Friday, April 04, 2008

Clinton: Also no fan of retirement saving

I noted last week that Senator Obama has for some reason not taken the opportunity to put some of his Schedule C income into a tax-deferred retirement account. Now that Senator Clinton and her husband have released their tax return, I see they also passed up the chance. See line 28 of form 1040. I believe each of them could have put $44,000 into a SEP-IRA, but apparently, contrary to what many financial advisers would recommend, they chose not to.

Why? I suggested two hypotheses for Senator Obama: bad tax advice or the expectation of much higher future tax rates. For the Clintons, a third hypothesis is possible: Given their substantial income ($16 million in 2006), the chance of sheltering $88,000 may be too trivial to bother with.