This notice contains two safe harbor explanations that may be provided to recipients of eligible rollover distributions from an employer plan in order to satisfy § 402(f) of the Internal Revenue Code (Code). The first safe harbor explanation applies to a distribution not from a designated Roth account (as described in § 402A). The second safe harbor explanation applies to a distribution from a designated Roth account. These safe harbor explanations update the safe harbor explanations that were published in Notice 2002-3, 2002-1 C.B. 289, to reflect changes in the law. These safe harbor explanations also reorganize and simplify the presentation of the information.
Section 402(f) requires the plan administrator of a plan qualified under § 401(a) to provide a written explanation to any recipient of an eligible rollover distribution, as defined in § 402(c)(4). In addition, §§ 403(a)(4)(B) and 457(e)(16)(B) require a plan administrator of a § 403(a) plan, or an eligible § 457(b) plan maintained by a governmental employer described in § 457(e)(1)(A) (governmental § 457(b) plan), to provide a written explanation to any recipient of an eligible rollover distribution. Further, § 403(b)(8)(B) requires a payor under a § 403(b) plan to provide a written explanation to the recipient of an eligible rollover distribution.
An eligible rollover distribution is a payment that may be rolled over to an eligible retirement plan, as defined in § 402(c)(8)(B). The term eligible retirement plan means an individual retirement plan or an eligible employer plan. An individual retirement plan (IRA) is defined in § 7701(a)(37) as an individual retirement account described in § 408(a) or an individual retirement annuity described in § 408(b). For purposes of this notice, the term eligible employer plan means: a plan qualified under § 401(a), including a money purchase pension plan, a profit-sharing or stock bonus plan (whether or not the plan includes a qualified cash or deferred arrangement under § 401(k)), and a defined benefit plan; a § 403(a) plan; a § 403(b) plan; or a governmental § 457(b) plan.
The written explanation must describe the direct rollover rules, the mandatory income tax withholding rules for distributions not directly rolled over, the tax treatment of distributions not rolled over, and when distributions may be subject to different restrictions and tax consequences after being rolled over. Section 402(f) provides that this explanation must be given within a reasonable period of time before the plan makes an eligible rollover distribution. Under § 1.402(f)-1, A-5, of the Income Tax Regulations, the requirements of § 402(f) are satisfied if this explanation (§ 402(f) notice) is provided through the use of an electronic medium that complies with the requirements of § 1.401(a)-21. This explanation should be provided only to participants who are eligible to receive distributions that are eligible rollover distributions.
Section 1.402(f)-1, A-1(b), provides that a plan administrator is deemed to have complied with the requirement that a § 402(f) notice contain certain specified information if the plan administrator provides the applicable model § 402(f) notice published by the IRS. The safe harbor explanations in this notice constitute applicable model § 402(f) notices for this purpose.
This notice provides updated safe harbor explanations that reflect changes made to the Code that affect the information required to be provided in a § 402(f) notice, including sections 617 and 657 of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (EGTRRA), P.L.107-16, and sections 824, 827, 828, 829, and 845 of the Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA ’06), P.L. 109-280. Section 617(a) of EGTRRA added § 402A of the Code, which allows a plan to permit an employee who makes elective contributions under a qualified cash or deferred arrangement to designate some or all of those contributions as designated Roth contributions.[1] Section 402A(c)(3) provides that a rollover contribution of any payment or distribution to an individual from a designated Roth account may be made only if the contribution is to another designated Roth account of the individual or to a Roth IRA of the individual.
Section 657 of EGTRRA amended § 401(a)(31)(B) of the Code to require that a mandatory distribution of more than $1,000 from a plan qualified under § 401(a) be paid in a direct rollover to an IRA of a designated trustee or issuer if the distributee does not make an affirmative election to have the amount paid in a direct rollover to an eligible retirement plan or to receive the distribution directly. Section 403(a) plans, § 403(b) plans, and governmental § 457(b) plans are also required to comply with § 401(a)(31)(B).
Section 824 of PPA ’06 amended the definition of qualified rollover contribution in § 408A of the Code (relating to rollovers to a Roth IRA) to include rollover contributions from any eligible retirement plan as defined in § 402(c)(8)(B). Prior to this amendment, a Roth IRA could only accept rollover contributions from another Roth IRA, a non-Roth IRA, or a designated Roth account described in § 402A. Section 408A(d)(3)(A) provides that a taxpayer who makes a rollover to a Roth IRA from an eligible employer plan that is not from a designated Roth account must include in gross income the amount of the rollover contribution (other than after-tax contributions). Such a rollover to a Roth IRA is permitted only if the recipient’s modified adjusted gross income for the year of the distribution does not exceed $100,000 and, if married, the recipient files a joint return. Pursuant to section 512 of the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (TIPRA), P.L. 109-222, the $100,000 income and joint filing requirements do not apply to distributions made after 2009. Section 408A(d)(3)(A), as modified by TIPRA, provides that, in the absence of a contrary election, the amount otherwise required to be included in gross income for any taxable year beginning in 2010 is included in gross income ratably over the 2-year period beginning in 2011. For distributions after 2010, the amount required to be included in income as a result of the distribution being rolled over to a Roth IRA is included in gross income in the year of the distribution.
