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Secure 2.0, the new legislation designed in part to beef up retirement savings, contains nearly 100 provisions—92 to be exact—pertaining to retirement. And even those who eat, breathe and sleep all things retirement are finding it a bit overwhelming. 

This week, President Joe Biden released a proposed federal budget that would raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans to help address the solvency of key federal government entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security.

If you think saving for retirement is complicated, try figuring out how to withdraw retirement funds while minimizing taxes.

“As much as 70 percent of your hard-earned retirement funds can be eaten up by income, estate and state taxes,” says IRA guru Ed Slott, author of the retirement-planning books “Fund Your Future: A Tax-Smart Savings Plan in Your 20s and 30s” and “The Retirement Savings Time Bomb … and How to Defuse It.”

While a recent Investment Company Institute survey indicates that contributions to IRAs are low — likely because IRA rules are “complicated” — advisors are also confused about the rules, according to IRA and tax expert Ed Slott of Ed Slott and Co.

A $1 contribution today to a new Roth individual retirement account may not sound like much. But that seemingly small sum might save you a bundle in taxes down the road due to an under-the-radar timing requirement.

Your initial Roth IRA contribution starts the clock on something called the “five-year rule,″ said Ed Slott, a certified public accountant and IRA expert based in Rockville Centre, New York. In basic terms, that rule requires Roth IRA owners have their account for five or more years to avoid paying income tax on any withdrawn investment earnings.

Ed Slott on the legislation’s provisions for matching and catch-up contributions as well as for workers who currently lack a company retirement plan.

The new provision in the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (Secure) 2.0 Act allowing unused 529 plan funds to be rolled into Roth IRAs, which becomes effective in 2024, includes “lots of limitations,” according to IRA and tax expert Ed Slott of Ed Slott and Co.

Policymakers tout recent legislation as offering a leg-up to Americans struggling to save for retirement, but one tax and retirement expert says not to believe the hype.

The SECURE Act 2.0, enacted at the end of last year, will bring about some important changes for retirement planners—but it’s not as impactful as its predecessor, 2019’s the SECURE Act, said Ed Slott, president of Slott & Co.

As a financial planning concept, the subject of tax diversification is relatively simple: It means utilizing a number of different types of investing and savings accounts that are taxed differently for federal and state income tax purposes.