Ways and Means Chairman schedules markup of retirement bill later this week

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) announced on Monday that his committee will “markup” his retirement bill on Wednesday.

A “markup” is a process where committee members offer amendments to a specific piece of legislation, i.e., mark up the bill. It is usually done for bills that are expected to pass the committee and move to a vote on the House floor.

Neal’s bill, the “Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2021,” tracks closely to “The Securing a Strong Retirement Act of 2020,” which Neal introduced in the last Congress (i.e., last year) with Committee Ranking Member Kevin Brady (R-Texas).

Both bills expand automatic enrollment in retirement plans and allow taxpayers higher catch-up contributions as they get older. They also increase the age for beginning required minimum distributions from retirement accounts, from 72 to 75. 

The current bill, however, includes revenue provisions, which last year’s Neal/Brady bill did not. Those provisions include:

• Permitting SEP and a SIMPLE IRAs to be designated as Roth IRAs, which means that contributions are not deductible in the year they are made.
• Designating certain catch-up and employer matching contributions to be designated as Roth contributions, which, again, means that the contributions would not be deductible in the year made.

A Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) description of Neal's current bill can be found here.

The JCT’s revenue estimate of his bill can be found here.

The legislative text of the bill is not yet available online.