|
Special Tax Notice Regarding Plan Payments Printer Friendly Version
This notice is provided to you by your Plan Administrator because all or part
of the payment that you will soon receive from the Plan may be eligible for
rollover by you or your Plan Administrator to a traditional IRA or an eligible
employer plan. A rollover is a payment by you or the Plan Administrator of all
or part of your benefit to another plan or IRA that allows you to continue to
postpone taxation of that benefit until it is paid to you. Your payment cannot
be rolled over to a Roth IRA, a SIMPLE IRA, or a Coverdell Education Savings
Account (formerly known as an education IRA). An “eligible employer plan”
includes a plan qualified under section 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code,
including a 401(k) plan, profit-sharing plan, defined benefit plan, stock bonus
plan, and money purchase plan; a section 403(a) annuity plan; a section 403(b)
tax-sheltered annuity; and an eligible section 457(b) plan maintained by a
governmental employer (governmental 457 plan).
An eligible employer plan is not legally required to accept a rollover.
Before you decide to roll over your payment to another employer plan, you should
find out whether the plan accepts rollovers and, if so, the types of
distributions it accepts as a rollover. You should also find out about any
documents that are required to be completed before the receiving plan will
accept a rollover. Even if a plan accepts rollovers, it might not accept
rollovers of certain types of distributions, such as after-tax amounts. If this
is the case, and your distribution includes after-tax amounts, you may wish
instead to roll your distribution over to a traditional IRA or split your
rollover amount between the employer plan in which you will participate and a
traditional IRA. If an employer plan accepts your rollover, the plan may
restrict subsequent distributions of the rollover amount or may require your
spouse’s consent for any subsequent distribution. A subsequent distribution from
the plan that accepts your rollover may also be subject to different tax
treatment than distributions from this Plan. Check with the administrator of the
plan that is to receive your rollover prior to making the rollover.
SUMMARY
There are two ways you may be able to receive a Plan payment that is eligible
for rollover:
- Certain payments can be made directly to a traditional IRA that you
establish or to an eligible employer plan that will accept it and hold it
for your benefit (“DIRECT ROLLOVER”)
- The payment can be PAID TO YOU.
If you choose a DIRECT ROLLOVER:
- Your payment will not be taxed in the current year and no income tax will be
withheld.
- You choose whether your payment will be made directly to your traditional IRA
or to an eligible employer plan that accepts your rollover. Your payment cannot
be rolled over to a Roth IRA, a SIMPLE IRA, or a Coverdell Education Savings
Account because these are not traditional IRAs.
- The taxable portion of your payment will be taxed later when you take it out
of the traditional IRA or the eligible employer plan. Depending on the type of
plan, the later distribution may be subject to different tax treatment than it
would be if you received a taxable distribution from this Plan.
If you choose to have a Plan payment that is eligible for rollover PAID TO YOU:
-
You will receive only 80% of the taxable amount of the payment, because the
Plan Administrator is required to withhold 20% of that amount and send it to the
IRS as income tax withholding to be credited against your taxes.
-
The taxable amount of your payment will be taxed in the current year unless
you roll it over. Under limited circumstances, you may be able to use special
tax rules that could reduce the tax you owe. However, if you receive the payment
before age 59½, you may have to pay an additional 10% tax.
-
You can roll over all or part of the payment by paying it to your traditional
IRA or to an eligible employer plan that accepts your rollover within 60 days
after you receive the payment. The amount rolled over will not be taxed until
you take it out of the traditional IRA or the eligible employer plan.
-
If you want to roll over 100% of the payment to a traditional IRA or an
eligible employer plan, you must find other money to replace the 20% of the
taxable portion that was withheld. If you roll over only the 80% that you
received, you will be taxed on the 20% that was withheld and that is not rolled
over.
Your Right to Waive the 30-Day Notice Period. Generally, neither a direct
rollover nor a payment can be made from the plan until at least 30 days after
your receipt of this notice. Thus, after receiving this notice, you have at
least 30 days to consider whether or not to have your withdrawal directly rolled
over. If you do not wish to wait until this 30-day notice period ends before
your election is processed, you may waive the notice period by making an
affirmative election indicating whether or not you wish to make a direct
rollover. Your withdrawal will then be processed in accordance with your
election as soon as practical after it is received by the Plan Administrator.
MORE INFORMATION
-
PAYMENTS THAT CAN AND CANNOT BE ROLLED OVER
Payments from the Plan may be “eligible rollover distributions.” This means that
they can be rolled over to a traditional IRA or to an eligible employer plan
that accepts rollovers. Payments from a plan cannot be rolled over to a Roth
IRA, a SIMPLE IRA, or a Coverdell Education Savings Account. Your Plan
administrator should be able to tell you what portion of your payment is an
eligible rollover distribution.
