The Death of the Stretch is Back On Congress’ Agenda

Posted on May 21, 2019 by James Lange in Current Events, Estate Tax, Government Programs, Inherited IRAs, Market News, Retirement Planning, Stretch IRA, Tax Law and tagged death of the stretch ira, end of stretch ira, James Lange, Pittsburgh PA, Save Our Stretch IRA, stretch roth ira.

The Death of the Stretch is Back On Congress’ Agenda

This just in.

The House is scheduled to vote on Thursday, May 23, 2019, on the SECURE ACT. Then, it will be in the Senate’s court to vote on RESA. Then the House and Senate will need to reconcile the differences between the bills. Experts, including us, think a compromise will be found and that the “stretch IRA” as we know it, will be gone, dealing a severe blow to IRA and retirement plan owners who were hoping their heirs would be able to continue deferring the distributions on their inherited IRAs and retirement plans for decades.

Here is the story so far.

In mid-April, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and ranking member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., reintroduced their Retirement Enhancement and Savings Act (RESA).

Under this bill, which we’ve been talking about since 2016, the account balance in a defined contribution plan or IRA must be distributed and included in income by the beneficiary five years after the employee’s or IRA owner’s death. Surviving spouses, beneficiaries who are disabled or chronically ill individuals, individuals who are not more than 10 years younger than the employee (or IRA owner), or the child of the employee (or IRA owner) who has not reached the age of maturity are excluded from this rule. Plus, an exception to the five-year distribution deadline is provided for each beneficiary to the extent that the balance of the account they receive from the deceased employee or IRA owner does not exceed $400,000.

Also in April, the House Ways and Means Committee passed a bill known as the Secure Act (Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019). What was remarkable about the Secure Act is that it was fast-tracked and approved with lightning speed, with the intention “To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to encourage retirement saving, and for other purposes.” And while it does include some incentives for people to participate in retirement plans, it also proposes the “death of the stretch IRA.” The House version of the bill differs from RESA in that it proposes a 10-year time limit on holding an inherited IRA or inherited Roth IRA or other defined contribution plan before all of the funds in the account must be distributed. According to the summary provided by the House Committee on Ways and Means:

Section 401. Modifications to Required Minimum Distribution Rules: The legislation modifies the required minimum distribution rules with respect to defined contribution plan and IRA balances upon the death of the account owner. Under the legislation, distributions to individuals other than the surviving spouse of the employee (or IRA owner), disabled or chronically ill individuals, individuals who are not more than 10 years younger than the employee (or IRA owner), or child of the employee (or IRA owner) who has not reached the age of majority are generally required to be distributed by the end of the tenth calendar year following the year of the employee or IRA owner’s death.

We have been anticipating the death of the stretch IRA for years and wrote two books about its consequences. We were pretty convinced it was going to be eliminated in the last round of tax law changes, and frankly, we were surprised when the limit on non-spouse heirs stretching distributions from inherited IRAs over their lifetimes was not included. But, it’s back, and once again the devil is in the details which will have to be hashed out between the two houses. In the next post, I will offer some insight into the consequences and preliminary recommendations.

If you have an IRA and/or other retirement plan and were hoping to leave it to your heirs with a favorable tax treatment and want to be kept up to date with this information, please contact our offices at 412-521-2732.

The Sneaky Tax – Not Your Mother’s Income Tax

Posted on September 19, 2017 by James Lange in Estate Planning, Inherited IRAs, Retirement Plan Options, Stretch IRA and tagged death of the stretch ira, end of the stretch ira, James Lange, new ira laws, new ira rules, Retirement, roth 401k, Roth IRA, roth revolution, Save Our Stretch IRA, Stop the Sneaky Tax, stretch ira changes.

Don’t Let Congress Catch You Sleeping!

Our office is pretty busy right now because of the approaching income tax extension deadline of October 15^th. I was talking to some clients who had come in to pick up their return, and who had received an email from me last week about stopping the Sneaky Tax. I guess it was just bad timing since their federal tax return was on their mind, but they thought that the term “Sneaky Tax” was somehow related to the tax code simplification that President Trump had promised in his campaign. And since they both work in the medical field and are in the highest income tax bracket anyway, they assumed that their personal tax situation couldn’t get any worse and didn’t bother to read my email! For this particular couple, it could have been a very costly mistake.

Who Will Pay The Sneaky Tax?

Most of the information I have written about the Death of the Stretch IRA has been for the benefit of parents who will be leaving their IRAs and retirement plans to their children. These clients had no children, so they didn’t need to worry about how much their own beneficiaries would pay in taxes after their deaths, right? Wrong! These clients were the children – meaning that both had elderly parents who owned IRAs and retirement plans that they would eventually inherit. So think about this situation for a minute. This couple is not planning to retire for at least ten years, and the statistical odds are that their parents will pass away before then. If that happens, the proposed legislation that I call the Death of the Stretch IRA will make them pay tax on their inherited IRAs within five years of their parent’s deaths. They’re already in the highest tax bracket, so they stand to lose a whopping 39.6% of their inheritance because of the Sneaky Tax! That’s almost as high as the maximum federal estate tax rate – which most people aren’t subject to anyway because each individual can exclude $5.49 million in assets before it applies. That’s why I call it the Sneaky Tax – people (erroneously) think they don’t have to worry about it because they don’t have more than $5.49 million. The Sneaky Tax is not the same as the estate tax – they’re as different as federal income tax and the sales tax you pay when you buy a new car! And if you don’t watch out, this tax could very well sneak up on you and cost you a lot of money.

