Roth Vesting Requirement

Originally Published on 3/7/24

The SECURE Act 2.0 allows plans to permit participants to elect to take employer matching contributions as after-tax Roth contributions. Employees would pay tax on the employer matching contributions, which would be added to the employee’s account balance to be withdrawn tax-free at a future date. The IRS has since clarified that in order to make the Roth election, the employee must first be fully vested in employer contributions.

We asked two professors and authors of ALM’s Tax Facts with opposing political viewpoints to share their opinions about whether employees who are only partially vested in employer matching contributions should be entitled to take matching contributions as Roth contributions post-SECURE 2.0.

Below is a summary of the debate that ensued between the two professors.