#efta01187674
LightNews LightNews
epsteinweb.bsky.social
Parts 1-3/3 — EFTA01187674.jpg
#epsteinweb #efta01187674
https://epsteinweb.org
Available in the iOS app store now!
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epstein-web/id6758880661
EFTA01187655 | EFTA01187674 and signed into law by President Gerald Ford on September 2, 1974, Labor Day. In the years since 1974, ERISA has been amended repeatedly. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) is a federal law that established minimum standards for pension plans in private industry and provides for extensive rules on the federal income tax effects of transactions associated with employee benefit plans. ERISA was enacted to protect the interests of employee benefit plan participants and their beneficiaries by: Requiring the disclosure of financial and other information concerning the plan to beneficiaries; establishing standards of conduct for plan fiduciaries; providing for appropriate remedies and access to the federal courts. ERISA is sometimes used to refer to the full body of laws regulating employee benefit plans, which are found mainly in the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA itself. Responsibility for the interpretation and enforcement of ERISA is divided among the Department of Labor, the Department of the Treasury (particularly the Internal Revenue Service), and the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation. Pre-1978 — Deferred compensation arrangements ("cash or deferred arrangements," known as CODAS) which allowed some compensation (and resulting tax liability) to be deferred, predate 4O1(k) plans by several decades and are viewed as their precursors. An ongoing debate between employers and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) about the extent of restrictions on such plans culminated in IRS guidance in 1956 on the deferral of profit-sharing contributions. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA) barred the issuance of Treasury regulations prior to 1977 that would impact plans in place on June 27, 1974, thereby freezing a regulation proposed by the IRS in December 1972 that would have severely restricted the tax-deferred status of such plans. This action inhibited the creation of some new plans. After Congress extended the moratorium deadline twice, the IRS withdrew the proposed regulation in 1978. ERISA also mandated a study of salary reduction plans that influenced 1978 legislation creating 4O1(k) plans. 1978—The Revenue Act of 1978 included a provision that became Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Sec. 401(k) (for which the plans are named), under which employees are not taxed on the portion of income they elect to receive as deferred compensation rather than as direct cash payments. The Revenue Act of 1978 added permanent provisions to the IRC, sanctioning the use of salary reductions as a source of plan contributions. The law went into effect on Jan. 1, 1980. Regulations were issued in November of 1981. The IRS issued proposed regulations on 401(k) plans that sanctioned the use of employee salary reductions as a source of retirement plan contributions. By January 1982 a number of major countries including Johnson & Johnson, FMC, PepsiCo, JC Penney, Honeywell, Savannah Foods & Industries, Hughes Aircraft Company, and Coates, Herfurth, & England (a San Francisco-based consulting firm) develop 401(k) plan proposals, many of which officially began operation in January 1982. Many employers replaced older, after-tax thrift plans with 4O1(k) and added 4O1(k) options to profit-sharing and stock bonus plans. Within two years, surveys showed that nearly half of all large firms were either already offering a 4O1(k) plan or considering one. By 1990 there were 97,614 plans with a 4O1(k) feature, 19,548,000 active participants 19,548,000 and $384.85 billion in the plans. By 1996 there were 230,808 401 (k) plans, 30,843,000 active participants and $1.6 trillion in total assets. As of year-end 2003 there were 438,000 plans with a 4O1(k) feature, with 42.4 million active participants and $1.9 trillion in assets. And as of April 2013 there were 654,469 401(k) plans, 88,301,000 total participants with $4.2 trillion in assets. One of the results is that at year-end 1981 the Dow Jones Industrial Average was 875 and it closed on Friday at 16,103.30. Which on face value appears as a fantastic return for participants/workers, except that the numbers are misleading as the Top 1% own almost 40% of the country's wealth and the top 10% own 75.4% of the country's wealth as of December 2013. To provide you with another illustration, the five Walmart heirs have more wealth than the bottom 16o million Americans. So the 401(k) EFTA01187674 Epstein Web iOS app on the App Store.
May 12, 2026 at 9:50 PM