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The November 3 version of the Build Back Better Act has resurrected retirement law changes that will curb high balance accounts and popular wealth building strategies including backdoor Roth IRAs and aftertax 401(k) contributions.There’s also a new $2.5 million retirement account reporting mandate, presumably to help the Internal Revenue Service with compliance. 

The elimination of backdoor Roth IRA conversions has made it back into the latest version of House Democrats’ tax and spending bill.

President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better framework excluded the retirement planning provisions that were approved in the House Ways and Means Committee’s Build Back Better bill in mid-September.

As we’ve seen from recent tax proposals, Congress has retirement accounts in its sights for future tax increases, especially the larger IRAs. We know what the tax rules and tax rates are for 2021, but advisers can also help clients make some defensive moves now, just in case any of these IRA tax proposals resurface in future years.

How well do you understand required minimum distributions (RMDs), which the IRS describes as “the minimum amount you must withdraw from your [retirement] account each year”?RMDs can be complicated, and there are changes coming for 2022 related to how they are calculated: In short, the divisors are increasing, which means the amount required to be withdrawn is decreasing.

My wife and I are about 10 years from retirement.We want to begin converting money in our individual retirement accounts to a Roth IRA, but the tax bite looks like a problem

Willie Delwiche, investment strategist for All Star Charts, says that the messy, sloppy range-bound market that we've seen since February is going to continue sideways for a while but ultimately will resolve itself to the upside, confirming a consolidation that is healthy for the long term. 

House Democrats proposed a rule to forbid Roth conversions for the wealthy as part of a broad package of tax increases on affluent Americans.

But there’s an irony in the proposal, according to tax experts.

Employers are increasingly offering a valuable retirement-saving tool to workers.In addition to traditional 401(k) plans, about 8 in 10 workplaces now let workers invest in a Roth 401(k), up from just 37% that offered the option in 2010, according to a recent survey from investing research firm Callan.

Advisers with clients who have large IRAs should be aware of congressional proposals targeting mega-IRAs — those holding more than $10 million — including a proposal for a mandatory 50% RMD of the amount over $10 million, Ed Slott says.

Congress has set its sights on mega-IRA balances, in large part due to the recent reports about Peter Thiel’s $5 billion Roth IRA. But some of these proposals will impact many other clients with smaller individual retirement accounts and Roth IRAs.