Marietta, GA, September 24, 2014 – During a recent hearing on Capitol Hill with the Senate Finance Committee, the old rumors and fears of taxing retirement accounts were reborn. According to the hearing information released from the Senate Committee on Finance, Chairman, Ron Wyden (D-Ore), who wants retirement savings on the tax reform agenda, used a recent Governmental Accountability Office, analysis to support claims that:

• incentives for savings in the tax code are not getting to the people who need them, and
• something is out of whack with a system that he said taxpayers are subsidizing at a current $140 billion/year.

Additionally, the same GAO analysis that the Chairman referenced contained the following data

• 9,000 of population have IRAs greater than $5 million
• 43 million of population have IRAs less than $5 million

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance committee claimed that to consider the Chairman’s claims are a “political strategy by some in Congress to turn pension policy into just another partisan battleground”.

The committee noted that “IRAs were never intended to become tax shelters for millionaires – they’re designed to help typical Americans save for retirement.”

The committee’s release goes onto say: “As the Finance Committee continues to work on modernizing the tax code, it should take a good look at fixing this issue. With limited resources, it’s crucial to use taxpayer dollars wisely.”

This language indicates that they don’t want to allow IRAs to be tax shelters, which in turn implies taxing them because it’s “crucial to use taxpayer dollars wisely”.

Torrid Technologies’ founder and attorney Timothy Turner says, “The committee seems to be leaning towards the idea of eliminating or reducing the ability of IRAs to shelter money for retirement. They are doing this under the guise that it’s somehow unfair for some people to have saved so much money, but the problem is once you go down this dangerous route where will they stop?  How big or small of an account do you have to have before they eliminate the tax shelter?  U.S. citizens don’t want this type of intrusion into their retirement accounts.”

For more information about the before mentioned U.S. Senate Committee on Finance hearing, please visit (http://www.finance.senate.gov/newsroom/chairman/release/?id=6605d837-6ab3-4bf8-938b-ce327bea119b)

About Torrid Technologies

Torrid Technologies offers a keep it simple retirement planning tool that allows you to hold onto a strong retirement future, even if the powers that be in Washington try to make a grab for it.  You can download a complimentary demo copy from their website at:  http://www.torrid-tech.com

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