After-tax Contributions. If you made after-tax contributions to the Plan, these
contributions may be rolled into either a traditional IRA or to certain employer
plans that accept rollovers of the after-tax contributions. The following rules
apply:
-
Rollover into a Traditional IRA. You can roll over your after-tax
contributions to a traditional IRA either directly or indirectly. Your plan
administrator should be able to tell you how much of your payment is the taxable
portion and how much is the after-tax portion.
If you roll over after-tax contributions to a traditional IRA, it is your
responsibility to keep track of, and report to the Service on the applicable
forms, the amount of these after-tax contributions. This will enable the
nontaxable amount of any future distributions from the traditional IRA to be
determined.
Once you roll over your after-tax contributions to a traditional IRA, those
amounts CANNOT later be rolled over to an employer plan.
-
Rollover into an Employer Plan. You can roll over after-tax contributions
from an employer plan that is qualified under Code section 401(a) or a section
403(a) annuity plan to another such plan using a direct rollover if the other
plan provides separate accounting for amounts rolled over, including separate
accounting for the after-tax employee contributions and earnings on those
contributions. You can also roll over after-tax contributions from a section
403(b) tax-sheltered annuity to another section 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity
using a direct rollover if the other tax-sheltered annuity provides separate
accounting for amounts rolled over, including separate accounting for the
after-tax employee contributions and earnings on those contributions. You CANNOT
roll over after-tax contributions to a governmental 457 plan. If you want to
roll over your after-tax contributions to an employer plan that accepts these
rollovers, you cannot have the after-tax contributions paid to you first. You
must instruct the Plan Administrator of this Plan to make a direct rollover on
your behalf. Also, you cannot first roll over after-tax contributions to a
traditional IRA and then roll over that amount into an employer plan.
The following types of payments cannot be rolled over:
-
Payments Spread over Long Periods. You cannot roll over a payment if it is part
of a series of equal (or almost equal) payments that are made at least once a
year and that will last for:
-
your lifetime (or a period measured by
your life expectancy)
-
your lifetime and your beneficiary’s
lifetime (or a period measured by your joint life expectancies)
-
a period of 10 years or more.
-
Required Minimum Payments.
Beginning when you reach age 70½ or retire, whichever
is later, a certain portion of your payment cannot be rolled over because it is
a “required minimum payment” that must be paid to you. Special rules apply if
you own 5% or more of your employer.
-
Hardship Distributions. A hardship distribution cannot be rolled over.
-
ESOP Dividends. Cash dividends paid to you on employer stock held in an employee
stock ownership plan cannot be rolled over.
-
Corrective Distributions. A distribution that is made to correct a failed
nondiscrimination test or because legal limits on certain contributions were
exceeded cannot be rolled over.
-
Loans Treated as Distributions. The amount of a plan loan that becomes a taxable
deemed distribution because of a default cannot be rolled over. However, the
amount of a loan default is eligible for rollover if you roll over an amount
equal to the amount of your loan default to another qualified employer plan or a
traditional IRA within 60 days of the date of the default, as discussed in Part
III below. Ask the Plan Administrator of this Plan if distribution of your loan
qualifies for rollover treatment.
The Plan Administrator of this Plan should be able to tell you if your payment
includes amounts which cannot be rolled over.
-
DIRECT ROLLOVER
A DIRECT ROLLOVER is a direct payment of the amount of your Plan benefits to a
traditional IRA or an eligible employer plan that will accept it. You can choose
a DIRECT ROLLOVER of all or any portion of your payment that is an eligible
rollover distribution, as described in Part I above. You are not taxed on any
taxable portion of your payment for which you choose a DIRECT ROLLOVER until you
later take it out of the traditional IRA or eligible employer plan. In addition,
no income tax withholding is required for any taxable portion of your Plan
benefits for which you choose a DIRECT ROLLOVER. This Plan might not let you
choose a DIRECT ROLLOVER if your distributions for the year are less than $200.
- DIRECT ROLLOVER to a Traditional IRA. You can open a traditional IRA to receive
the direct rollover. If you choose to have your payment made directly to a
traditional IRA, contact an IRA sponsor (usually a financial institution) to
find out how to have your payment made in a direct rollover to a traditional IRA
at that institution. If you are unsure of how to invest your money, you can
temporarily establish a traditional IRA to receive the payment. However, in
choosing a traditional IRA, you may wish to make sure that the traditional IRA
you choose will allow you to move all or a part of your payment to another
traditional IRA at a later date, without penalties or other limitations. See IRS
Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements, for more information on
traditional IRAs (including limits on how often you can roll over between IRAs).