Under § 72(t)(2)(G) of the Code (as added by section 827 of PPA ’06 and modified by section 107 of the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax Act of 2008, P.L. 110-245), the 10% additional income tax on early distributions described in § 72(t) does not apply to a qualified reservist distribution. A qualified reservist distribution generally means a distribution from an IRA, or from amounts attributable to employer contributions made as elective deferrals described in § 402(g)(3)(A) or (C) or § 501(c)(18)(D)(iii), made to an individual who was called to active duty for a period in excess of 179 days. Section 72(t)(2)(G) also provides that any individual who receives a qualified reservist distribution may re-contribute the distribution to an IRA without regard to the applicable dollar limitations on contributions.
Under § 72(t)(10) of the Code (as added by section 828 of PPA ’06), the 10% additional income tax on early distributions under § 72(t) does not apply to a distribution from a governmental plan, as defined in § 414(d), that is a defined benefit plan if the distribution is made to a qualified public safety employee who separates from service after attainment of age 50. Under § 72(t)(10)(B), a qualified public safety employee is any employee of a State (or political subdivision of a State) who provides police protection, firefighting services, or emergency medical services for any area within the jurisdiction of the State (or political subdivision of the State).
Under § 402(c)(11) of the Code (as added by section 829 of PPA ’06), a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer of a distribution from an eligible employer plan to an inherited IRA (within the meaning of § 408(d)(3)(C)) for a nonspouse designated beneficiary is treated as a direct rollover of an eligible rollover distribution for purposes of § 402(c). For plan years beginning after December 31, 2009, pursuant to section 108(f)(2) of the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (WRERA ’08), P.L. 110-458, the notice requirement of § 402(f) applies to distributions to a nonspouse designated beneficiary.
Section 845 of PPA ’06 added § 402(l) of the Code, which generally provides a limited exclusion from gross income for distributions from an eligible employer plan that is a governmental plan (as defined in § 414(d)) that are paid directly to an accident or health plan or a qualified long-term care insurance contract for health or long-term care insurance premiums of an eligible retired public safety officer, his or her spouse, or his or her dependents. Under § 457(a)(3), the § 402(l) exclusion also applies to distributions from a governmental § 457(b) plan. An eligible retired public safety officer is a public safety officer who, by reason of disability or attainment of normal retirement age, is separated from service as a public safety officer with the employer that maintains the plan. A public safety officer is defined under section 1204(9)(A) of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (P.L. 90-351, 42 U.S.C. 3796b(9)(A)) as “an individual serving a public agency in an official capacity, with or without compensation, as a law enforcement officer, as a firefighter, as a chaplain, or as a member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew.” The total amount excluded from gross income pursuant to § 402(l) cannot exceed $3,000 annually.
Under § 414(w) (as added by section 902 of PPA ’06), an applicable employer plan that contains an eligible automatic contribution arrangement is permitted to allow employees to elect to receive a distribution equal to the amount of the elective contributions under the arrangement (and attributable earnings) made with respect to the employee beginning with the first payroll period to which the arrangement applies to the employee and ending with the effective date of the election. The election must be made within 90 days after the date of the first elective contribution with respect to the employee under the arrangement. The amount of the distribution is not an eligible rollover distribution and is includible in gross income (to the extent not a return of designated Roth contributions) for the taxable year in which the distribution is made, but is not subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions under § 72(t).
A principal purpose of the changes in the safe harbor explanations in this notice is to simplify the presentation and description of the participant’s options upon receiving an eligible rollover distribution. The new safe harbor explanations also broaden the information to reflect changes in law, such as information on a distribution from a designated Roth account under an employer plan. The information has also been expanded to explain rules that apply in special situations, for example, when a distribution is made to a nonresident alien.
There are two safe harbor explanations in this notice. The first safe harbor explanation does not include information relevant to distributions from a designated Roth account. Thus, the first safe harbor explanation should only be used for a distribution that is not from a designated Roth account. The second safe harbor explanation reflects the rules relating to distributions from a designated Roth account. Thus, the second safe harbor explanation should only be used for a distribution from a designated Roth account, and the IRS and the Department of the Treasury recommend that it only be provided to a participant with a designated Roth account under the Plan. Both explanations should be provided to a participant if the participant is eligible to receive eligible rollover distributions both from a designated Roth account and from an account other than a designated Roth account.
The safe harbor explanation in this notice for distributions not from a designated Roth account meets the requirements of § 402(f) for an eligible rollover distribution that is not from a designated Roth account if provided to the recipient of the eligible rollover distribution within a reasonable period of time before the distribution is made. Similarly, the safe harbor explanation in this notice for distributions from a designated Roth account meets the requirements of § 402(f) for an eligible rollover distribution from a designated Roth account if provided to the recipient of the eligible rollover distribution within a reasonable period of time before the distribution is made.
