In the United States of America, a 401(k) pension plan allows a worker to save for retirement and have the savings invested while deferring current income taxes on the saved money and earnings until withdrawal. The employee elects to have a portion of his or her wages paid directly, or "deferred," into his or her 401(k) account. This deferment is also known as a "contribution".
401(k) plans are mainly employer sponsored plans; the employer can, as a benefit to the employee, optionally choose to "match" part or all of the employee's contribution by depositing additional amounts in the employee's 401(k) account or simply offer a profit sharing contribution to the plan. In participant-directed plans (the most common option), the employee can select from a number of investment options, usually an assortment of mutual funds that emphasize stocks, bonds, money market investments, or some mix of the above. Many companies' 401(k) plans also offer the option to purchase the company's stock. The employee can generally re-allocate money among these investment choices at any time. In the less common trustee-directed 401(k) plans, the employer appoints trustees who decide how the plan's assets will be invested. The title "401(k)" references a section of the Internal Revenue Code.
Some assets in 401(k) plans are tax deferred. Before the January 1, 2006, effective date of the designated Roth account provisions, all 401(k) contributions were on a pre-tax basis (i.e., no income tax is withheld on the income in the year it is contributed), and the contributions and growth on them are not taxed until the money is withdrawn. With the enactment of the Roth provisions, participants in 401(k) plans that have the proper amendments can allocate some or all of their contributions to a separate designated Roth account, commonly known as a Roth 401(k). Qualified distributions from a designated Roth account are tax free, while contributions to them are on an after-tax basis (i.e., income tax is paid or withheld on the income in the year contributed). In addition to Roth and pre-tax contributions, some participants may have after-tax contributions in their 401(k) accounts. The after-tax contributions are treated as after-tax basis and may be withdrawn without tax. The growth on after-tax amounts not in a designated Roth account is taxed as ordinary income.
Details
As an employee benefit, a 401(k) must be sponsored by an employer, typically a private sector corporation. As of 1996, a 401(k) may also be sponsored by a tax-exempt non-profit organization for its employees. A self-employed individual can set up a 401(k) plan, and, until 1986, a government entity could do so as well. The employer is responsible for creating and designing the plan. And while ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) defaults reporting and disclosure to the plan sponsor, there is no default for a fiduciary, and the plan sponsor must either identify at least one "named fiduciary" in the plan document or it must write a procedure into the plan for appointing the named fiduciary. While ERISA defaults total discretion and control over plan assets and investments to the plan's trustee, many plan sponsors override this default structure by giving responsibility for selecting and monitoring plan investments to the named fiduciary, often a committee of internal employees, or a mix of internal employees and outside persons bringing in particular fiduciary expertise.
A 401(k) plan is a type of defined contribution plan (under the IRS's definition). It is a salary reduction plan, where employees must choose a percentage of their salary to contribute to the plan, and the plan spells out the extent of employer matching, if any (regardless of profits). Employee taxable salaries are reduced by these contributions, the contributions are invested, and any earnings are tax-deferred, i.e., until the employee draws the money out at retirement. Two other types of defined contribution plans are profit-sharing plans, in which the plan specifies, for example, that the employer will contribute 10% of net profits each year (divided among participant accounts), and money purchase pension plans, in which the plan defines the contribution as 10% of participants' annual salary, for example. 401(k) plans are not a defined benefit plan, because the benefit formula (specifying what participants will receive at retirement) is not spelled out in the plan. 401(a) profit sharing plans and money purchase pension plans, and 401(k) plans, are individual account plans, because each participant's benefit is the value of an individual account to which the contributions have been made plus any investment income and less any losses. If investments do well, there will be more in the account at retirement; if investments do poorly, there will be less.
In addition, 401(k) plans are tax-qualified plans covered by ERISA such that assets held by the plans are generally protected from creditors of the account holder, which in the past was generally not true for IRA plans. In the case of employer bankruptcy, all 401(a) (pension and defined contribution plans) and 401(k) plans are protected, because of the rule that contributions must accrue to the exclusive benefit of employees in general. Even though pension plans are backed by insurance through the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, workers whose company enters bankruptcy may not receive the full value of their pension. ERISA protection of 401(k) assets does not extend to losses in the value of investments that participants choose. Employees investing their 401(k) in their own employer stock face the possibility of losing the value of their retirement accounts that is invested in employer stock along with their jobs if their employer goes out of business.
Defined benefit plans have a definitely determinable benefit amount that usually has a fixed formula, regardless of how the underlying plan assets perform. Defined contribution plans according to Section 414(i) of the IRC have individual accounts. Because plan sponsors want to take advantage of the exemption from the fiduciary duty to diversify plan assets to minimize the risk of large losses by using ERISA Section 404(c), these plans usually provide each worker the ability to control the contents of his account. The account value may fluctuate in value based on the underlying investments. There is a risk that returns may even be negative.
Some companies match employee contributions to some extent, paying extra money into the employee's 401(k) account as an incentive for the employee to save more money for retirement. Alternatively the employer may make profit sharing contributions into the 401(k) plan or just contribute a fixed percentage of wages. These contributions may vest over several years as an inducement to the employee to stay with the employer.
When an employee leaves a job, the 401(k) account generally stays active for the rest of his or her life, though the accounts must begin to be withdrawn beginning April 1 of the calendar year after the attainment of age 70½ or April 1 of the calendar year after retiring, whichever is later. In 2004 some companies started charging a fee to ex-employees who maintained their 401(k) account with that company. Alternatively, when the employee leaves the company, the account can be rolled over into an IRA at an independent financial institution, or if the employee takes a new job at a company that also has a 401(k) or other eligible retirement plan, the employee can "roll over" the account into a new 401(k) account hosted by the new employer.
Comparable types of salary-deferral retirement plans include 403(b) plans covering workers in educational institutions, churches, public hospitals, and non-profit organizations and 457 plans which cover employees of state and local governments and certain tax-exempt entities.
Significant new rules are allowing benefits companies (Plan Providers) and those involved in selling benefits to plans (Plan Advisors) to expand their capabilities to sell services to Plan Sponsors (those responsible for managing employer-sponsored retirement plans for companies).
Tax consequences
Most 401(k) contributions are on a pre-tax basis. Starting in the 2006 tax year, employees can either contribute on a pre-tax basis or opt to utilize the Roth 401(k) provisions to contribute on an after tax basis and have similar tax effects of a Roth IRA. However, in order to do so, the plan sponsor must amend the plan to make those options available. With either pre-tax or after tax contributions, earnings from investments in a 401(k) account (in the form of interest, dividends, or capital gains) are not taxable events. The resulting compound interest without taxation can be a major benefit of the 401(k) plan over long periods of time.
For pre-tax contributions, the employee does not pay federal income tax on the amount of current income that he or she defers to a 401(k) account. For example, a worker who earns $50,000 in a particular year and defers $3,000 into a 401(k) account that year only recognizes $47,000 in income on that year's tax return. Currently this would represent a near term $750 savings in taxes for a single worker, assuming the worker remained in the 25% marginal tax bracket and there were no other adjustments (e.g. deductions). The employee ultimately pays taxes on the money as he or she withdraws the funds, generally during retirement. The character of any gains (including tax favored capital gains) are transformed into "ordinary income" at the time the money is withdrawn.
For after tax contributions to a designated Roth account (Roth 401(k)), qualified distributions can be made