CompuServe Messages

"Protectionism does NOTHING to help the American consumer and in thelong run hurts us more than it helps." And the government does precious little to help the individual. Big business and unions seem to own most of the government. The other parts consider themselves seperate from and lords of the people. Here's on for you. Starting 1/1/93 if you are in a company retirement fund and say get laid off. Yur comapny "cashes you out" of the retirement fund by giving you a check. They have to retain 20% as a withholding tax. You then, within a day of recieving the check deposit it in a rollover IRA. The govenemt then says that 80% was income to you. You must pay taxes on it including a 10% early withdrawal penalty. Then youapply to get the witholding back, they call THAT income as well, take anothe 10% penalty plus withholding. And it was in transit between your company fund and an IRA through your hands for one day. They figured that since unemployment is expected to ot to 10% next year that they will make 20 billion on this little scheme. The onlywayto avoid it is to set up a conduit IRA between employers and have your former employer do a trustee to trustee transfer of funds. However, the law does n ot require any institution to accept such a transfer. You loose. You can no longer use eary withdrawal for catastrophic illness or to protect a residnece (as in to paya mortage when you've been out opf work for over 6 months and exhauseted all unemployment) without as much as 25% penalty. This wonderful law was brouht to you by those compassionate people who now own the white house and congress. Better keep the vaseline and preparation H handy for the next four years. I think at the end of it most of us will feel like partice dummies at the proctologist college. wmc – via Autopilot!