Upjohn Author ORCID Identifier
Series
Upjohn Institute Working Paper No. 96-45
**Published Version**
In Tax Reform: Implications for Economic Security and Employee Benefits, Dallas L. Salisbury, ed. Washington, DC: Employee Benefit Research Institute, 1997, pp. 27-34
DOI
10.17848/wp96-45
Issue Date
Revised July 1996
Abstract
The current tax treatment of pensions and health insurance in the United States is a hybrid that lacks consistency under either an accrual income tax system or a consumption tax system. Under an accrual income tax, employer contributions to pension plans represent an addition to wealth that would be taxed at the time they are made. The interest earned on pension contributions also represents an addition to wealth that would be taxed annually. When a worker retires, all applicable taxes would already have been paid on the benefit, and the flow of retirement income received by the worker would not be taxed. Similarly, employer-provided health insurance arguably represents a current benefit that, under the income tax, should be taxed annually as current income.
Subject Areas
LABOR MARKET ISSUES; Retirement and pensions; Wages, health insurance and other benefits; Health insurance
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Citation
Woodbury, Stephen A. 1996. "Employee Benefits and Tax Reform." Upjohn Institute Working Paper No. 96-45. Kalamazoo, MI: W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. https://doi.org/10.17848/wp96-45