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October 23, 2018 at 11:24 AM
Robert Bloink and William H. Byrnes
One of the pieces of legislation making its way through Congress currently contains a proposal to create a type of universal savings account (USA) that would allow taxpayers to contribute after-tax funds to an account that would permit tax-free distributions, similar to the way distributions from a Roth IRA are treated.
These accounts are designed to encourage saving because, unlike other types of retirement-specific tax-preferred accounts, USAs allow savers to withdraw funds at any time after the contribution is made.
(Last week’s Thumb to Thumb: Was It Right to Kill the DOL Fiduciary Rule?)
We asked Professors Robert Bloink and William Byrnes, who are affiliated with ALM’s Tax Facts, and hold opposing political viewpoints, to share their opinions on the new universal savings accounts. Byrnes thinks that the accounts will provide a valuable incentive for individuals to save more, both for retirement and general emergencies, while Bloink views the accounts to be yet another tax savings tool for the very wealthy, and thinks that automatic IRAs (“auto-IRAs”) would be a much more valuable introduction for a much larger population group.
Below is a summary of the debate that ensued between the two professors.
Their Votes:
Byrnes: YES
Bloink: NOTheir Reasons:
Byrnes: Introducing universal savings accounts is a great idea. Far too many people don’t save for retirement or for the future because retirement accounts impose penalties for early withdrawals, meaning that if the individual saves for retirement, he or she may not also be able to access those savings in an emergency. Lack of access is a powerful disincentive to savings that the universal savings account model would fix.
Bloink: The savings disincentive Professor Byrnes describes might be there, but the universal savings account is not going to generate the type of savings that we need. As currently drafted, the universal savings account rules will do little more than encourage wealthy taxpayers to shift savings from taxable accounts into these tax-preferred vehicles in order to escape paying taxes on the account’s earnings over time.