Section 1.402(f)-1, A-2, currently provides, in general, that a reasonable period of time for providing an explanation is no less than 30 days (subject to waiver) and no more than 90 days before the date on which a distribution is made. Section 1102 of PPA ’06 directs that this regulation be modified to permit a notice required to be provided under § 402(f) to be provided to a participant as much as 180 days before the date on which the distribution is made. Thus, the § 402(f) notice may be provided as much as 180 days before the annuity starting date (or the date on which the distribution is made). See § 1.402(f)-1, A-2(a), of the Proposed Income Tax Regulations (73 FR 59575).
A plan administrator or payor may customize a safe harbor explanation by omitting any information that does not apply to the plan. For example, if the plan does not hold after-tax employee contributions, it would be appropriate for the section “If your payment includes after-tax contributions” in the explanation for payments not from a designated Roth account to be eliminated. Similarly, if the plan does not provide for distributions of employer stock or other employer securities, it would be appropriate for the section “If your payment includes employer stock that you do not roll over” to be eliminated. Other information that may not be relevant to a particular plan includes, for example, the sections “If your payment is from a governmental section 457(b) plan,” and “If you are an eligible retired public safety officer and your pension payment is used to pay for health coverage or qualified long-term care insurance.” In addition, the plan administrator or payor may provide additional information with a safe harbor explanation if the information is not inconsistent with § 402(f).
Alternatively, a plan administrator or payor can satisfy § 402(f) by providing an explanation that is different from a safe harbor explanation. Any explanation must contain the information required by § 402(f) and must be written in a manner designed to be easily understood.
If the law governing the tax treatment of distributions or other provisions described in a safe harbor explanation in this notice is amended after September 28, 2009, the safe harbor explanation will not satisfy § 402(f) to the extent that the safe harbor explanation no longer accurately describes the relevant law. The safe harbor explanations in Notice 2002-3, appropriately modified to reflect statutory changes since Notice 2002-3 was published, will continue to be safe harbor explanations with respect to notices provided through December 31, 2009.
It is expected that the IRS will publish a Spanish translation of these safe harbor explanations.
The principal authors of this notice are Kathleen Herrmann of the Employee Plans, Tax Exempt and Government Entities Division, and Michael P. Brewer of the Office of the Division Counsel/Associate Chief Counsel (Tax Exempt and Government Entities). Questions regarding this notice may be sent via e-mail to retirementplanquestions@irs.gov. Mr. Brewer may be reached at 202-622-6090 (not a toll-free call).
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| For Payments Not From a Designated Roth Account | |
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| YOUR ROLLOVER OPTIONS | |
| You are receiving this notice because all or a portion of a payment you are receiving from the [INSERT NAME OF PLAN] (the “Plan”) is eligible to be rolled over to an IRA or an employer plan. This notice is intended to help you decide whether to do such a rollover. | |
| This notice describes the rollover rules that apply to payments from the Plan that are not from a designated Roth account (a type of account with special tax rules in some employer plans). If you also receive a payment from a designated Roth account in the Plan, you will be provided a different notice for that payment, and the Plan administrator or the payor will tell you the amount that is being paid from each account. | |
| Rules that apply to most payments from a plan are described in the “General Information About Rollovers” section. Special rules that only apply in certain circumstances are described in the “Special Rules and Options” section. | |
| GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT ROLLOVERS | |
| How can a rollover affect my taxes? | |
| You will be taxed on a payment from the Plan if you do not roll it over. If you are under age 591/2 and do not do a rollover, you will also have to pay a 10% additional income tax on early distributions (unless an exception applies). However, if you do a rollover, you will not have to pay tax until you receive payments later and the 10% additional income tax will not apply if those payments are made after you are age 591/2 (or if an exception applies). | |
| Where may I roll over the payment? | |
| You may roll over the payment to either an IRA (an individual retirement account or individual retirement annuity) or an employer plan (a tax-qualified plan, section 403(b) plan, or governmental section 457(b) plan) that will accept the rollover. The rules of the IRA or employer plan that holds the rollover will determine your investment options, fees, and rights to payment from the IRA or employer plan (for example, no spousal consent rules apply to IRAs and IRAs may not provide loans). Further, the amount rolled over will become subject to the tax rules that apply to the IRA or employer plan. | |
| How do I do a rollover? | |
| There are two ways to do a rollover. You can do either a direct rollover or a 60-day rollover. | |
| If you do a direct rollover, the Plan will make the payment directly to your IRA or an employer plan. You should contact the IRA sponsor or the administrator of the employer plan for information on how to do a direct rollover. | |
| If you do not do a direct rollover, you may still do a rollover by making a deposit into an IRA or eligible employer plan that will accept it. You will have 60 days after you receive the payment to make the deposit. If you do not do a direct rollover, the Plan is required to withhold 20% of the payment for federal income taxes (up to the amount of cash and property received other than employer stock). This means that, in order to roll over the entire payment in a 60-day rollover, you must use other funds to make up for the 20% withheld. If you do not roll over the entire amount of the payment, the portion not rolled over will be taxed and will be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions if you are under age 591/2 (unless an exception applies). | |
| How much may I roll over? | |
| If you wish to do a rollover, you may roll over all or part of the amount eligible for rollover. Any payment from the Plan is eligible for rollover, except: | |
