Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) IRA
Timothy Lake was an Editorial Intern at Encyclopædia Britannica.
Doug is a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst who spent more than 20 years as a derivatives market maker and asset manager before “reincarnating” as a financial media professional a decade ago.
Before joining Britannica, Doug spent nearly six years managing content marketing projects for a dozen clients, including The Ticker Tape, TD Ameritrade’s market news and financial education site for retail investors. He has been a CAIA charter holder since 2006, and also held a Series 3 license during his years as a derivatives specialist.
Doug previously served as Regional Director for the Chicago region of PRMIA, the Professional Risk Managers’ International Association, and he also served as editor of Intelligent Risk, PRMIA’s quarterly member newsletter. He holds a BS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MBA from Illinois Institute of Technology, Stuart School of Business.
A SEP IRA is a tax-deferred retirement plan for those who are self-employed, small business owners, or earn additional self-employment income. SEP IRAs are often easier to administer than 401(k) plans, so many small businesses use them to help their employees prepare for retirement. Contributions to SEP IRAs are made with pretax dollars, and the money grows tax deferred. Withdrawals are taxed at the account holder’s marginal tax rate.
Employers can make contributions for their employees up to the annual contribution limits: 25% of the business’s net income (after deducting half of their self-employment tax and contributions to their own SEP), up to $66,000 (as of 2023). This forms a percentage of an employee’s annual compensation.
Business owners must also contribute the same percentage to their employees’ accounts that they contribute to their own. For example, if you contribute 15% of your business’s net income to your own SEP IRA as a business owner, you must also contribute the same percentage to each of your employees’ retirement accounts.
SEP IRAs are considered separate from traditional or Roth IRAs, so you can max out your SEP contributions even if you’ve already maxed out your other IRA contributions. Account holders must take required minimum distributions (RMDs) starting at age 73.
For more on SEP IRAs, and other IRA types, here’s a complete rundown.