401(k) withdrawal rules: how to take money out of a 401(k) or IRA

Key points

• A 401(k) pays out only when the plan allows it: usually when you leave the job, reach 59 and a half, or qualify for a hardship withdrawal. An IRA pays out whenever you ask.
• Before 59 and a half, the taxable part of a withdrawal usually owes a 10% additional tax on top of income tax. Exceptions remove the 10%, never the income tax, and they differ between plans and IRAs.
• Leave your employer in or after the calendar year you turn 55 and that employer’s plan can pay you without the 10% (the rule of 55). An IRA cannot.
• A 401(k) payment made to you that could be rolled over has 20% withheld for federal tax. An IRA withholds 10% unless you choose another rate. Your real tax is settled on your return.

A 401(k) withdrawal, which the tax code calls a distribution, is money paid out of the plan to you. The IRS sums up the cost in one line: “Most retirement plan distributions are subject to income tax and may be subject to an additional 10% tax.” This guide covers the rules for withdrawing from a 401(k), an IRA and similar accounts: when you can take money out, what it costs, the exceptions, and the choices once you retire. Each section links to a guide that goes deeper.

These are federal rules, not state income tax. We checked every rule and figure against the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury regulations and IRS publications, forms and pages on October 27, 2026. They are listed at the end. To see what a withdrawal would cost you, use our 401(k) withdrawal calculator.

How to withdraw from a 401(k)

A 401(k) is your employer’s plan, so the plan document decides when it pays. For the money you put in from your pay, the IRS says a plan may pay you when you “terminate employment (by death, disability, retirement or other severance from employment); reach age 59½; or suffer a hardship.” It adds: “The plan is not required to allow distributions for every possible distributable event.” Your summary plan description says which ones your plan allows.

The steps are much the same at most plans:

1. Check that you have a distributable event. You have left the employer, or you have reached 59 and a half and the plan pays people who still work there, or you qualify for a hardship withdrawal.
2. Ask the plan administrator for a distribution and pick the form. A plan may pay “a single lump-sum payment” and may also offer “payments over a set period of time (such as 5 or 10 years) or a purchased annuity with monthly lifetime payments.”
3. Choose where the money goes. Paid to you, a payment that could be rolled over has 20% withheld for federal income tax. Moved straight to an IRA or another plan (a direct rollover), it has none and is not taxed now.
4. Report it. The plan reports the payment on Form 1099-R, in box 7a from 2026 (box 7 before). If you owe the 10%, or if you qualify for an exception that box does not show, you generally file Form 5329 with your return.

Our guide to the 401(k) withdrawal age covers 59 and a half and the exceptions that work earlier.

How to withdraw from an IRA

An IRA has no distributable-event rule. In the IRS’s words: “You can withdraw money from your IRA at any time.” You ask the custodian, and the money is paid to you or moved to another IRA.

A traditional IRA withdrawal is taxed much like a 401(k) withdrawal: “In general, distributions from a traditional IRA are taxable in the year you receive them.” Before 59 and a half the 10% usually applies. A SIMPLE IRA has a higher rate early on: in the first 2 years of participation in your employer’s SIMPLE plan, the additional tax is 25%, not 10%.

The differences from a 401(k) are in three places: some exceptions to the 10% apply only to IRAs and some only to plans (table below), IRA withholding is 10% by default instead of 20%, and an IRA cannot lend you money. The IRS says “IRAs and IRA-based plans (SEP, SIMPLE IRA and SARSEP plans) cannot offer participant loans.” Our guide to IRA withdrawal rules goes deeper.

59 and a half: when the 10% additional tax stops

The tax code’s first exception covers a distribution “made on or after the date on which the employee attains age 59½”. The date counts, not the year. A withdrawal earlier in the year you reach 59 and a half, before that date, is still early. The IRS’s own example, in its answers on substantially equal periodic payments, shows the date: someone born on August 15, 1968 “would reach age 59 ½ on February 15, 2028”, six months after the 59th birthday.

