Deferral for plans covering partners and sole proprietors
Self-employed retirement plans, with contribution limits far above an IRA.
JCT line: "Net exclusion of pension contributions and earnings: Plans covering partners and sole proprietors (sometimes referred to as "Keogh plans")".
Restricted by construction to owners of unincorporated businesses, and the contribution ceiling is a multiple of the IRA limit, so the benefit is available in large amounts only to those with substantial self-employment income to shelter.
Structural reading
A parity measure that became an advantage. The 1962 act was a genuine correction, extending retirement saving to people the employer plan rules had simply left out. Successive increases in the ceiling then pushed it past parity, so that an owner of an unincorporated business can now shelter several times what an employee of the same firm can shelter on the same earnings. The pattern is the one that recurs across this dataset: a provision justified by an inequity, retained and enlarged long after the inequity was addressed, with the enlargement accruing to whoever was already best placed to use it.
Who gets it
The channels the benefit actually flows through, described by asset position, entity form and form of return. Never by named individuals.
Cost split by the concentration score. That score is a judgement rather than a published figure, so treat this as the scale of the split, not an audited allocation.
- High-earning partners and sole proprietors
The contribution ceiling is several times the IRA limit, so the shelter is worth most to owners with income large enough to fill it.
- Professional partnerships
Law, medical, accounting and consulting partnerships are the characteristic users, being unincorporated by convention and high-earning by nature.
- Owners rather than staff
The provision attaches to the owner of the business. Employees of the same firm save through the ordinary employer plan rules and the lower limits that come with them.
Who pays
Employees and taxpayers generally, who face lower contribution ceilings on identical earnings.
This transfer follows a general pattern, asymmetric organisation, sustained expert attention, and scheduled expiry dates.
How rent-seeking works →Legislative history and accountability
Enacting statutes, major amendments, recorded votes with party breakdown, and live reform proposals.
Enabling legislation
- Self-Employed Individuals Tax Retirement Act of 1962P.L. 87-792Oct 10, 1962
Extended tax-favoured retirement saving to the self-employed, who had been excluded from the employer plan rules.
BipartisanEnacted with support from both parties. No separate roll call on this provision is recorded here.
Major amendment
- Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981P.L. 97-34Aug 13, 1981
Raised the contribution ceilings substantially, widening the gap between what an owner and an employee may shelter.
Mixed coalitionEnacted by a Republican president with a Democratic House, passing with support from a bloc of the majority party alongside the minority. No separate roll call on this provision is recorded here.
Sources and data freshness
Published within the last year. Figures marked unverified are seed estimates that have not been reconciled line-by-line against the primary source document. See the methodology for how each score is constructed.