A 146-page report from the Bipartisan Policy Center was released last week and a lot of high earners aren’t going to like it. One of the proposals is to shore up Social Security by raising the tax base. In YMYW podcast episode 37, Joe Anderson, CFP® and Big Al Clopine, CPA discuss what this report puts on the line for retirement. Original publish date June 11, 2016 (hour 1). Note that content may be outdated as rules and regulations have changed.

00:00 - Intro
02:39 - “This is not the first time we’ve seen some of these proposals; I’ve got to believe that some of these are going to come true at some point”
05:25 - “Probably not a lot of people realize it but at certain income limits they stop withholding Social Security”
09:13 - “If you don’t have a retirement plan today, here are three reasons why you should…”
14:07 - “More and more employees are suing their employer because they don’t have good choices in the 401(k) plans”
18:40 - “You have more control over paying taxes than you think, actually more so than any other time in your life”
22:37 - “As long as a marriage has lasted at least ten years, a married or divorced person can draw on his or her own benefits or the spousal benefits, whichever is higher. The recommendation is to cap the spousal benefit at a level equal to the spousal benefit received by someone married to a worker in the 75^th percentile of the earning distribution”
30:37 - “The report’s authors are concerned about Americans’ debt, including the increasing level of mortgage debt among older people”
32:32 - “[According to the report], they’re going to raise Social Security tax, they’re going to raise the amount of money they’re paying on Social Security…they’re going to limit the deductions on mortgage”
35:00 - “If you do a little bit of tax planning, there are significant things that you can do with your money from a tax perspective to save more money for you and less for Uncle Sam”