60 day rollover period
Is there an acceptable excuse for not rolling over a withdrawal within the 60 day time period? I made the withdrawal, then became ill and forgot about it for more than 60 days. I recently found the uncashed withdrawal check. What are my options?
Permalink Submitted by Alan Spross on Wed, 2009-05-27 18:37
You could apply to the IRS for a waiver based on your illness. Not having used the funds is a positive, but the outcome will likely depend on how the IRS views the seriousness and length of your illness. Hopefully, you have good documentation of those details. The cost of a 60 day rollover waiver depends on the amount of the proposed rollover.
Permalink Submitted by mk foss on Mon, 2009-06-01 01:00
A private ruling requesting an extension of the 60 day rollover period costs less than most private rulings. Normally a ruling costs $9,000 but this kind of ruling is $3,000 for a rollover of $100,000 or more and could be as low as $500 for a rollover of $50,000 or less. You’d need to add professional fees to those amounts to help draft the ruling request and shepherd it through the process – those fees could easily be $5,000 or more.
On a more positive note, the IRS has allowed additional time for rollovers for uncashed checks and illness.
Permalink Submitted by Bruce Steiner on Mon, 2009-06-01 01:18
We’ve gotten several rulings allowing a waiver of the 60-day deadline. An important factor here may be the nature and extent of the illness, and the extent to which it prevented the taxpayer from accomplishing the rollover within 60 days. The fact that the taxpayer did not cash the check may be helpful. The IRS does not like cases where the taxpayer is using hindsight (for example, where the taxpayer took the money to invest it in a real estate deal, and then after the real estate deal did not work out, wants to change his/her mind and roll the money back into his/her IRA).