Congress eyes retirement-plan tax benefits – MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — You’d think a legislative bill to fund the nation’s highways and mass-transit systems would have no connection to your retirement savings. But that didn’t stop lawmakers from proposing an amendment to the bill that would have trimmed a valuable retirement-plan benefit.

The proposal would have raised about $4.7 billion over 10 years by changing the rules governing how people who inherit an individual retirement account, or IRA, cash out that account.

Current law lets heirs stretch those payments — and the income-tax hit — over their lifetime, while the proposed amendment would have required heirs to distribute the sum over five years (spouses and some other types of heirs were excluded from the change).

via Congress eyes retirement-plan tax benefits – MarketWatch.