- DIRECT ROLLOVER to a Plan. If you are employed by a new employer that has an
eligible employer plan, and you want a direct rollover to that plan, ask the
plan administrator of that plan whether it will accept your rollover. An
eligible employer plan is not legally required to accept a rollover. Even if
your new employer’s plan does not accept a rollover, you can choose a DIRECT
ROLLOVER to a traditional IRA. If the employer plan accepts your rollover, the
plan may provide restrictions on the circumstances under which you may later
receive a distribution of the rollover amount or may require spousal consent to
any subsequent distribution. Check with the plan administrator of that plan
before making your decision.
- DIRECT ROLLOVER of a Series of Payments. If you receive a payment that can be
rolled over to a traditional IRA or an eligible employer plan that will accept
it, and it is paid in a series of payments for less than 10 years, your choice
to make or not make a DIRECT ROLLOVER for a payment will apply to all later
payments in the series until you change your election. You are free to change
your election for any later payment in the series.
- Change in Tax Treatment Resulting from a DIRECT ROLLOVER. The tax treatment of
any payment from the eligible employer plan or traditional IRA receiving your
DIRECT ROLLOVER might be different than if you received your benefit in a
taxable distribution directly from the Plan. For example, if you were born
before January 1, 1936, you might be entitled to ten-year averaging or capital
gain treatment, as explained below. However, if you have your benefit rolled
over to a section 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity, a governmental 457 plan, or a
traditional IRA in a DIRECT ROLLOVER, your benefit will no longer be eligible
for that special treatment. See the sections below entitled “Additional 10% Tax
if You Are under Age 59½” and “Special Tax Treatment if You Were Born before
January 1, 1936.”
-
PAYMENT PAID TO YOU
If your payment can be rolled over (see Part I above) and the payment is made to
you in cash, it is subject to 20% federal income tax withholding on the taxable
portion (state tax withholding may also apply). The payment is taxed in the year
you receive it unless, within 60 days, you roll it over to a traditional IRA or
an eligible employer plan that accepts rollovers. If you do not roll it over,
special tax rules may apply.
Income Tax Withholding:
- Mandatory Withholding. If any portion of your payment can be rolled over under
Part I above and you do not elect to make a DIRECT ROLLOVER, the Plan is
required by law to withhold 20% of the taxable amount. This amount is sent to
the IRS as federal income tax withholding. For example, if you can roll over a
taxable payment of $10,000, only $8,000 will be paid to you because the Plan
must withhold $2,000 as income tax. However, when you prepare your income tax
return for the year, unless you make a rollover within 60 days (see “Sixty-Day
Rollover Option” below), you must report the full $10,000 as a taxable payment
from the Plan. You must report the $2,000 as tax withheld, and it will be
credited against any income tax you owe for the year. There will be no income
tax withholding if your payments for the year are less than $200.
- Voluntary Withholding. If any portion of your payment is taxable but cannot be
rolled over under Part I above, the mandatory withholding rules described above
do not apply. In this case, you may elect not to have withholding apply to that
portion. If you do nothing, 10% will be taken out of this portion of your
payment for federal income tax withholding. To elect out of withholding, ask the
Plan Administrator for the election form and related information.
Sixty-Day Rollover Option. If you receive a payment that can be rolled over
under Part I above, you can still decide to roll over all or part of it to a
traditional IRA or to an eligible employer plan that accepts rollovers. If you
decide to roll over, you must contribute the amount of the payment you received
to a traditional IRA or eligible employer plan within 60 days after you receive
the payment. The portion of your payment that is rolled over will not be taxed
until you take it out of the traditional IRA or the eligible employer plan.
You can roll over up to 100% of your payment that can be rolled over under Part
I above, including an amount equal to the 20% of the taxable portion that was
withheld. If you choose to roll over 100%, you must find other money within the
60-day period to contribute to the traditional IRA or the eligible employer
plan, to replace the 20% that was withheld. On the other hand, if you roll over
only the 80% of the taxable portion that you received, you will be taxed on the
20% that was withheld.
- Example: The taxable portion of your payment that can be rolled over under Part
I above is $10,000, and you choose to have it paid to you. You will receive
$8,000, and $2,000 will be sent to the IRS as income tax withholding. Within 60
days after receiving the $8,000, you may roll over the entire $10,000 to a
traditional IRA or an eligible employer plan. To do this, you roll over the
$8,000 you received from the Plan, and you will have to find $2,000 from other
sources (your savings, a loan, etc.). In this case, the entire $10,000 is not
taxed until you take it out of the traditional IRA or an eligible employer plan.
