2012 Simple IRA and SEP IRA Contribution Limits – Small Business Retirement Plans

The IRS has released 2012 contribution limits and updated eligibility rules for two of the most popular small business retirement plans : the SEP IRA and Simple IRA.

SEP IRA

A SEP is a popular and widely used retirement plan management approach because it provides self employed owners or small business owners with a few staff a simplified method to make contributions toward their employees’ retirement and, if self-employed, their own retirement.

For 2012, the annual contributions an employer makes to an employee’s SEP-IRA cannot exceed the lesser of:

25% of compensation, or
$50,000 (vs. $49,000 in 2011). This is an $1000 increase from last year
Up to $250,000 (vs 245,000 in 2011) of an employee’s compensation may be considered

The same limits on contributions made to employees’ SEP-IRAs also apply to contributions made to a self-employed individual’s SEP-IRA. Contributions must be made in cash (no stock) and you have up to April 15, to contribute for the past year’s SEP IRA. A SEP provides high maximum contribution limits and relatively low setup cost, but an employer sponsored Individual 401k may allow a greater contribution at the same income level. Also, for those age 50+ there isn’t an additional $5,500 catch-up contribution provision like there is with the Individual 401k. A final point to consider is IRS rules do not permit loans with a SEP IRA.

There is no harm starting with a SEP-IRA and then converting to an Individual 401k. All that is needed to transfer retirement assets from a SEP IRA to a new Individual 401k is some minor administrative paper work.

You can see more on SEP IRAs in this article.

SIMPLE IRA

A simple IRA is also a small business IRA-based plan with a simplified method for employers to make direct contributions toward their employees’ retirement and their own retirement. Employees may choose (not mandatory) to make regular contributions and the employer makes matching or non-elective contributions. SIMPLE IRAs are ideally suited as a start-up retirement savings plan for small employers who do not currently sponsor a 401K retirement plan. The main advantage of a Simple IRA to other tax advantaged retirement plans is the much lower administration costs. In order to establish a SIMPLE IRA, the business must have 100 or fewer employees and it also cannot have any other type of retirement plan in place.

2012 Contribution Limits: An employee may defer up to $11,500 for 2012, with employees over age 50 allowed to make a catch-up contribution of up to $2,500 (for a total of $14,000). Contributions under a SIMPLE IRA plan that count toward the overall annual limit on elective deferrals an employee may make to tax advantaged retirement plans. The employer is generally required to match each employee’s salary reduction contribution on a dollar-for-dollar basis up to 3% of the employee’s compensation.