Retirement Enhancement Revenue Act of 2004

Bill: 108-hr-5398
Sponsor: Rep. Andrews, Robert E. [D-NJ-1]
Introduced: 2004-11-19 in the House
Policy area: Labor and Employment
Subjects: Accounting
Administrative procedure
Administrative remedies
Annuities
Bonds
Brokers
Business records
Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues
Civil service retirement
Collective bargaining
Commerce
Compensation (Law)
Computer software
Conflict of interests
Congress
Consumer complaints
Consumer education
Corporate divestiture
Defined benefit pension plans
Defined contribution plans
Department of Labor
Department of the Treasury
Discrimination
Divorce
Employee ownership
Excise tax
Executive compensation
Executives
Families
Federal preemption
Fees
Finance and Financial Sector
Financial planning
Financial services
Financial statements
Flexible benefit plans
Government Operations and Politics
Government paperwork
Governmental investigations
Health
Health insurance
Household workers
Income tax
Individual retirement accounts
Information disclosure (Securities law)
Insurance companies
Insurance premiums
Interest
Investment advisers
Investments
Labor contracts
Law
Layoffs
Loans
Local employees
Married people
Medical economics
Payroll deductions
Pension funds
Pension trust guaranty insurance
Railroad retirement plans
Retirement age
Risk
Saving and investment
Science, Technology, Communications
Securities
Separation (Law)
Small business
Social Welfare
State employees
State laws
Stocks
Sunset legislation
Support of dependents
Survivors' benefits
Tax administration
Tax credits
Tax deductions
Tax penalties
Tax refunds
Tax-deferred compensation plans
Taxation
Trusts and trustees
Valuation
Women
Women's retirement

Summary:
action_date: 2004-11-19
text: 
Retirement Enhancement Revenue Act of 2004 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to revise rules relating to tax-exempt retirement and employee benefit plans.
 
Imposes new qualification, reporting, and disclosure requirements for public employee pension plans.
 
Revises pension rules to provide for: (1) automatic enrollment of all eligible employees in 401(k) plans; (2) diversification of defined contribution plans that hold employer securities; (3) an increase to age 75 for beginning mandatory distributions from retirement plans; (4) restrictions on the exclusion of unionized employees from 401(k) plan participation; and (5) removal of the $5,000 limit on certain mandatory retirement plan distributions. 
 
Makes the tax credit for retirement savings contributions refundable and permanent. Allows certain small employers a business tax credit for contributions to employee pension plans.
 
Modifies requirements for joint and survivor annuities and for railroad retirement benefits for divorced and former spouses.
 
Revises rules for defined benefit plans to permit such plans to include 401(k) plans. Modifies certain defined benefit plan eligibility rules.
 
Allows: (1) an exemption from prohibited transaction restrictions for certain transactions between an employee benefit plan and a plan participant (i.e., aborted emergent transactions); (2) loans from retirement plans for health insurance and job training expenses; (3) income averaging of corrected civil service annuity benefit payments; and (4) an exemption from prohibited transaction penalties for certain employer-provided investment advice.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2004-11-19
text: Referred to the House Committee on Ways and Means.
action_date: 2004-11-19
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2004-11-19
text: Introduced in House