In a letter to the House Ways and Means Committee Working Group on Retirement and Pensions this week, NACo urged the group to ensure any federal tax changes support retirement policies and flexibility at the state and local level.
NACo’s letter describes how the current tax treatment of state and local pensions has supported a robust, cost efficient, and sustainable retirement benefit system, even through recent economic downturns, and asks that the pensions be left untouched by tax reforms.
As you consider possible reforms of the federal tax code, we urge you to “do no harm” to this current system of support for employer-provided retirement plans. Care must be taken so that the tax treatment of retirement savings continues to support real retirement security for American workers, both public-sector as well as private-sector, and maintain the quality of life for future generations of retirees.
According to NACo, the Working Group on Retirement and Pensions is one of several formed to review current tax law in specified areas and seek input from subject matter experts and the general public. The Joint Committee on Taxation has been instructed to summarize the comments and deliberations of each working group in a report due to the full Ways and Means Committee by May 6, 2013.
For more information, read the letter or contact Deseree L. Gardner of NACo at 202.942.4204.
