Americans are considering major reforms to income tax, both personal and corporate. In order to fund the desired reduction in tax rates it is necessary to broaden the tax base. All tax deductions, credits and exempt incomes (tax expenditures) are under review. On that list are the tax sheltered...

A worker can contribute pre-tax dollars to a private pension plan. Under a progressive tax, this feature reduces income taxes. Ippolito (1986) argues that an individual in 1979 can reduce lifetime taxes by 20%. We re-examine his analysis using the complete time-series of US income tax history...

In an environment where lawmakers are struggling to raise tax revenue, public-policy tax “expenditures” have come under heavy scrutiny. In particular, tax preferences to boost retirement savings in employer-provided retirement plans has been at the center of such discussions. A recent study...

The primary motivation for retirement savings policy is the view that many of us, if left to our own devices, will not save enough for retirement. Special tax subsidies for employer-sponsored retirement plans — a principal component of the federal policy scheme — have made such plans the...

This paper helps answer one of the most important questions that many defined contribution participants face before retirement: How much do I need to save each year for a “successful” retirement? It begins with a brief description of EBRI's Retirement Security Projection Model,® followed by...

This paper summarizes discussion on new ways to reduce retirement plan “leakage,” presented at the Employee Benefit Research Institute's 78th policy forum in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2016. A recurring issue with defined contribution (DC) savings plans such as the 401(k) is the risk of...

This paper provides an overview of the major provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 and the pension accounting changes for single-employer defined benefit plans, as well as an explanation of the expected impact of each on plan sponsors. The results of the recent EBRI/Mercer Survey of...