If you roll over the entire $10,000, when you file your income tax return you
may get a refund of part or all of the $2,000 withheld.
If, on the other hand, you roll over only $8,000, the $2,000 you did not roll
over is taxed in the year it was withheld. When you file your income tax return,
you may get a refund of part of the $2,000 withheld. (However, any refund is
likely to be larger if you roll over the entire $10,000.)
Additional 10% Tax If You Are under Age 59½. If you receive a payment before you
reach age 59½ and you do not roll it over, then, in addition to the regular
income tax, you may have to pay an extra tax equal to 10% of the taxable portion
of the payment. The additional 10% tax generally does not apply to (1) payments
that are paid after you separate from service with your employer during or after
the year you reach age 55, (2) payments that are paid because you retire due to
disability, (3) payments that are paid as equal (or almost equal) payments over
your life or life expectancy (or your and your beneficiary’s lives or life
expectancies), (4) dividends paid with respect to stock by an employee stock
ownership plan (ESOP) as described in Code section 404(k), (5) payments that are
paid directly to the government to satisfy a federal tax levy, (6) payments that
are paid to an alternate payee under a qualified domestic relations order, or
(7) payments that do not exceed the amount of your deductible medical expenses.
See IRS Form 5329 for more information on the additional 10% tax.
The additional 10% tax will not apply to distributions from a governmental 457
plan, except to the extent the distribution is attributable to an amount you
rolled over to that plan (adjusted for investment returns) from another type of
eligible employer plan or IRA. Any amount rolled over from a governmental 457
plan to another type of eligible employer plan or to a traditional IRA will
become subject to the additional 10% tax if it is distributed to you before you
reach age 59½, unless one of the exceptions applies.
Default of Plan Loans. Plan loans are defaulted if you request a complete
withdrawal after leaving employment or if a missed payment is not made up by the
end of the quarter following the quarter in which the payment was missed. The
amount of your loan default is treated as a distribution to you at the time of
the default and will be taxed unless you roll over an amount equal to the amount
of your loan default to another qualified employer plan or a traditional IRA
within 60 days of the date of the default. If the amount of your loan default is
the only amount you receive or are treated as having received, no amount will be
withheld from it. If you receive other payments of cash or property from the
Plan, the 20% withholding amount will be based on the entire amount paid to you,
including the amount of the loan default. The amount withheld will be limited to
the amount of other cash or property paid to you (other than any employer
securities). The amount of a defaulted plan loan that is a taxable deemed
distribution cannot be rolled over.
Special Tax Treatment If You Were Born before January 1, 1936. If you receive a
payment from a plan qualified under section 401(a) or a section 403(a) annuity
plan that can be rolled over under Part I and you do not roll it over to a
traditional IRA or an eligible employer plan, the payment will be taxed in the
year you receive it. However, if the payment qualifies as a “lump sum
distribution,” it may be eligible for special tax treatment. (See also “Employer
Stock or Securities”, below.) A lump sum distribution is a payment, within one
year, of your entire balance under the Plan (and certain other similar plans of
the employer) that is payable to you after you have reached age 59½ or because
you have separated from service with your employer (or, in the case of a
self-employed individual, after you have reached age 59½ or have become
disabled). For a payment to be treated as a lump sum distribution, you must have
been a participant in the plan for at least five years before the year in which
you received the distribution. The special tax treatment for lump sum
distributions that may be available to you is described below.
- Ten-Year Averaging. If you receive a lump sum distribution and you were born
before January 1, 1936, you can make a one-time election to figure the tax on
the payment by using “10-year averaging” (using 1986 tax rates). Ten-year
averaging often reduces the tax you owe.
- Capital Gain Treatment. If you receive a lump sum distribution and you were
born before January 1, 1936, and you were a participant in the Plan before 1974,
you may elect to have the part of your payment that is attributable to your
pre-1974 participation in the Plan taxed as long-term capital gain at a rate of
20%.
There are other limits on the special tax treatment for lump sum distributions.
For example, you can generally elect this special tax treatment only once in
your lifetime, and the election applies to all lump sum distributions that you
receive in that same year. You may not elect this special tax treatment if you
rolled amounts into this Plan from a 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity contract or
from an IRA not originally attributable to a qualified employer plan.
If you have previously rolled over a distribution from this Plan (or certain
other similar plans of the employer), you cannot use this special averaging
treatment for later payments from the Plan. If you roll over your payment to a
traditional IRA, governmental 457 plan, or 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity, you
will not be able to use special tax treatment for later payments from that IRA,
plan, or annuity. Also, if you roll over only a portion of your payment to a
traditional IRA, governmental 457 plan, or 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity, this
special tax treatment is not available for the rest of the payment. See IRS Form
4972 for additional information on lump sum distributions and how you elect the
special tax treatment.
