J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes 2017

CHAPTER 16 Retirement Plans

1. Qualified Retirement Plans
2. Added Costs for Retirement Plans
3. Retirement Plans for Self-Employed Individuals
4. Regular 401(k)s and Designated Roth Accounts
5. Individual Retirement Accounts
6. MyRAs
7. State-Sponsored Plans for the Private Sector
8. When to Take Action
9. Actions to Avoid
10. Comparison of Qualified Retirement Plans
11. ESOPs
12. Correcting Plan Defects
13. Retirement Plans Owning Your Business
14. Nonqualified Retirement Plans
15. Glossary of Terms for Retirement Plans

The Social Security benefits you may expect to receive will make up only a portion of your retirement income. And income from your business—through a sale, consulting agreement, or otherwise—may not be as much as you expected. In order to help you save for your own retirement and to encourage employers to provide retirement benefits to employees, the tax laws contain special incentives for retirement savings. Broadly speaking, if a retirement plan conforms to special requirements, then contributions are deductible while earnings are not currently taxable and forever escape employment taxes that would apply if wages had been paid instead of contributions. What is more, employees covered by such plans are not immediately charged with income. If you have employees, setting up retirement plans to benefit them not only gives you a current deduction for contributions you make to the plan but also provides your staff with benefits. This helps to foster employee goodwill and may aid in recruiting new employees and ...