The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) launched a campaign against President Joe Biden’s attack against retirement plans Wednesday.
The TPA launched the “Don’t Touch My IRA” campaign to protect Americans’ traditional Roth individual retirement plans (IRAs) from Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act’s attacks on retirement plans. The taxpayer protection group said that the proposal would “jeopardize” millions of Americans’ retirement.
TPA President David Williams said in a statement Wednesday:
Joe Biden’s IRA plan is an attack on the savings and retirements of millions of Main Street Americans. Biden’s plan will eviscerate IRA retirement savings system that millions of Americans have relied on and invested heavily in. This proposal is fundamentally unfair and should be rejected.
Any changes to the IRA system will jeopardize trust in the financial system and make life more difficult for average savers and investors. Current IRA plans promise retirement security for people who work hard and save money. If this disastrous plan succeeds, it will change the rules in the middle of the game, and threaten the long-term savings of millions of Americans and small businesses.
The House Democrats’ proposal would bar IRAs from holding certain private investments usually reserved for the wealthy, otherwise known as an “accredited investor.” Those in favor of the change believe it would prevent wealthy Americans from evading taxes, while those against it think it could hit ordinary Americans.
Americans who make over $200,000 annually or have $1 million in net worth qualify for accredited investor status. This status lets Americans invest in private equity, hedge funds, and venture capital, and other funds that are not publicly traded on stock markets.
Ed Slott, an accountant and IRA expert, said the Democrat proposal could harm many middle-class Americans.
“It’s like a fisherman’s net,” Slott said. “The net picks up a lot of small fish that are unintended targets.”
Further complicating matters, the income and asset threshold for accredited investor status has not changed since the 1980s, meaning that 13 percent of households qualify for this status.
“Biden’s plan will hurt middle-income IRAs held by families and millennials with more audits, higher penalties, and disincentives to save. These changes will only lead to an increasingly insecure retirement for hardworking Americans,” Williams said. “Democrats should be protecting the middle class, not destroying a proven way of saving for the future.”
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.