| |
| The Plan administrator or the payor can tell you what portion of a payment is eligible for rollover. | |
| If I don’t do a rollover, will I have to pay the 10% additional income tax on early distributions? | |
| If you are under age 591/2, you will have to pay the 10% additional income tax on early distributions for any payment from the Plan (including amounts withheld for income tax) that you do not roll over, unless one of the exceptions listed below applies. This tax is in addition to the regular income tax on the payment not rolled over. | |
| The 10% additional income tax does not apply to the following payments from the Plan: | |
| |
| If I do a rollover to an IRA, will the 10% additional income tax apply to early distributions from the IRA? | |
| If you receive a payment from an IRA when you are under age 591/2, you will have to pay the 10% additional income tax on early distributions from the IRA, unless an exception applies. In general, the exceptions to the 10% additional income tax for early distributions from an IRA are the same as the exceptions listed above for early distributions from a plan. However, there are a few differences for payments from an IRA, including: | |
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| Will I owe State income taxes? | |
| This notice does not describe any State or local income tax rules (including withholding rules). | |
| SPECIAL RULES AND OPTIONS | |
| If your payment includes after-tax contributions | |
| After-tax contributions included in a payment are not taxed. If a payment is only part of your benefit, an allocable portion of your after-tax contributions is generally included in the payment. If you have pre-1987 after-tax contributions maintained in a separate account, a special rule may apply to determine whether the after-tax contributions are included in a payment. | |
| You may roll over to an IRA a payment that includes after-tax contributions through either a direct rollover or a 60-day rollover. You must keep track of the aggregate amount of the after-tax contributions in all of your IRAs (in order to determine your taxable income for later payments from the IRAs). If you do a direct rollover of only a portion of the amount paid from the Plan and a portion is paid to you, each of the payments will include an allocable portion of the after-tax contributions. If you do a 60-day rollover to an IRA of only a portion of the payment made to you, the after-tax contributions are treated as rolled over last. For example, assume you are receiving a complete distribution of your benefit which totals $12,000, of which $2,000 is after-tax contributions. In this case, if you roll over $10,000 to an IRA in a 60-day rollover, no amount is taxable because the $2,000 amount not rolled over is treated as being after-tax contributions. | |
| You may roll over to an employer plan all of a payment that includes after-tax contributions, but only through a direct rollover (and only if the receiving plan separately accounts for after-tax contributions and is not a governmental section 457(b) plan). You can do a 60-day rollover to an employer plan of part of a payment that includes after-tax contributions, but only up to the amount of the payment that would be taxable if not rolled over. | |
| If you miss the 60-day rollover deadline | |
| Generally, the 60-day rollover deadline cannot be extended. However, the IRS has the limited authority to waive the deadline under certain extraordinary circumstances, such as when external events prevented you from completing the rollover by the 60-day rollover deadline. To apply for a waiver, you must file a private letter ruling request with the IRS. Private letter ruling requests require the payment of a nonrefundable user fee. For more information, see IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). | |
| If your payment includes employer stock that you do not roll over | |
| If you do not do a rollover, you can apply a special rule to payments of employer stock (or other employer securities) that are either attributable to after-tax contributions or paid in a lump sum after separation from service (or after age 591/2, disability, or the participant’s death). Under the special rule, the net unrealized appreciation on the stock will not be taxed when distributed from the Plan and will be taxed at capital gain rates when you sell the stock. Net unrealized appreciation is generally the increase in the value of employer stock after it was acquired by the Plan. If you do a rollover for a payment that includes employer stock (for example, by selling the stock and rolling over the proceeds within 60 days of the payment), the special rule relating to the distributed employer stock will not apply to any subsequent payments from the IRA or employer plan. The Plan administrator can tell you the amount of any net unrealized appreciation. | |
| If you have an outstanding loan that is being offset | |
| If you have an outstanding loan from the Plan, your Plan benefit may be offset by the amount of the loan, typically when your employment ends. The loan offset amount is treated as a distribution to you at the time of the offset and will be taxed (including the 10% additional income tax on early distributions, unless an exception applies) unless you do a 60-day rollover in the amount of the loan offset to an IRA or employer plan. | |
| If you were born on or before January 1, 1936 | |
| If you were born on or before January 1, 1936 and receive a lump sum distribution that you do not roll over, special rules for calculating the amount of the tax on the payment might apply to you. For more information, see IRS Publication 575, Pension and Annuity Income. | |
| If your payment is from a governmental section 457(b) plan | |
| If the Plan is a governmental section 457(b) plan, the same rules described elsewhere in this notice generally apply, allowing you to roll over the payment to an IRA or an employer plan that accepts rollovers. One difference is that, if you do not do a rollover, you will not have to pay the 10% additional income tax on early distributions from the Plan even if you are under age 591/2 (unless the payment is from a separate account holding rollover contributions that were made to the Plan from a tax-qualified plan, a section 403(b) plan, or an IRA). However, if you do a rollover to an IRA or to an employer plan that is not a governmental section 457(b) plan, a later distribution made before age 591/2 will be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions (unless an exception applies). Other differences are that you cannot do a rollover if the payment is due to an “unforeseeable emergency” and the special rules under “If your payment includes employer stock that you do not roll over” and “If you were born on or before January 1, 1936” do not apply. | |
