The following article by Patricia Cohen was posted on the New York Times website October 28, 2017:
When the benefits adviser Ted Benna first thought up a new type of employee savings plan in 1980, the client he created it for rejected the idea as too risky. After all, no one had previously used the unremarkable section of the tax code called 401(k) to defer paying taxes on money that rank-and-file workers set aside for retirement.
So Mr. Benna decided to try it out at his own workplace, Johnson Companies, a small consulting firm outside Philadelphia.
Without intending to, Mr. Benna set off a revolution. Nearly 40 years later, 401(k) accounts are the most common employer-sponsored retirement plans and a raft on which millions of Americans hope to float through retirement.
Suddenly, though, they are also at the center of a battle around the tax overhaul promised by President Trump and Republican leaders in Congress. A proposal to slash the amount of money workers can put in tax-deferred retirement accounts set off alarms among savers and members of the financial services industry, who contend that limiting the tax break would discourage contributions to 401(k) plans. Continue reading “Limit on 401(k) Savings? It’s About Paying for Tax Cuts”