Friday, June 17, 2011

CONFISCATE IRAS AND 401K

Q. Last week a co-worker of mine claimed that Congress recently introduced a bill that called for a government take-over of IRA’s and 401K plans and would offer a 3% rate of return. Talk of the idea that Washington will not cut spending nor raise taxes and will go after the pension funds, as that is where the money is, has circulated the internet and talk radio for several years. One individual advised people to cash in their pension funds to pay their taxes and be happy with what is left! What is your take on this?

A: I read about this a while back and am not too concerned about the pension change. As you know, there are a lot of ideas that have floated in Washington that have never seen the light of day. I have not seen anything on this for over a year and it could have been one piece of one of those blog scares. There has not been anything in the tax announcements from our library or from the IRS.