The Government Wants to Take One-Third of Your IRA

PITTSBURGH, Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- Top IRA expert, James Lange, CPA, attorney, and best-selling author of Retire Secure! has started a grass roots campaign to stop Washington's planned trillion-dollar IRA sneaky tax. With defined benefit pension plans virtually extinct, the risk and responsibility for saving for retirement has been foisted on working Americans. With some incentives from the government, like tax-deferred IRAs and other retirement accounts, people are struggling to save for the long-term well-being of their families.  For many Americans, IRAs and retirement plans hold the biggest share of their savings.  Now, Congress is likely to change the tax laws that govern IRA distributions and effectively kill one of the best long-term planning strategies we have access to?the stretch IRA.

Since January 2001, and to some extent even before that, the IRS has permitted beneficiaries to stretch distributions from inherited IRAs over their lifetime?known as the "stretch IRA." By paying the income taxes on relatively modest annual distributions for many years, your legacy continues to grow, tax deferred, and your heirs reap great benefits from your dedicated efforts to save while you were alive.

Now, Congress wants to change the rules. All inherited IRAs going to non-spouse beneficiaries (subject to some exceptions) would have to be emptied within five years of the IRA owner's death. The loss of the life-time tax deferral could WIPE OUT up to one-third of your IRA and in doing so the IRS jumps in line to become one of your prime beneficiaries.  

This proposed law is sneaky.  On the surface, it seems relatively harmless, "How bad can it be to offer heirs a few fewer years of tax-deferred distributions?" Well, we have done the math and we have projections to show that it can mean up to one-third of an inherited IRA being forfeit to early taxes.  Not many advisors are talking about its impact, but Jim Lange is speaking up.

Always on top of tax trends and legislation, Lange was one of the earliest IRA experts to recognize and to write about the benefits of Roth IRA conversions.  Even before Roth IRA conversions were approved in 1998, he wrote the first peer-reviewed article on Roth IRA conversions in the country in the AICPA's peer-reviewed journal, The Tax Adviser.  That article, demonstrated the benefits of Roth IRA conversions by fastidiously working through the math of Roth IRA conversions.  With the advance information, individuals were ready to make Roth conversions soon as it became possible. Many, are better off by hundreds of thousands, some millions of dollars?by having implemented a series of Roth IRA conversions from 1998 until the present. 

Now, he has seen that the federal government is planning one of the biggest tax grabs in U.S. history and everyone who has or will have more than $450,000 in an IRA or retirement plan is at risk.

Washington has piled up more than $19 TRILLION in debt ? over $63,000 for every man, woman, and child in America. And now they want YOU to bail them out!

On September 21, 2016, the Senate Committee on Finance voted 26-0 to ask Congress to kill the unlimited stretch IRA. The proposal now stands ready to be implemented.

If we don't make our voices heard ?NOW ? a substantial portion of the assets you've worked so hard to build over your lifetime could disappear. Here is 3 things you should do today to protect yourself and your family:

1. Go to www.StopTheSneakyTax.com, sign the petition to STOP Washington's planned Trillion-Dollar IRA tax grab and share it with your friends! 
2. Consider joining Lange's private Facebook group at www.SaveOurStretch.com for updated information and to stay informed!
3. Go to www.paytaxeslater.com/sneaky-tax for a full explanation of how the proposed law works and the financial steps you can take now to help minimize the impact to your legacy if the law does pass.

James Lange, CPA/attorney, is the President of Lange Financial Group, LLC. He has been in business in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for more than 35 years.  Lange and his team help IRA and retirement plan owners "get the most out of what they've got" by using proven strategies to address the financial concerns and the estate planning needs of their clients. Learn more at www.paytaxeslater.com

Media Contact: Amanda Cassady-Schweinsberg, Lange Accounting Group, LLC, 412-521-2732, [email protected]

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SOURCE Lange Accounting Group, LLC