Baby Boomers and the Sneaky Tax

If you have elderly parents and are the beneficiary of their IRAs and retirement plans, then the Sneaky Tax will affect you – even if you have no children of your own. The Death of the Stretch IRA legislation would force you to distribute and pay tax on any IRAs that you inherit (subject to exceptions), within five years of the owner’s death. If you are required to take distributions from your inherited IRAs and retirement plans at the same time you are receiving income from working, it is quite possible that you’ll be bumped into a higher tax bracket – maybe even the highest possible bracket. The excessively high tax consequence could affect your standard of living during retirement, or even your ability to retire at all.

Stopping the Sneaky Tax

Unfortunately, if this legislation passes and you subsequently inherit an IRA from someone other than your spouse, there will be little you can do to minimize the astounding consequences of the Sneaky Tax – and I say astounding because it is estimated that this tax will cost IRA beneficiaries trillions of dollars. If the original owner (presumably your parent) is still alive, he or she might benefit from reading some of the preceding posts that discuss options the owner can use to minimize the tax burden. If that’s not an option, you might want to take some advice from our first president, George Washington. He said, ”…make them believe, that offensive operations often times, is the surest, if not the only (in some cases) means of defense.”

Most of you who will inherit your parent’s IRAs can’t afford the Sneaky Tax. I hope you will join us in sending a shot across the bow to our representatives in Washington. We have started a petition that we will forward to every legislator in the United States, and hope to collect as many signatures from across the country as we can. Please forward this to everyone you know who might be affected by the Sneaky Tax, and ask them to sign our petition, and join our Facebook Group.

Thanks for reading, and stop back soon!

-Jim

Action you can take:
Forward this petition to all of your friends’
Join our Facebook Group and for a limited time get a FREE advanced reader copy of my upcoming book dedicated to stopping the sneaky tax.

Stop the Sneaky Tax!

Posted on September 6, 2017 by James Lange in Beneficiary Designations, Inherited IRAs, QTIP Trusts, Retirement Plan Options, Roth IRA Conversions, Stretch IRA and tagged death of the stretch ira, end of the stretch ira, inherited ira, James Lange, new ira laws, new ira rules, Retirement, Roth IRA, Roth IRA Conversion, Save Our Stretch IRA, Sneaky Tax, Stop the Sneaky Tax, stretch ira, stretch ira changes, stretch ira rules, stretch roth ira.

It’s Time to Stop the Sneaky Tax!

Those of you who follow my blog know that I have been somewhat obsessed with the legislation that I call the Death of the Stretch IRA. If you’re new to my blog, please read some of the preceding posts – they’ll tell you just how much this legislation will cost IRA owners. The worst part of the Death of the Stretch IRA is that most beneficiaries (your children and grandchildren) won’t have a clue about how much of their inheritance they have lost to taxes. When they inherit your IRA after you die, your beneficiaries will suddenly have more money than they had before. Our government is counting on them to be content with their higher bank balance, and is hoping that they never notice that an enormous chunk of their inheritance ended up in Uncle Sam’s pockets before the remainder found its way to them. That’s what makes this tax so nefarious and, well, sneaky!

Our government has a lot of expensive problems right now – they’re looking to come up with a viable heath care system, build a wall on our southern border and I can’t even begin to imagine how much it will cost to repair the damage done by Hurricane Harvey. The Treasury doesn’t even have enough money to pay for their day-to-day operations, much less all of this – they’re going to be raising the debt ceiling next month! I’d bet my own IRA on the fact that the government is planning to include the Death of the Stretch IRA – and the $1 Trillion in revenue that it will generate – as part of an appropriations or budget action that will be voted on before the end of 2017.

You Can Help Stop the Sneaky Tax

If you are a loyal reader, you know that we have been writing our clients and friends to warn them about the sneaky tax, and working on solutions to minimize the damage that this legislation will do. Now it’s time to send a shot across their bow and tell the government that they’d better find their revenue someplace else besides your IRA. We are asking your help to start a grass-roots protest against the Sneaky Tax which would kill the stretch IRA—an incredibly useful estate planning tool. This new law would be so absolutely devastating to so many families across the country, our clients included, that we can’t just sit by and watch it happen.

Write Your Congressman Now

Please help us get the message to our legislators that we will not stand for them picking the pockets of our children and grandchildren. Please consider going to www.stopthesneakytax.com to add your name to the list of people who are unhappy with this proposed new law and send an email to your Congressmen asking them to say NO to the sneaky tax. You can also keep up to date with what is going on with this law by joining our new private Facebook group: SOS Save Our Stretch! Stop the Sneaky Tax! You can join the group by going to www.saveourstretch.com. For a limited time, joining the Facebook group will entitle you to a free Advance Reader Copy of Jim’s newest book – The 5 Greatest Tax-Saving Strategies for Protecting Your Family from the New Tax Law.

Sign our Petition to STOP Washington’s Planned Trillion Dollar IRA Sneaky Tax at www.stopthesneakytax.com.

Join our Facebook Group for breaking news and updates at www.saveourstretch.com.

And please forward this to everyone you know who has an IRA!

-Jim

You can view my previous posts on the Death of the Stretch IRA by clicking the links below;