what is a simplified employee pension sep 
a simplified employee pension sep is an individual retirement account ira that an employer or a self employed person can establish the employer is allowed a tax deduction for contributions made to a sep ira and makes contributions to each eligible employee s plan on a discretionary basis 1additionally under the setting every community up for retirement enhancement secure act enacted on dec 20 2019 small employers get a tax credit to offset the costs of starting a 401 k plan or simple ira with automatic enrollment 2 that s on top of the start up credit they already receive 3sep iras often have higher annual contribution limits than standard iras 4 in a sense they re a cross between a traditional ira and a 401 k like the latter they can receive employer contributions and like the former contributions are vested immediately 5investopedia xiaojie liu