| If you are an eligible retired public safety officer and your pension payment is used to pay for health coverage or qualified long-term care insurance | |
| If the Plan is a governmental plan, you retired as a public safety officer, and your retirement was by reason of disability or was after normal retirement age, you can exclude from your taxable income plan payments paid directly as premiums to an accident or health plan (or a qualified long-term care insurance contract) that your employer maintains for you, your spouse, or your dependents, up to a maximum of $3,000 annually. For this purpose, a public safety officer is a law enforcement officer, firefighter, chaplain, or member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew. | |
| If you roll over your payment to a Roth IRA | |
| You can roll over a payment from the Plan made before January 1, 2010 to a Roth IRA only if your modified adjusted gross income is not more than $100,000 for the year the payment is made to you and, if married, you file a joint return. These limitations do not apply to payments made to you from the Plan after 2009. If you wish to roll over the payment to a Roth IRA, but you are not eligible to do a rollover to a Roth IRA until after 2009, you can do a rollover to a traditional IRA and then, after 2009, elect to convert the traditional IRA into a Roth IRA. | |
| If you roll over the payment to a Roth IRA, a special rule applies under which the amount of the payment rolled over (reduced by any after-tax amounts) will be taxed. However, the 10% additional income tax on early distributions will not apply (unless you take the amount rolled over out of the Roth IRA within 5 years, counting from January 1 of the year of the rollover). For payments from the Plan during 2010 that are rolled over to a Roth IRA, the taxable amount can be spread over a 2-year period starting in 2011. | |
| If you roll over the payment to a Roth IRA, later payments from the Roth IRA that are qualified distributions will not be taxed (including earnings after the rollover). A qualified distribution from a Roth IRA is a payment made after you are age 591/2 (or after your death or disability, or as a qualified first-time homebuyer distribution of up to $10,000) and after you have had a Roth IRA for at least 5 years. In applying this 5-year rule, you count from January 1 of the year for which your first contribution was made to a Roth IRA. Payments from the Roth IRA that are not qualified distributions will be taxed to the extent of earnings after the rollover, including the 10% additional income tax on early distributions (unless an exception applies). You do not have to take required minimum distributions from a Roth IRA during your lifetime. For more information, see IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). | |
| You cannot roll over a payment from the Plan to a designated Roth account in an employer plan. | |
| If you are not a plan participant | |
| Payments after death of the participant. If you receive a distribution after the participant’s death that you do not roll over, the distribution will generally be taxed in the same manner described elsewhere in this notice. However, the 10% additional income tax on early distributions and the special rules for public safety officers do not apply, and the special rule described under the section “If you were born on or before January 1, 1936” applies only if the participant was born on or before January 1, 1936. | |
| If you are a surviving spouse. If you receive a payment from the Plan as the surviving spouse of a deceased participant, you have the same rollover options that the participant would have had, as described elsewhere in this notice. In addition, if you choose to do a rollover to an IRA, you may treat the IRA as your own or as an inherited IRA. | |
| An IRA you treat as your own is treated like any other IRA of yours, so that payments made to you before you are age 591/2 will be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions (unless an exception applies) and required minimum distributions from your IRA do not have to start until after you are age 701/2. | |
| If you treat the IRA as an inherited IRA, payments from the IRA will not be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions. However, if the participant had started taking required minimum distributions, you will have to receive required minimum distributions from the inherited IRA. If the participant had not started taking required minimum distributions from the Plan, you will not have to start receiving required minimum distributions from the inherited IRA until the year the participant would have been age 701/2. | |
| If you are a surviving beneficiary other than a spouse. If you receive a payment from the Plan because of the participant’s death and you are a designated beneficiary other than a surviving spouse, the only rollover option you have is to do a direct rollover to an inherited IRA. Payments from the inherited IRA will not be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions. You will have to receive required minimum distributions from the inherited IRA. | |
| Payments under a qualified domestic relations order. If you are the spouse or former spouse of the participant who receives a payment from the Plan under a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO), you generally have the same options the participant would have (for example, you may roll over the payment to your own IRA or an eligible employer plan that will accept it). Payments under the QDRO will not be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions. | |
| If you are a nonresident alien | |
| If you are a nonresident alien and you do not do a direct rollover to a U.S. IRA or U.S. employer plan, instead of withholding 20%, the Plan is generally required to withhold 30% of the payment for federal income taxes. If the amount withheld exceeds the amount of tax you owe (as may happen if you do a 60-day rollover), you may request an income tax refund by filing Form 1040NR and attaching your Form 1042-S. See Form W-8BEN for claiming that you are entitled to a reduced rate of withholding under an income tax treaty. For more information, see also IRS Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens, and IRS Publication 515, Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities. | |
| Other special rules | |
