Student Loans Setting Millennials Back

The onus is preventing many from saving for retirement.

Fifty-six percent of Millennials with current or past student debt are delaying major life events, compared with 43% of older adults, Bankrate.com found in a survey. The most common milestone they are postponing is buying a house, closely followed by saving for retirement and buying a car.

While student loan debt has hit Millennials the hardest in terms of delaying major life events, Bankrate learned that while 28% of 18- to 29-year-olds have ever carried student loan debt, 41% of 30- to 49-year-olds have done so.

“Student debt is often portrayed as a Millennial issue, but the truth is that Americans of all ages have put their lives on hold due to student debt,” says Steve Pounds, an analyst with Bankrate.com. “Delaying major life milestones such as buying a home or saving for retirement doesn’t only affect the individual and his or her family. It also has ill effects on the overall economy.”

More than half of all student loan borrowers said they were not warned about the financial risks of taking on education loans. This jumps to 66% among Millennials.

The release of Bankrate.com’s survey comes on the heels of the ninth annual College Savings Foundation State of College Savings Survey, which found that one-third of parents are still shouldering student debt, prompting 51% of them to save in a 529 college savings plan or other vehicle to help their children avoid taking on loans.

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Princeton Survey Research Associates International conducted the survey of 1,000 adults by landlines and cell phones from July 9 to 12 on behalf of Bankrate.com. The full results of the survey can be seen here.

IRS Employee Plans Unit to Cease Email Responses

The IRS employee plans unit will stop answering technical public questions shared via email in October.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says its employee plans (EP) staffers will “no longer answer technical questions by email, including questions forwarded from Customer Account Services,” effective October 1.

The IRS says the change is “due to realignment of legal work and a number of EP employees to the Office of the Associate Chief Counsel in January 2015.” In short, the Employee Plans group no longer has the bandwidth to do research and provide answers for legal topics, according to the IRS. 

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Customer Account Services employees (available at 877-829-5500) will continue to help with account-specific questions, basic information about employee plans forms and the status of any pending applications.

The IRS notes it has helpful guidance about retirement plans and retirement plan forms and publications available online.

“If you have a legal question that needs to be addressed, you may want to request a private letter ruling,” the IRS says. A private letter ruling offers a written statement that interprets and applies tax laws to a taxpayer’s or a retirement plan’s specific set of facts.

The IRS reminds retirement plan professionals to see Revenue Procedure 2015-1 for information on how to obtain a private letter ruling and how the IRS applies user fees.

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