Blunt testifies in favor of small-business pensionsÊ

Rep. Roy Blunt appeared before the House Small Business Subcommittee on Tax, Finance and Exports Sept. 16 to testify in favor of increasing small-business access to pension plans, according to a release from Blunt's office.

Blunt is the original sponsor of House Resolution 3870, the "Small Business Retirement Plan," that reduces administrative requirements and costs on firms with 99 or fewer employees, and provides tax incentives for them to start retirement plans.

Blunt told the House committee, "America's small-business owners and their employees do not have adequate access to the third leg of the proverbial 'three-legged stool' of retirement savings employer-sponsored retirement plans."

Blunt has found that "only 42 percent of people who work for employers with fewer than 100 employees, and a mere 17 percent of those who work for employers with fewer than 25 employees, have access to employer-sponsored plans," he said in the release.

Small Business Administration statistics indicate that employers with 100 to 1,000 employees have 69 percent of their workers in employer-sponsored retirement plans; 84 percent of all Americans who work for employers with 1,000 or more workers have access to such plans.

Under Blunt's plan, employers are encouraged to provide small-business pension coverage. The employers guarantee an annual contribution, not a future benefit, making it easier for them to assume the obligations of a pension plan.

The same maximum level of contributions is allowed as in large corporate plans, and tax credits would help offset the start-up costs of putting the pension plan in place. The Blunt plan also requires the Internal Revenue Service to develop a new "easy reporting" form for the plan's annual report, the release stated.[[In-content Ad]]