| If a payment is one in a series of payments for less than 10 years, your choice whether to make a direct rollover will apply to all later payments in the series (unless you make a different choice for later payments). | |
| If your payments for the year are less than $200 (not including payments from a designated Roth account in the Plan), the Plan is not required to allow you to do a direct rollover and is not required to withhold for federal income taxes. However, you may do a 60-day rollover. | |
| Unless you elect otherwise, a mandatory cashout of more than $1,000 (not including payments from a designated Roth account in the Plan) will be directly rolled over to an IRA chosen by the Plan administrator or the payor. A mandatory cashout is a payment from a plan to a participant made before age 62 (or normal retirement age, if later) and without consent, where the participant’s benefit does not exceed $5,000 (not including any amounts held under the plan as a result of a prior rollover made to the plan). | |
| You may have special rollover rights if you recently served in the U.S. Armed Forces. For more information, see IRS Publication 3, Armed Forces’ Tax Guide. | |
| FOR MORE INFORMATION | |
| You may wish to consult with the Plan administrator or payor, or a professional tax advisor, before taking a payment from the Plan. Also, you can find more detailed information on the federal tax treatment of payments from employer plans in: IRS Publication 575, Pension and Annuity Income; IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs); and IRS Publication 571, Tax-Sheltered Annuity Plans (403(b) Plans). These publications are available from a local IRS office, on the web at www.irs.gov, or by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM. | |
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| For Payments From a Designated Roth Account | |
|---|---|
| YOUR ROLLOVER OPTIONS | |
| You are receiving this notice because all or a portion of a payment you are receiving from the [INSERT NAME OF PLAN] (the “Plan”) is eligible to be rolled over to a Roth IRA or designated Roth account in an employer plan. This notice is intended to help you decide whether to do a rollover. | |
| This notice describes the rollover rules that apply to payments from the Plan that are from a designated Roth account. If you also receive a payment from the Plan that is not from a designated Roth account, you will be provided a different notice for that payment, and the Plan administrator or the payor will tell you the amount that is being paid from each account. | |
| Rules that apply to most payments from a designated Roth account are described in the “General Information About Rollovers” section. Special rules that only apply in certain circumstances are described in the “Special Rules and Options” section. | |
| GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT ROLLOVERS | |
| How can a rollover affect my taxes? | |
| After-tax contributions included in a payment from a designated Roth account are not taxed, but earnings might be taxed. The tax treatment of earnings included in the payment depends on whether the payment is a qualified distribution. If a payment is only part of your designated Roth account, the payment will include an allocable portion of the earnings in your designated Roth account. | |
| If the payment from the Plan is not a qualified distribution and you do not do a rollover to a Roth IRA or a designated Roth account in an employer plan, you will be taxed on the earnings in the payment. If you are under age 591/2, a 10% additional income tax on early distributions will also apply to the earnings (unless an exception applies). However, if you do a rollover, you will not have to pay taxes currently on the earnings and you will not have to pay taxes later on payments that are qualified distributions. | |
| If the payment from the Plan is a qualified distribution, you will not be taxed on any part of the payment even if you do not do a rollover. If you do a rollover, you will not be taxed on the amount you roll over and any earnings on the amount you roll over will not be taxed if paid later in a qualified distribution. | |
| A qualified distribution from a designated Roth account in the Plan is a payment made after you are age 591/2 (or after your death or disability) and after you have had a designated Roth account in the Plan for at least 5 years. In applying the 5-year rule, you count from January 1 of the year your first contribution was made to the designated Roth account. However, if you did a direct rollover to a designated Roth account in the Plan from a designated Roth account in another employer plan, your participation will count from January 1 of the year your first contribution was made to the designated Roth account in the Plan or, if earlier, to the designated Roth account in the other employer plan. | |
| Where may I roll over the payment? | |
| You may roll over the payment to either a Roth IRA (a Roth individual retirement account or Roth individual retirement annuity) or a designated Roth account in an employer plan (a tax-qualified plan or section 403(b) plan) that will accept the rollover. The rules of the Roth IRA or employer plan that holds the rollover will determine your investment options, fees, and rights to payment from the Roth IRA or employer plan (for example, no spousal consent rules apply to Roth IRAs and Roth IRAs may not provide loans). Further, the amount rolled over will become subject to the tax rules that apply to the Roth IRA or the designated Roth account in the employer plan. In general, these tax rules are similar to those described elsewhere in this notice, but differences include: | |
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| How do I do a rollover? | |
| There are two ways to do a rollover. You can either do a direct rollover or a 60-day rollover. | |
| If you do a direct rollover, the Plan will make the payment directly to your Roth IRA or designated Roth account in an employer plan. You should contact the Roth IRA sponsor or the administrator of the employer plan for information on how to do a direct rollover. | |
| If you do not do a direct rollover, you may still do a rollover by making a deposit within 60 days into a Roth IRA, whether the payment is a qualified or nonqualified distribution. In addition, you can do a rollover by making a deposit within 60 days into a designated Roth account in an employer plan if the payment is a nonqualified distribution and the rollover does not exceed the amount of the earnings in the payment. You cannot do a 60-day rollover to an employer plan of any part of a qualified distribution. If you receive a distribution that is a nonqualified distribution and you do not roll over an amount at least equal to the earnings allocable to the distribution, you will be taxed on the amount of those earnings not rolled over, including the 10% additional income tax on early distributions if you are under age 591/2 (unless an exception applies). | |
