House Rules to Repackage Tax-Retirement Bill Today

Members of the House Rules Committee are preparing to look at the big Republican retirement bill starting at 5 p.m. today, in the U.S. Capitol.

The committee decides what’s in the legislation that goes to the House floor, what House members can talk about during the debate on the legislation, and how long the debate on the legislation can last.

(Related: House, Senate Votes on Retirement Bills Anticipated by Industry Officials)

The House Rules Committee approved an earlier version of the legislation — the “Retirement, Savings and Other Tax Relief Act of 2018″ bill and the “Taxpayer First Act of 2018″ bill — Nov. 28. The committee is now preparing to review a shorter version.

Wording

Officially, the legislation is packaged as a proposed amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 88, the “Shiloh National Military Park Boundary Adjustment and Parker’s Crossroads Battlefield Designation Act” bill.

What’s in There Now/?

The PDF file for the newest version of the legislation available on the House Rules site is dated Dec. 17.

The draft appears to include most or all of the income planning and health insurance provisions that were in the updated draft that House Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady posted a week ago.

The new version includes a number of retirement plan auto enrollment provisions, the repeal of the maximum age for traditional individual retirement account (IRA) contributions, and a fiduciary safe harbor for retirement plan sponsors who use reasonable care when choosing an annuitization option supplier.

The latest would version would also extend the current moratorium on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) medical device tax; put off implementation of the ACA “Cadillac plan tax,” or tax on high-cost health benefits packages; extend the current suspension of the ACA annual fee on health insurers, or “health insurer tax”; and repeal the excise tax on indoor tanning services.

Here’s a list of the bill provisions that appear to have a clear connection with health insurance or income planning:

Title I — Disaster Tax Relief

• Section 102. Special disaster-related rules for use of retirement funds.

Title II — Retirement and Savings

Subtitle A — Expanding and Preserving Retirement Savings

• Section 201. Multiple employer plans; pooled employer plans.
• Section 202. Rules relating to election of safe harbor 401(k) status.
• Section 204. Repeal of maximum age for traditional IRA contributions.
• Section 205. Qualified employer plans prohibited from making loans through credit cards and other similar arrangements.
• Section 206. Portability of lifetime income investments.
• Section 207. Treatment of custodial accounts on termination of section 403(b) plans.
• Section 208. Clarification of retirement income account rules relating to church-controlled organizations.
• Section 209. Increase in 10 percent cap for automatic enrollment safe harbor after 1st plan year.
• Section 210. Increase in credit limitation for small employer pension plan startup costs.
• Section 211. Small employer automatic enrollment credit.
• Section 212. Exemption from required minimum distribution rules for individuals with certain account balances.

Subtitle B — Administrative Improvements

• Section 223. Fiduciary safe harbor for selection of lifetime income provider.
• Section 224. Disclosure regarding lifetime income.

Title III — Repeal or Delay of Certain Health-Related Taxes

• Section 301. Extension of moratorium on medical device excise tax.
• Section 302. Delay in implementation of excise tax on high cost employer-sponsored health coverage.
• Section 303. Extension of suspension of annual fee on health insurance providers.
• Section 304. Repeal of excise tax on indoor tanning services.

Resources

The House Rules meeting page for the retirement bill is available here. The committee streams live video of its meetings on the web, and recordings are available immediately after the meetings are over.

— Read Brady Tax and Retirement Plan Package Hits Turbulence, on ThinkAdvisor.

— Connect with ThinkAdvisor Life/Health on LinkedIn and Twitter.