LEGISLATION: Obama budget proposal addresses retirement, taxes

President Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget proposal includes several items that could be of interest to financial advisers.

President Obama’s fiscal 2010 budget proposal includes several items that could be of interest to financial advisers. For starters, employers that didn’t offer retirement plans would have to enroll workers in direct-deposit individual retirement accounts unless employees chose not to participate. Additionally, the budget proposes lowering the allowed tax rate to 28% from 35% that wealthy taxpayers apply when itemizing charitable donations. Also, all carried-interest distributions from private-equity funds and hedge funds would be taxed as ordinary income instead of as capital gains; Bush administration tax cuts for couples earning more than $250,000 annually would expire as of 2011; those same people would pay a 20% tax on capital gains and dividend taxes, up from 15%; and the estate tax would be frozen at 2009 levels, which allows a $3.5 million exclusion per person. To see the proposed budget, visit www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/.