vs. Roth, or tax-deferred vs. tax exempt, or EET vs. TEE. Traditional Income taxes on pre-tax contributions and investment earnings in the form of interest and dividends are tax deferred. The ability to defer income taxes to a period where one's tax rates may be lower is a potential benefit of the 401(k) plan. The ability to defer income taxes has no benefit when the participant is subject to the same tax rates in retirement as when the original contributions were made or interest and dividends earned. Earnings from investments in a 401(k) account in the form of capital gains are not subject to capital gains taxes. This ability to avoid this second level of tax is a primary benefit of the 401(k) plan. Relative to investing outside of 401(k) plans, more income tax is paid but less taxes are paid overall with the 401(k) due to the ability to avoid taxes on capital gains. For pre-tax contributions, the employee does not pay federal income tax on the amount of current income he or she defers to a 401(k) account, but does still pay the total 7.65% payroll taxes (social security and medicare). For example, a worker who otherwise earns $50,000 in a particular year and defers $3,000 into a 401(k) account that year only reports $47,000 in income on that year's tax return. Currently, this would represent a near-term $660 saving in taxes for a single worker, assuming the worker remained in the 22% marginal tax bracket and there were no other adjustments (like deductions). The employee ultimately pays taxes on the money as he or she withdraws the funds, generally during retirement. The character of any gains (including tax-favored capital gains) is transformed into "ordinary income" at the time the money is withdrawn. If the employee made after-tax contributions to the 401(k) account, these amounts are commingled with the pre-tax funds and simply add to the 401(k) basis. When distributions are made the taxable portion of the distribution will be calculated as the ratio of the after-tax contributions to the total 401(k) basis. The remainder of the distribution is tax-free and not included in gross income for the year. Roth Beginning in the 2006 tax year, employees have been allowed to designate contributions as a Roth 401(k) deferral. Similar to the provisions of a Roth IRA, these contributions are made on an after-tax basis. For accumulated after-tax contributions