Retirement Benefits Tax GuideSupplement - Winter 2006-2007 Author:Thomas F. Rutherford Highlights Winter 2006-2007 Edition This edition of the Retirement Benefits Tax Guide, written by revision editor Theodore H. Simons, Jr., J.D., former Managing Editor of the CCH Pension Plan Guide, updates the text to reflect major new developments through the Winter of 2006. NEW DEVELOPMENTS * President Signs Pension Protection Act ... more »into Law President Bush has signed the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (P. L. 109-280) into law. This law, which represents the most comprehensive piece of retirement benefit legislation enacted since the passage of ERISA in 1974, provides for sweeping changes, including the following: (1) a variety of provisions designed to strengthen the funding rules for defined benefit pension plans, (2) creation of a prohibited transaction exemption that allows for investment advice to be provided to plan participants and IRA owners by certified independent third parties, (3) new rules for testing defined benefit plans, including hybrid (cash balance) plans, for age discrimination, (4), making permanent increased contribution limits for plans and IRAs that were formerly scheduled to expire in 2010, (5) creation of a safe harbor to encourage employers to offer automatic enrollment in their 401(k) plans, (6) strengthened disclosure rules requiring plan administrators to give plan participants more information, (7) making the saver s credit permanent, (8) establishment of a new combined defined benefit/401(k) plan, (9) more liberal rollover rules for Roth IRAs, and (10) new more liberal 401(k) hardship distribution rules. *A special CCH summary of key provisions of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 is included with this supplement. Changes made by the Act will be incorporated in the Retirement Benefits Tax Guide in upcoming supplements. *President Also Signs Law Limiting State Taxation of Pension Income President Bush has also signed into law H.R. 4019 (P.L. No. 109-264), which clarifies that state taxation of retirement income is limited to« less