| If you do a direct rollover of only a portion of the amount paid from the Plan and a portion is paid to you, each of the payments will include an allocable portion of the earnings in your designated Roth account. | |
| If you do not do a direct rollover and the payment is not a qualified distribution, the Plan is required to withhold 20% of the earnings for federal income taxes (up to the amount of cash and property received other than employer stock). This means that, in order to roll over the entire payment in a 60-day rollover to a Roth IRA, you must use other funds to make up for the 20% withheld. | |
| How much may I roll over? | |
| If you wish to do a rollover, you may roll over all or part of the amount eligible for rollover. Any payment from the Plan is eligible for rollover, except: | |
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| The Plan administrator or the payor can tell you what portion of a payment is eligible for rollover. | |
| If I don’t do a rollover, will I have to pay the 10% additional income tax on early distributions? | |
| If a payment is not a qualified distribution and you are under age 591/2, you will have to pay the 10% additional income tax on early distributions with respect to the earnings allocated to the payment that you do not roll over (including amounts withheld for income tax), unless one of the exceptions listed below applies. This tax is in addition to the regular income tax on the earnings not rolled over. | |
| The 10% additional income tax does not apply to the following payments from the Plan: | |
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| If I do a rollover to a Roth IRA, will the 10% additional income tax apply to early distributions from the IRA? | |
| If you receive a payment from a Roth IRA when you are under age 591/2, you will have to pay the 10% additional income tax on early distributions on the earnings paid from the Roth IRA, unless an exception applies or the payment is a qualified distribution. In general, the exceptions to the 10% additional income tax for early distributions from a Roth IRA listed above are the same as the exceptions for early distributions from a plan. However, there are a few differences for payments from a Roth IRA, including: | |
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| Will I owe State income taxes? | |
| This notice does not describe any State or local income tax rules (including withholding rules). | |
| SPECIAL RULES AND OPTIONS | |
| If you miss the 60-day rollover deadline | |
| Generally, the 60-day rollover deadline cannot be extended. However, the IRS has the limited authority to waive the deadline under certain extraordinary circumstances, such as when external events prevented you from completing the rollover by the 60-day rollover deadline. To apply for a waiver, you must file a private letter ruling request with the IRS. Private letter ruling requests require the payment of a nonrefundable user fee. For more information, see IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs). | |
| If your payment includes employer stock that you do not roll over | |
| If you receive a payment that is not a qualified distribution and you do not roll it over, you can apply a special rule to payments of employer stock (or other employer securities) that are paid in a lump sum after separation from service (or after age 591/2, disability, or the participant’s death). Under the special rule, the net unrealized appreciation on the stock included in the earnings in the payment will not be taxed when distributed to you from the Plan and will be taxed at capital gain rates when you sell the stock. If you do a rollover to a Roth IRA for a nonqualified distribution that includes employer stock (for example, by selling the stock and rolling over the proceeds within 60 days of the distribution), you will not have any taxable income and the special rule relating to the distributed employer stock will not apply to any subsequent payments from the Roth IRA or employer plan. Net unrealized appreciation is generally the increase in the value of the employer stock after it was acquired by the Plan. The Plan administrator can tell you the amount of any net unrealized appreciation. | |
| If you receive a payment that is a qualified distribution that includes employer stock and you do not roll it over, your basis in the stock (used to determine gain or loss when you later sell the stock) will equal the fair market value of the stock at the time of the payment from the Plan. | |
| If you have an outstanding loan that is being offset | |
| If you have an outstanding loan from the Plan, your Plan benefit may be offset by the amount of the loan, typically when your employment ends. The loan offset amount is treated as a distribution to you at the time of the offset and, if the distribution is a nonqualified distribution, the earnings in the loan offset will be taxed (including the 10% additional income tax on early distributions, unless an exception applies) unless you do a 60-day rollover in the amount of the earnings in the loan offset to a Roth IRA or designated Roth account in an employer plan. | |
| If you receive a nonqualified distribution and you were born on or before January 1, 1936 | |
| If you were born on or before January 1, 1936, and receive a lump sum distribution that is not a qualified distribution and that you do not roll over, special rules for calculating the amount of the tax on the earnings in the payment might apply to you. For more information, see IRS Publication 575, Pension and Annuity Income. | |
| If you receive a nonqualified distribution, are an eligible retired public safety officer, and your pension payment is used to pay for health coverage or qualified long-term care insurance | |
| If the Plan is a governmental plan, you retired as a public safety officer, and your retirement was by reason of disability or was after normal retirement age, you can exclude from your taxable income nonqualified distributions paid directly as premiums to an accident or health plan (or a qualified long-term care insurance contract) that your employer maintains for you, your spouse, or your dependents, up to a maximum of $3,000 annually. For this purpose, a public safety officer is a law enforcement officer, firefighter, chaplain, or member of a rescue squad or ambulance crew. | |
| If you are not a plan participant | |
