Tax Update Blog: Permalink

« Previous · Tax Update Blog Home · Next »

MAKING OTHERS PAY FOR YOUR GOOD INTENTIONS

June 27, 2008

You're just starting a small business. You're working 18 hour days to try to keep the doors open, paying the rent, and meeting your payroll. You know what you need? You need to have to sponsor individual retirement accounts for your employees!

That's what two congressmen think, anyway. From Tax Analysts ($link):

A bill that would require business owners to offer individual retirement accounts to employees has a decent chance of becoming law within the next year, the taxwriter who introduced the bill said at a June 26 congressional hearing.

House Ways and Means Select Revenue Measures Subcommittee Chair Richard E. Neal, D-Mass., argued that his bill, H.R. 2167, the Automatic IRA Act of 2007, would be a relatively painless way to boost personal savings.

Subcommittee ranking member Phil English, R-Pa., a cosponsor of the bill, attested to its bipartisan appeal. "Clearly we need to do more to encourage all Americans to save for retirement, and we need to work together to find creative solutions," English said.

"We"? Congressman English isn't going to have to do the paperwork to run these plans. The business owner will. This scheme would make it that much harder for a small business to keep going. It would push the small employer to either not hire, or to only hire independent contractors and temps.

This is a "we" in the sense that "you do what I tell you, or else" means "we." It won't solve the savings "problem," not while the government continues to spend like there's no tomorrow. But it will help the congresscritters' self-esteem. And that's what matters.

      Bookmark: del.icio.us • Digg • reddit