The tax reform bill is done.  President Trump signed the bill on December 22, meeting his deadline for completion by Christmas. While there is much to be said about the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”), the update on the retirement plan provisions is relatively unexciting.  Recall that when the tax reform process started, there was a lot of buzz about “Rothification” and other reductions to the tax advantages of retirement savings plans.  For…

Now that the House of Representatives and the Senate have passed their own versions of H.R. 1, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, a tug-of-war on a compromise that both bodies can pass is in full force.  Congress is following the normal legislative process by setting up a Conference Committee to reconcile the differences between the two competing bills – as each chamber must pass identical bills before it can go to the President for…

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the “Tax Cut and Jobs Act” (H.R. 1) last Thursday without, unsurprisingly, any Democratic support.  The retirement plan provisions in the bill haven’t changed. No eleventh-hour revenue-grabbing effort to convert all 401(k) plan contributions to Roth contributions or to place substantial limits on pre-tax plan contributions.  But there are still opportunities to do so if the need for additional revenue offsets arises. There was additional action on Thursday night…

Just as they appeared to survive round one of the House tax reform bill released last week, retirement savings programs, such as 401(k) plans and Individual Retirement Accounts, seem to emerge relatively unscathed from the Senate’s tax reform deliberations.  Nonetheless, the Senate Finance Committee’s proposal does include a few changes to these programs.…

For the last few weeks, U.S. tax reform deliberations put 401(k) retirement plans on a roller coaster ride. Rumors abounded, including, for example, whether legislators would impose new contribution caps, or eliminate pre-tax contributions altogether.  Legislators often have targeted the tax-advantaged status of retirement savings plans as a revenue raiser to pay for federal programs and competing tax breaks.  The House Republicans’ release of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “Act”) on November 2…