Number: RL32228
Title: Proposed Savings Accounts: Economic and Budgetary Effects
Authors: Jane G. Gravelle and Maxim Shvedov, Government and Finance Division 
Abstract: In several recent budget proposals, the President proposed to substitute for the current system of individual retirement accounts (IRAs) two new arrangements: lifetime savings accounts (LSAs) and retirement savings accounts (RSAs). The contribution limit for each of the new accounts was $5,000 in FY2005 - FY2007, down from $7,500 in FY2004. In FY2008 the LSA accounts were restricted to $2,000. In 2005 Senator Craig Thomas of the Finance Committee and Representative Sam Johnson of the Ways and Means Committee introduced identical bills to create LSAs (S. 545 / H.R. 1163) and RSAs (S. 546/H.R. 1162). A year earlier the same legislators sponsored similar bills (S. 2263/H.R. 4078, and H.R. 4714). The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform proposed similar accounts, called Save for Family and Save for Retirement accounts, with $10,000 annual limits, as a part of its final recommendations.
Pages: 23
Date: March 7, 2007