There is a fundamental rule of a rollover, also known as a transfer of holdings from one tax insurance plan to another, without incurring income tax or penalty. It is officially known as a 60-day rollover rule because all funds must be deposited in a new IRA account, 401(k), or another qualifying retirement account within 60 days.
Many people see this as a time bomb. However, the 60-day rollover rule can be used to your advantage if you need the money, and your pension funds are the best source.
Most rollovers take place without anyone touching the money. Suppose you quit your job and want to transfer your 401(k) account to the traditional IRA. You can arrange for the 401(k) plan administrator to transfer money directly from the 401(k) fund to the designated IRA. You can perform the same task with a new 401(k) plan in a new job. This type of trustee-to-trustee transaction is called a direct rollover. You can avoid taxes and inconvenience with this option.
You may also receive a paycheck in the name of the new 401(k) or IRA, which is sent to the new Employment Plan Administrator or IRA Financial Institution. For most people, this option has only one step, although this is sometimes necessary if the former plan administrator cannot do the trustee-to-trustee thing. Even then, it counts as a direct rollover: taxes will not be withheld because technically, you have never taken possession of the funds; The verification was done on the account.
However, in some cases, you may want to regain real control of the funds to move to a retirement account. This is called indirect switching. You can do this with all or part of your account: the plan administrator or the account holder clear the property and sends a check on your behalf or deposits the funds directly into your bank account or personal broker.
The 60-day rollover rule comes into play primarily with indirect rollovers (the IRS refers to them as 60-day rollovers). You have 60 days from receiving an IRA or distributing a pension plan to roll it to another program or IRA. Otherwise, the IRS will treat your withdrawal as a withdrawal and, if you are under age 59, an early withdrawal. They impose taxes on the total amount, plus a penalty of 10%. If you are over 59 and a half, there is no penalty, but you still have to pay taxes.
This is why most financial and tax advisers recommend direct rollovers, with less risk of delays and errors. If something happens to funds deposited immediately, if the money goes directly to an account or if a check is strained on the account (not you), a taxable distribution will be refused. However, even through direct rollovers, you should try to transfer funds within 60 days.
Why should you do an indirect rollover, considering the clock? Because it may be necessary to divert funds from the retirement account to the retirement account or because you need it. The IRS rules state that you have 60 days to deposit money into the same account or another 401(k) or IRA account, or to make a new deposit on the same account. This last provision offers virtually the possibility of getting a short term loan from your account.
If you are up to 70 years of age or older, you cannot transfer the required minimum distribution from an IRA or 401(k) account to another eligible account. This would be considered an excess contribution.
This is a strategy that works primarily with IRA because many 401(k) plans, but not all, typically allow you to borrow to pay back the money over time. In both cases, the 60-day rollover rule can be a convenient way to borrow money from a short-term, usually intact, interest-free retirement account.
Resuming temporary control of pension funds is quite simple. Ask the administrator or guardian to give you a check. Do what you want with it. As long as you pay the money within sixty days of receiving it, it will be considered an indirect rollover.
But there is a tax complication. If the 401(k) Plan Administrator or IRA Custodian sends a check, according to law, he/she must automatically withhold a certain amount of tax, usually 20% of the total. Therefore, you will not get everything you can imagine. And, to make issues worse, you have to recover the amount withheld (the funds you did not receive), re-depositing the money if you want to avoid paying taxes.
An example: if you receive an IRA distribution of $10,000, your custodian will withhold taxes, for example, $2,000. If you deposit a check for $8,000 within 60 days of the IRA, you will be charged a $2,000 withholding tax. If you recover $2,000 from other sources of income and deposit $10,000 again, you should not pay taxes.
Another way to get money before age 59 is a little-known article in the IRS tax code, rule 72 (t). This saves you the usual withdrawal penalties if you raise funds for a specific five-year or up to 59-and-a-half-year program, whichever is longer.
There are three tax reporting scenarios. Let's take the previous example of rollovers of $10,000:
You can only use this strategy if you are 100% sure you can make money within 60 days. Also, remember that over 12 months, you can rollover the IRA indirectly (even if you have multiple IRAs). However, direct rollovers/transfer from trustee-to-trustee between the IRA are not limited to one per year; nor traditional rollovers from the IRA to Roth.
If you withdraw your funds from a traditional IRA, you will have 60 days to return the funds or taxes will apply. If you are under 59, you will also be charged a 10% penalty, unless you receive an early withdrawal in the following cases:
There is another option: a little-known section of the IRS tax code allows for substantially equal periodic payments each year before the age of 59 and a half. You are expected to withdraw money from the IRA for five years or up to 59 and a half years, whichever is longer.
