60 day rollover period
Hi. I’m inquiring about what constitutes the EXACT start and end day of the 60 day rollover period. As we’re about to mail a check to our fund to complete the rollover, I’m realizing that what we were told by the firm’s rep doesn’t make sense and I’m worried we may not qualify for the rollover. In asking what constituted the start/end date of the 60 days I was told (in an email thread which I’ve saved) that the start date is the day you cash the check (proved by the bank deposit date) and that the end date is the day you mail your check back into the IRA (proved by the post mark).
Is that correct? I’m afraid we’ll be cutting it so close (59 days by that definition—the 60th falls on a Saturday) so the FedEx wouldn’t be received until the 61st day, but they said that doesn’t matter—that the 60 days is accounted for when we do our taxes by the above parameters.
Can someone please advise whether I’ve been correctly informed and am interpreting/calculating this correctly. I’m worried about the implications if an error’s been made.
(The specific dates are: Disbursement deposited into our bank account on August 27, Will be fedexing the check to put the money back into an IRA tomorrow, October 25, which should then be received by them on Monday, October 28—day 62 which is what concerns me!)
I realize how risky it was to cut it so close but circumstances prevented us from handling it soon.
Thank you very much for any information you can give!
Permalink Submitted by Anne Kelsh on Thu, 2013-10-24 17:11
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Permalink Submitted by Alan - IRA critic on Thu, 2013-10-24 20:38
The 60 day period actually starts on the day you RECEIVED the check, not when you cashed it. So if it sat on your desk for a week before cashing, that’s another 7 days gone. There is less guidance on the rollover completion date, but it probably would be the date the IRA custodian received your rollover check. Note that there is no firm documentation of when you received the check in most cases given variances in mailing times, weekends, etc. You could save some time on the rollover end by just going to the nearest bank today and opening a new IRA account to receive the rollover. That would avoid assertions you missed the deadline by your current custodian, which is the only one that would know when you took the distribution (but not exactly when you received it). You could put it in a 13 month CD and when it expires you could roll it back into your original IRA.