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The U.S. Master Pension Guide reflects the latest regulations, rulings and cases for qualified retirement plans, surveying the different type of plans from which an employer may choose, and describing the procedures for obtaining plan qualification.

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CCH® PENSION AND BENEFITS — 4/30/08

House passes taxpayer rights bill, including provisions on IRAs, HSAs

The House on April 15, 2008, passed H.R. 5719, The Taxpayer Assistance and Simplification Bill of 2008, this year’s version of taxpayer rights legislation. Among the items included in the legislation are provisions affecting IRAs and health savings accounts (HSAs).

The bill would allow an individual to contribute back to an IRA amounts that were levied and returned by the IRS (and interest, if applicable) within 60 days without violating the usual dollar limits on IRA contributions.

The bill would provide that distributions from an HSA for qualified medical expenses would be excluded from gross income only to the extent substantiated. In addition, the bill would require trustees to report expenses not substantiated.

The two most controversial provisions in the legislation are a repeal of private tax collection contracts and the HSA substantiation requirement. The presence of these two provisions has made its future in the Senate cloudy and has resulted in a White House veto threat.