Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Financial security in retirement is one of the largest and most common concerns facing Americans today. In an attempt to mitigate these concerns, several tax incentive programs have been established to encourage retirement savings during working years. One such program that receives little attention is the nonrefundable Saver’s Credit. This study explores taxpayers’ distributional response to this credit from inception through tax year 2013. Where earlier research focused on the national response over short time horizons, this investigation focuses on flows in participation and retirement savings contributions across Zip Codes spanning more than a decade of tax filing seasons. By using the universe of tax returns from 2000 through 2013, this study documents the shifts in concentration of claimants geographically and their correlation to retirement savings contribution behavior.