Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance.
Congressional Research Service
Official summary
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Sep 14, 2011
Automatic IRA Act of 2011 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) require certain employers who do not maintain qualified retirement plans or arrangements to make available to their eligible employees a payroll deposit individual retirement account (IRA) arrangement (automatic IRA arrangement) which grants such employees the right to opt-out of participation, (2) require the Secretary of the Treasury to provide employers with a model notice for notifying employees of automatic IRS arrangements and to establish a program to assist employers in the implementation of such arrangements, (3) allow employers who do not have more than 100 employees a tax credit for costs associated with establishing an automatic IRA arrangement, (4) impose a penalty on employers who fail to provide eligible employees access to automatic IRA arrangements, and (5) increase the tax credit for small employer pension plan start-up costs.
Requires the Secretary and the Secretary of Labor to jointly conduct feasibility studies on extending spousal consent requirements to automatic IRAs, promoting the use of low-cost lifetime income arrangements, and using investment data to notify individuals with multiple small balance retirement accounts of consolidation options.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Aug 14, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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