Tag: Melanie Waddell

DOL Can’t Put Fiduciary Duty on IRAs, Ex-Labor Official Testifies

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2024/01/10/dol-cant-put-fiduciary-duty-on-iras-ex-labor-official-testifies/

Excerpt:

The Labor Department lacks the legal authority to promulgate its new fiduciary rule, Brad Campbell, partner at Faegre Drinker, and former head of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration, told House lawmakers Wednesday.

During testimony before the House Financial Services Capital Markets Subcommittee, Campbell maintained that the department “doesn’t have the legal authority to do what it is trying to do” because it cannot impose a fiduciary duty as it relates to individual retirement accounts.

“The reason we are here today is that the Proposals go well beyond DOL’s limited authority,” Campbell told lawmakers.

Labor’s plan ”would make DOL the primary financial regulator of $26 trillion, approximately half of which is held by individuals” in IRAs rather than employer-provided plans.

If Labor’s proposals “were limited to redefining fiduciary advice within the department’s actual authority — which is to administer the fiduciary standard expressly created by Congress to regulate employee benefit plans sponsored by private sector employers under Title I of ERISA — we wouldn’t be here today,” Campbell opined.

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 10 Jan 2024

Publication Site: Think Advisor

New Bill Would Exclude Social Security From Income Tax

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2023/05/22/new-bill-would-exclude-social-security-from-income-tax/

Excerpt:

New legislation, H.R. 3206, the Senior Citizens Tax Elimination Act, would repeal the inclusion in gross income of Social Security benefits.

Social Security advocates criticized the bill, saying it would hurt the solvency of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

Under current law, up to 85% of a retiree’s Social Security benefits are taxed, depending on income. This tax revenue is deposited to the trust funds.

The bill specifies that taxes cannot be raised to replace this revenue.

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 22 May 2023

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Sanders’ Social Security Bill Would Extend Payroll Tax to Capital Gains for High Earners

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/06/10/bernie-sanders-new-social-security-bill-would-extend-payroll-tax-to-capital-gains-for-high-earners/

Excerpt:

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., introduced Thursday the Social Security Expansion Act (SSEA), which would, among other measures, boost benefits, adopt the Consumer Price Index for the Elderly, or CPI-E, for benefit increases, and subject all income above $250,000 — including capital gains — to the Social Security payroll tax.

Dan Adcock, Director of Government Relations and Policy at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, told ThinkAdvisor Friday in an email that the DeFazio-Sanders bill, like the Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust, introduced by Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., “both extend solvency and improve benefits.”

The Larson bill, however, “is consistent with President Biden’s pledge not to raise taxes on Americans earning less than $400,000 per year,” Adcock said, while “the Sanders-DeFazio bill is not.”

A Sacred Trust adopts the consumer price index for the elderly as the basis of the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and applies the payroll tax to annual wages above $400,000.

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 10 June 2022

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Action on Social Security 2100 Bill Coming ‘Very Soon’: Rep. Larson

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/05/23/action-on-social-security-2100-bill-coming-very-soon-rep-larson/

Excerpt:

The House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee plans to debate his Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust bill soon, Rep. John Larson, D-Conn., chairman of the House Ways and Means Social Security Subcommittee, told ThinkAdvisor in a recent email.

The legislation adopts the consumer price index for the elderly as the basis of the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and applies the payroll tax to annual wages above $400,000.

“We are in the process of working toward markup, which will be held hopefully very soon,” Larson said in the email.

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 23 May 2022

Publication Site: Think Advisor

8 New Social Security Bills in Congress Now

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/04/21/8-new-social-security-bills-in-congress-now/

Excerpt:

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, pressed House leaders Tuesday to pass the Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust Act, H.R. 5723, which adopts the consumer price Index for the elderly as the basis of the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and applies the payroll tax to annual wages above $400,000.

“I wish to indicate our strong support for H.R. 5723 – Social Security 2100: A Sacred Trust and encourage its prompt floor consideration this Congress,” Jayapal told House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Monday in a letter.

The bill, Jayapal wrote, “increases benefits across the board at a time of higher inflation, protects low-income seniors, widows and widowers, ends wait-times for those with disabilities needing support and more. Crucially, it is paid for by making millionaires and billionaires pay the same rate as everyone else by ensuring the payroll tax is applied to wages above $400,000.”

She urged Pelosi to move the bill to a vote in the House “as soon as possible.”

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 21 April 2022

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Ed Slott: Child Tax Credit Is ‘a Mess!’

Mary Pat Campbell

Link:https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2022/02/01/ed-slott-child-tax-credit-is-a-mess/

Excerpt:

The Internal Revenue Service issued Tuesday a revised Fact Sheet and frequently asked questions on the 2021 child tax credit and advance child tax credit to help eligible families properly claim the credit when they prepare and file their 2021 tax return.

Tax expert Ed Slott of Ed Slott & Co. told ThinkAdvisor on Tuesday in an email that the child tax credit situation this year is “a mess! Some people may end up paying a tax pro more than the credit!”

Others, Slott said, “may still pay a tax pro only to end up returning money they already received. Advance payments can always be tricky when it’s time to reconcile.”

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 1 Feb 2022

Publication Site: Think Advisor

Bill Reintroduced to Shore Up Social Security, Medicare

Mary Pat Campbell

Link: https://www.thinkadvisor.com/2021/04/15/bill-reintroduced-to-shore-up-social-security-medicare/

Excerpt:

A bipartisan group of lawmakers reintroduced Thursday legislation to shore up the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds.

The Time to Rescue United States Trusts, or TRUST Act, would establish bipartisan, bicameral commissions to address the long-term solvency of major trust funds.

….

The Congressional Budget Office projects the Highway Trust Fund will be insolvent by 2022, the Medicare Hospital Insurance Trust Fund in 2026, the Social Security retirement fund in 2032, and Social Security Disability Insurance in 2035.

Author(s): Melanie Waddell

Publication Date: 15 April 2021

Publication Site: Think Advisor