Did you or did you not pay the 10% penalty?Remember this was a hardship withdrawal and not a loan. I've heard it's much more difficult to obtain a hardship where as anyone can get a loan if your plan allows it. But that said, it wasn't hard to get the hardship after all.
Did you or did you not pay the 10% penalty?
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I don't get the bit in Martha's post that says "Hardship distributions are includible in gross income unless they consist of designated Roth contributions" and elsewhere it says "you are not eligible to rollover a hardship withdrawal into an IRA." (my 401k says this also). I thought Roth contributions are generally included as gross income anyway.
Did you or did you not pay the 10% penalty?
BTW, the OP might not have had taxes withheld on the hardship withdrawal. IIRC, neither the taxes nor the penalty have to be withheld by the employer when making a hardship distribution. The employee then will be totally responsible for paying both.
Yes, they withheld the 10% tax penalty. The rest of the taxes I pay at the end of the year I assume.
This is an EXTREMELY expensive way for OP to pay off his debt. He should throw himself on the mercy of the Plan Admin and see if the funds can be restored.
401khelpcenter.com - Hardship Withdrawals Give Access to Your 401k Savings, But at a CostA hardship withdrawal is not like a plan loan. The withdrawal may be difficult to get, and costly if you receive it. Remember, your 401k is meant to provide retirement income. It should be a last-resort source of cash for expenses before then.
Knowing that workers would resist putting aside money for decades with no chance to access it, Congress made provisions in the 401k rules to allow plan withdrawals in a limited number of hardship situations. These include:But to discourage these early hardship withdrawals, in most all cases the IRS imposes a hefty financial penalty including a 10 percent early withdrawal penalty if you are younger than 59 1/2.
- Un-reimbursed medical expenses for you, your spouse, or dependents.
- Purchase of an employee's principal residence.
- Payment of college tuition and related educational costs such as room and board for the next 12 months for you, your spouse, dependents, or children who are no longer dependents.
- Payments necessary to prevent eviction of you from your home, or foreclosure on the mortgage of your principal residence.
- For funeral expenses and repair of a primary residence.
You may qualify to take a penalty-free withdrawal if you meet one of the following exceptions:Employers are not required to offer any type of hardship withdrawal, so you should check with your employer to see if it is available to you.
- You become totally disabled.
- You are in debt for medical expenses that exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income.
- You are required by court order to give the money to your divorced spouse, a child, or a dependent.
- You are separated from service (through permanent layoff, termination, quitting or taking early retirement) in the year you turn 55, or later.
- You are separated from service and you have set up a payment schedule to withdraw money in substantially equal amounts over the course of your life expectancy. (Once you begin taking this kind of distribution you are required to continue for five years or until you reach age 59 1/2, whichever is longer.)
ok...now I get it, I think. They're saying if its comming OUT of a Roth account.......If it was a Roth contribution, you already paid income taxes on it so it would not be taxed again, hence not included in your gross income for the year you took it out of the plan.
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It sounds like the fact that a person is spending the hardship withdrawl on a home purchase (or any of the approved hardship withdrawl reasons) does not save him any taxes or penalties, it just allows him to get hold of the money.
Im 38 and i'm not really concerned about my retirement, so don't panic. The 20k I w/d was only a small fraction of my balance. And not to give people the wrong impression, but money is really not a problem for me. I come from a family of money. Now that said, I DON'T live on Dads money so please don't get the wrong idea. I work 50-60 hrs a week even though I don't really need to. And I already have a big screen TV.