Don't Let The New Pension Law Catch You Off Guard

The Pension Protection Act, became a law on Aug 17, 2006, has been formulated to combat the nation wide crises of under funding in the pension schemes. This law is hard on the companies who are not complying with the new rules and provides encouragement to contributions by employees. Lots of changes and corrections in the law makes a direct impact on the wide spectrum of the taxpayers in all the age groups, irrespective of the status of their retirement.

The rundown of some very important changes in tax code and their likely effects on the taxpayers and retirees are listed below:

1. Increased Contribution Levels

In this the employee sponsored contribution to the retirement plans has been pegged at $ 5000. This will surely encourage more contributions and is applicable to IRAs, 457s, 403(b) s and 401(k) s and contributions to catch-up for the workers who are aged 50 or more.

2. Direct Rollovers from a 401(k) to a Roth IRA

Earlier employees moving from a workplace to another were allowed to shift their 401(k) s over to the traditional IRAs. Taxes need to be paid when funds are withdrawn from these schemes. Only then account was transferred to Roth IRA.

However, the new law permits the employees to shift their retirement account funded by employers, straight into the Roth IRA.

Tax Deductions for Charitable Giving

The tax code has changes which provide for increased charity giving rules, many of them are unlikely to please the donors.

3. 529 College Savings Plans

Several tax laws which were temporary and were enacted in 2001 have been made permanent in this Pension Protection Act. You can now withdraw the money from the 529 college saving plans without any fear of the tax penalties.

4. Documenting Items

In order to prevent the taxpayers from unduly inflating their tax deductions by increasing the value of charitable donations which are non monetary, the IRS now has provisions for taxpayers to fill out form giving details of the gifts.

5. Direct IRA Tax Return Deposits

The tax payers can directly deposit their tax returns in their IRA accounts. Through this action, government hopes that contributions from tax payers towards their retirement account would increase.

6. Documenting Monetary Gifts

From now onwards the monitory donation would also need the documentation. The taxpayer must retain the proof of all the donations he makes regardless of the money involved. It can be in the form of receipt from charity, credit card statement or a bank record.

7. Saver's Credit

The tax break is a boon to workers who get less than $ 25000 because any contributions before tax lowers his taxable income and additional relief is provided by saver's credit with the help of matching amount.

8. Investment Advice

As employees normally go for safe investments for 402(k) s, which usually gives them modest or low returns, this act now, permits them to get advice for the investment planning to motivate them to go for some high risk schemes giving them the higher returns.

9. Automatic 401(k) Sign up

Now the employers are permitted to sign their employees for the 401(k) scheme. This would encourage more people to participate in the scheme and they also have an option to move out of this scheme.

10. Non-Spousal Benefits

The two provisions which stretch the permitted withdrawals may please activists fighting for the gay rights. The non-spousal rollover now permits the assets in the retirement account to be shifted to the nominated beneficiary on the death or retiree. The hardship distribution permits the assets in retirement account to be used in the financial or medical emergency by the beneficiary who may not be a dependent or the spouse.