IRA Employer Plan Coordination Act of 1979

IRA-Employer Plan Coordination Act of 1979 - Amends the Internal Revenue Code to extend to participants in qualified (tax-exempt) private employer pension plans the income tax deduction for cash contributions made by, or on behalf of, such participants to a retirement savings account. Limits such deduction to the excess of the lesser of $1,500 or an amount equal to 15 percent of an individual's employment compensation for the taxable year, over the total amount of contributions made on behalf of such individuals to a plan under which the individual has a nonforfeitable right to 100 percent of his accrued benefits. Specifies limits on the amount of deductible contributions to simplified employee pensions and individual retirement plans. Reduces, by five percent, the allowable deduction for participants in a multiemployer defined benefit plan or church plan.

Disallows deductions for employees covered by Government plans, owner-employees, officers of corporations maintaining a plan, ten percent shareholders, and individuals who have attained age 70 1/2. Disallows deductions for individuals who are otherwise qualified but who do not conform to methods prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury for computing the total amount of plan contributions for a taxable year.

Requires the recapture of specified amounts taken as deductions for contributions to a plan in the gross income of a plan participant whose rights under such plan become fully vested.

Excludes employee contributions to a qualified employer pension plan from the gross income of the employee. Requires the inclusion in the gross income of a plan participant distributions, not received as an annuity, from a plan to which the participant has made one or more deductible contributions. Imposes an additional tax of ten percent on plan distributions which a plan participant receives before 59 1/2.

Requires the administrator of a qualified private employer pension plan to submit an annual written statement of information concerning the plan to its participants.

Requires an individual retirement account to contain a method for determining the taxable year in which specific contributions are made to it and the amount of income and loss which is attributable to a specific contribution for each taxable year.