Employer Stock or Securities. There is a special rule for a payment from the
Plan that includes employer stock (or other employer securities). To use this
special rule, 1) the payment must qualify as a lump sum distribution, as
described above, except that you do not need five years of plan participation,
or 2) the employer stock included in the payment must be attributable to
“after-tax” employee contributions, if any. Under this special rule, you may
have the option of not paying tax on the “net unrealized appreciation” of the
stock until you sell the stock. Net unrealized appreciation generally is the
increase in the value of the employer stock while it was held by the Plan. For
example, if employer stock was contributed to your Plan account when the stock
was worth $1,000 but the stock was worth $1,200 when you received it, you would
not have to pay tax on the $200 increase in value until you later sold the
stock.
You may instead elect not to have the special rule apply to the net unrealized
appreciation. In this case, your net unrealized appreciation will be taxed in
the year you receive the stock, unless you roll over the stock. The stock can be
rolled over to a traditional IRA or another eligible employer plan, either in a
direct rollover or a rollover that you make yourself. Generally, you will no
longer be able to use the special rule for net unrealized appreciation if you
roll the stock over to a traditional IRA or another eligible employer plan.
If you receive only employer stock in a payment that can be rolled over, no
amount will be withheld from the payment. If you receive cash or property other
than employer stock, as well as employer stock, in a payment that can be rolled
over, the 20% withholding amount will be based on the entire taxable amount paid
to you (including the value of the employer stock determined by excluding the
net unrealized appreciation). However, the amount withheld will be limited to
the cash or property (excluding employer stock) paid to you.
If you receive employer stock in a payment that qualifies as a lump sum
distribution, the special tax treatment for lump sum distributions described
above (such as 10-year averaging) also may apply. See IRS Form 4972 for
additional information on these rules.
-
SURVIVING SPOUSES, ALTERNATE PAYEES, AND OTHER BENEFICIARIES
In general, the rules summarized above that apply to payments to employees also
apply to payments to surviving spouses of employees and to spouses or former
spouses who are “alternate payees.” You are an alternate payee if your interest
in the Plan results from a “qualified domestic relations order,” which is an
order issued by a court, usually in connection with a divorce or legal
separation.
If you are a surviving spouse or an alternate payee, you may choose to have a
payment that can be rolled over, as described in Part I above, paid in a DIRECT
ROLLOVER to a traditional IRA or to an eligible employer plan or paid to you. If
you have the payment paid to you, you can keep it or roll it over yourself to a
traditional IRA or to an eligible employer plan. Thus, you have the same choices
as the employee.
If you are a designated beneficiary (other than a surviving spouse or alternate
payee) of a deceased employee, you may be able to roll over tax free all or a
portion of a distribution you receive from an eligible retirement plan of the
employee. The distribution must be a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer to your
IRA that was set up to receive the distribution. The transfer will be treated as
an eligible rollover distribution and the receiving plan will be treated as an
Inherited IRA. For information on inherited IRAs, see Publication 590.
If you are a surviving spouse, an alternate payee, or another beneficiary, your
payment is generally not subject to the additional 10% tax described in Part III
above, even if you are younger than age 59½.
If you are a surviving spouse, an alternate payee, or another beneficiary, you
may be able to use the special tax treatment for lump sum distributions and the
special rule for payments that include employer stock, as described in Part III
above. If you receive a payment because of the employee’s death, you may be able
to treat the payment as a lump sum distribution if the employee met the
appropriate age requirements, whether or not the employee had 5 years of
participation in the Plan.
HOW TO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This notice summarizes only the federal (not state or local) tax rules that
might apply to your payment. The rules described above are complex and contain
many conditions and exceptions that are not included in this notice. Therefore,
you may want to consult with the Plan Administrator or a professional tax
advisor before you take a payment of your benefits from your Plan. Also, you can
find more specific information on the tax treatment of payments from qualified
employer plans in IRS Publication 575, Pension and Annuity Income, and IRS
Publication 590, Individual Retirement Arrangements. These publications are
available from your local IRS office, on the IRS’s Internet Web Site at
www.irs.gov, or by calling 1-800-TAX-FORMS.
You should keep this notice and all paperwork concerning the distribution to use
in the preparation of your income tax return and any declaration of estimated
tax.
The laws and rules governing your distribution are very complex and they change
from time to time. You are strongly urged to promptly seek the advice of a
competent professional tax advisor to determine the tax impact applicable to
your distribution. |
| |
|