision and persistence the Roth IRA was established in 1997, giving average Americans, especially those without a pension, the opportunity to build their financial independence without fear of rising tax rates. The Roth could be funded either with after-tax dollars or by converting money from a conventional IRA. The original law said that: (1) the taxpayer could invest in a wider range of investments than with other tax-advantaged plans, (2) both the growth of and withdrawal from the account would be tax-free and (3) upon death,...

WASHINGTON - “Like grave robbers opening King Tut’s tomb, Congress can’t wait to get its hands on America’s retirement account assets,” the Wall Street Journal warned taxpayers last year. The warning was contained in an article written by Philip DeMuth, author of “The Overtaxed Investor: Slash Your Tax Bill and Be a Tax Alpha Dog.” He was writing about the House-passed Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act, known by its less than honest acronym, “SECURE.” If you have laid aside investment funds for your kids to inherit to help them out after you’ve passed away, there will be...

WASHINGTON - The U.S. economy will grow at a “solid” rate of 2.2% this year, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office forecast on Tuesday, but with federal budget deficits hitting $1.015 trillion. While the economy will be on good footing during this presidential election year, CBO also noted that conditions will lead to “higher inflation and interest rates after a decade in which both remained low, on average.” The inflation and interest rate rises will be noticed this year and continue through 2022 before settling down beginning in 2023, under the forecast. In its updated budget and economic outlook spanning the...

President Trump signed the SECURE Act this week (January 8, 2020) as part of the government’s spending bill and it will inevitably affect most retirement savers, for better or worse. The SECURE legislation — which stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” — puts into place numerous provisions intended to strengthen retirement security across the country. Part of the bill addresses the grim outlook for many workers who don’t have access to workplace retirement accounts. It offers small businesses tax incentives to set up automatic enrollment in retirement plans for its workers, or allows them to join multiple...

One of the perils of being well-off is the constant risk that the federal government and/or your friendly state and local tax collectors will figure out new and different ways to snatch more of your wealth. Especially wealth that you earned the old-fashioned way: by inheriting it. To raise your paranoia to the appropriate level, here are two new things to worry about. Few noticed when the House of Representatives in May overwhelming passed the imaginatively named “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019.” The vote was 417-3. Senate passage was thought to be a mere...

The U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday passed a bill that aims to encourage retirement Opens a New Window. savings among Americans and strengthen their long-term financial stability Opens a New Window. . Among the provisions called for in the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement, or Secure Act, are a couple that will increase the flexibility associated with retirement accounts. Individuals would be allowed to stash money into IRA accounts beyond the current age limit of 70 1/2. It would also delay when individuals are required to begin taking required minimum distributions to 72, from 70 1/2.

A near-final draft of the White House’s unlimited and forever amnesty bill says the administration wants $25 billion for a wall over the next five years, and will not cancel chain-migration or visa-lottery inflows until the last of the 4 million foreigners now in the pipeline have arrived in the 2030s. The amnesty is dubbed the Security, Enforcement, and Compassion United Reform Effort Act, or SECURE Act. It is based on the SUCCEED Act developed by Sen. Thom Tillis and Sen. James Lankford, and it offers amnesty to an unlimited number of people, without any ending date. Overall, the amnesty...