All we wanted was a relatively pain-free Tax Season. Is that asking too much?
Apparently.
With two years of Tax Cuts and Jobs Act experience under their belts, tax practitioners were hopeful that this year’s Busy Season would be at least somewhat less hectic than it’s been recently. Even national tax experts were saying things seemed relatively quiet in the lead-up to Tax Season.
Then came Dec. 20, and the passage of the SECURE Act.
The name is an acronym for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement,” and it’s designed to strengthen the financial security of retirees throughout the U.S.
“Part of the bill addresses the grim outlook for many workers who don’t have access to workplace retirement accounts,” writes Alessandra Malito for MarketWatch. “It offers small businesses tax incentives to set up automatic enrollment in retirement plans for its workers, or allows them to join multiple employer plans, where they can band together with other companies to offer retirement accounts to their employees in the first place. The bill also eliminates the maximum age cap for contributions to traditional individual retirement accounts.”
As with any law that comes out of Washington, though, the devil is in the details. Malito’s article offers the pros and cons of many of the law’s provisions, including those that impact 401(k)s, individual retirement accounts, the required minimum distribution age, multiple employer plans, auto-enrollment, and more.
New MACPA webcast examines SECURE Act
In an effort to help members get up to speed on these changes, the MACPA is offering a new two-hour webcast titled “Understanding the SECURE Act and Other 2019 Tax Law Changes.” Led by BLI instructor Arthur Werner, the webcast will explore the law’s retirement provisions as well as a number of tax provisions that have been extended through Dec. 31, 2020. The legislation also repealed certain provisions of the Affordable Care Act; Werner will explore these as well.
The webcast is scheduled for the following dates throughout Tax Season:
- Feb. 7, 10, 13, 18, 20, 24 and 26
- March 3, 5, 9, 12, 18, 19, 23, 27 and 30
- April 2, 6, 9, 15, 17, 21, 22, 28 and 29
Get more details and register here.