| Payments after death of the participant. If you receive a distribution after the participant’s death that you do not roll over, the distribution will generally be taxed in the same manner described elsewhere in this notice. However, whether the payment is a qualified distribution generally depends on when the participant first made a contribution to the designated Roth account in the Plan. Also, the 10% additional income tax on early distributions and the special rules for public safety officers do not apply, and the special rule described under the section “If you receive a nonqualified distribution and you were born on or before January 1, 1936” applies only if the participant was born on or before January 1, 1936. | |
| If you are a surviving spouse. If you receive a payment from the Plan as the surviving spouse of a deceased participant, you have the same rollover options that the participant would have had, as described elsewhere in this notice. In addition, if you choose to do a rollover to a Roth IRA, you may treat the Roth IRA as your own or as an inherited Roth IRA. | |
| A Roth IRA you treat as your own is treated like any other Roth IRA of yours, so that you will not have to receive any required minimum distributions during your lifetime and earnings paid to you in a nonqualified distribution before you are age 591/2 will be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions (unless an exception applies). | |
| If you treat the Roth IRA as an inherited Roth IRA, payments from the Roth IRA will not be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions. An inherited Roth IRA is subject to required minimum distributions. If the participant had started taking required minimum distributions from the Plan, you will have to receive required minimum distributions from the inherited Roth IRA. If the participant had not started taking required minimum distributions, you will not have to start receiving required minimum distributions from the inherited Roth IRA until the year the participant would have been age 701/2. | |
| If you are a surviving beneficiary other than a spouse. If you receive a payment from the Plan because of the participant’s death and you are a designated beneficiary other than a surviving spouse, the only rollover option you have is to do a direct rollover to an inherited Roth IRA. Payments from the inherited Roth IRA, even if made in a nonqualified distribution, will not be subject to the 10% additional income tax on early distributions. You will have to receive required minimum distributions from the inherited Roth IRA. | |
| Payments under a qualified domestic relations order. If you are the spouse or a former spouse of the participant who receives a payment from the Plan under a qualified domestic relations order (QDRO), you generally have the same options the participant would have (for example, you may roll over the payment as described in this notice). | |
| If you are a nonresident alien | |
| If you are a nonresident alien and you do not do a direct rollover to a U.S. IRA or U.S. employer plan, instead of withholding 20%, the Plan is generally required to withhold 30% of the payment for federal income taxes. If the amount withheld exceeds the amount of tax you owe (as may happen if you do a 60-day rollover), you may request an income tax refund by filing Form 1040NR and attaching your Form 1042-S. See Form W-8BEN for claiming that you are entitled to a reduced rate of withholding under an income tax treaty. For more information, see also IRS Publication 519, U.S. Tax Guide for Aliens, and IRS Publication 515, Withholding of Tax on Nonresident Aliens and Foreign Entities. | |
| Other special rules | |
| If a payment is one in a series of payments for less than 10 years, your choice whether to make a direct rollover will apply to all later payments in the series (unless you make a different choice for later payments). | |
| If your payments for the year (only including payments from the designated Roth account in the Plan) are less than $200, the Plan is not required to allow you to do a direct rollover and is not required to withhold for federal income taxes. However, you can do a 60-day rollover. | |
| Unless you elect otherwise, a mandatory cashout from the designated Roth account in the Plan of more than $1,000 will be directly rolled over to a Roth IRA chosen by the Plan administrator or the payor. A mandatory cashout is a payment from a plan to a participant made before age 62 (or normal retirement age, if later) and without consent, where the participant’s benefit does not exceed $5,000 (not including any amounts held under the plan as a result of a prior rollover made to the plan). | |
| You may have special rollover rights if you recently served in the U.S. Armed Forces. For more information, see IRS Publication 3, Armed Forces’ Tax Guide. | |
| FOR MORE INFORMATION | |
| You may wish to consult with the Plan administrator or payor, or a professional tax advisor, before taking a payment from the Plan. Also, you can find more detailed information on the federal tax treatment of payments from employer plans in: IRS Publication 575, Pension and Annuity Income; IRS Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs); and IRS Publication 571, Tax-Sheltered Annuity Plans (403(b) Plans). These publications are available from a local IRS office, on the web at www.irs.gov, or by calling 1-800-TAX-FORM. | |
[1] A designated Roth contribution is an elective contribution under a cash or deferred arrangement that is (i) designated by the employee at the time of the cash or deferred election as a designated Roth contribution that is being made in lieu of all or a portion of the pre-tax elective contribution the employee is eligible to make under the plan, (ii) treated by the employer as includible in the employee’s gross income at the time the employee would have received the amount in cash if the employee had not made the cash or deferred election, and (iii) maintained by the plan in a separate account.
The Internal Revenue Bulletin is produced and published by the Internal Revenue Service and contains IRS pronouncements affecting tax analysis under the Code and the Regulations, including but not limited to Revenue Procedures, Revenue Rulings, Notices and Announcements. Access the IRS site at https://www.irs.gov/help/irsgov-accessibility for information concerning accessibility of IRS materials. While every effort has been made to ensure that the IRB database files available through the TouchTax application are accurate, those using TouchTax for legal research should verify their results against the printed versions of the IRBs available from the IRS.