Nationalizing IRAs
I’ve read a few articles recently about the possibility of the federal government nationalizing retirement accounts. Would you care to share your thoughts on this subject? If you think (at some point) that nationalization of IRAs may become a reality, would a Roth be more secure (less likely to be nationalized) than a T-IRA? Thank you.
Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Thu, 2012-12-27 23:55
If by “nationalization” you mean the US govt would transfer ownership of IRA accounts from current owners to the govt, I think the chances of that are only a tick above “impossible”.The Congress has the authority to alter tax rules for IRA accounts, and the IRS is currently upgrading their enforcement of current IRA rules and regulations. There has also been proposals made to simplify the gamut of retirement accounts and rules that govern these accounts at this time. But when have you seen Congress simplify anything?A traditional IRA is often referred to as an account that is effectively owned by the the individual AND the IRS. When you take a distribution, the IRS collects it’s share. A Roth is subject to very limited IRS equity since most distributions are intended to be tax free. Therefore, any reduction in an owner’s interest in an IRA would potentially be greater in a Roth IRA, however unlikely that may be.
Permalink Submitted by Jose Morales on Fri, 2012-12-28 17:49
None of the “articles” that I’ve ever seen that discuss this were anywhere close to being from legitimate sources. Teabagger nonsense.