From that date, new withdrawals no longer owe the 10%, from plans and IRAs alike. Income tax still applies to pre-tax money. Reaching 59 and a half does not force you to withdraw anything, and it does not by itself open a 401(k) at a job you still hold: a plan may permit a distribution when you “reach age 59½”, but it is not required to.

The 10% additional tax and its exceptions

Section 72(t) of the tax code raises your tax by “10 percent of the portion of such amount which is includible in gross income”. Three things follow from those words:

• The 10% applies only to the taxable part. Money that comes back to you tax-free, such as your own Roth IRA contributions, owes no 10%.
• It comes on top of income tax, not instead of it.
• An exception removes the 10% only. The income tax on the withdrawal stays.

It is often called the early withdrawal penalty. The IRS calls it the additional tax on early distributions, figured on Form 5329.

The exceptions are not the same for workplace plans and IRAs. Here are the main ones, with their limits, from the IRS table and from the newer law that table does not show yet:

Exception	401(k) and other plans	IRAs
Age 59 and a half	Yes	Yes
You leave the employer in or after the year you turn 55 (for qualified public safety employees, 50 or 25 years of service under the plan, whichever is earlier)	Yes	No
Substantially equal periodic payments, the 72(t) rule	Yes, after you leave the employer	Yes
Total and permanent disability	Yes	Yes
Death: paid to your beneficiary	Yes	Yes
Unreimbursed medical expenses above 7.5% of adjusted gross income	Yes	Yes
Terminal illness, certified by a physician	Yes	Yes (see below)
Birth or adoption, up to $5,000 per child	Yes	Yes
Emergency personal expense: one a year, up to $1,000 (from 2024)	Yes	Yes
Domestic abuse victim: up to $10,500 in 2026 or 50% of the vested account, if less (from 2024)	Yes	Yes
Federally declared disaster, up to $22,000	Yes	Yes
IRS levy, or a military reservist called to active duty	Yes	Yes
Paid to a former spouse under a qualified domestic relations order	Yes	No
Higher education expenses	No	Yes
First-time home purchase, up to $10,000	No	Yes
Health insurance premiums while unemployed	No	Yes
Long-term care insurance premiums, up to $2,600 in 2026 (from December 30, 2025; not in the IRS table)	Yes, if the plan offers it	No
Returned IRA contribution, taken out by your tax return due date, with extensions	n/a	Yes, earnings included (see below)

Four notes on the table, where the law has moved past the IRS table, last updated December 11, 2025. The IRS table marks terminal illness for plans only, but IRS Topic 557 lists it for IRAs, and Notice 2024-2 applies it to every qualified retirement plan in section 4974(c), IRAs included. The domestic abuse limit is $10,000 in the IRS table and the law; it is indexed for inflation and is $10,500 for 2026. For distributions after December 29, 2025, a defined contribution plan that offers it may pay toward certified long-term care insurance without the 10%: the least of the year’s premiums, 10% of your vested balance or $2,600 for 2026. IRS Notice 2026-33 says an IRA “is not a plan eligible” to make these payments. Last, the IRS table says the earnings on a returned IRA contribution still owe the 10%, but for tax determinations made from December 29, 2022 the Code exempts them (section 72(t)(2)(A)(ix)), and the Form 5329 instructions agree. Those earnings are still taxed as income.

Each exception has conditions the table cannot show. Our guide to the 401(k) early withdrawal penalty covers the 10% and its exceptions in detail.

The rule of 55: worked examples

The rule of 55 is the exception for leaving a job. The Code covers a payment “made to an employee after separation from service after attainment of age 55”. The IRS reads that as a calendar-year test: the exception applies “if the separation occurred during or after the calendar year in which the participant reached age 55”. Leave in the year you turn 55, on any day of it, and it can apply. Leave earlier and it never applies to that plan; IRS Publication 575 says it plainly: “You can’t separate from service before that year.”

It covers only workplace plans, and only the plan of the employer you leave. The Code says the exception “shall not apply to distributions from an individual retirement plan”, so money you roll from that 401(k) into an IRA loses it. Qualified public safety employees in a governmental plan, and private-sector firefighters, get it from 50, or after 25 years of service under the plan if that comes first.

Here is what it is worth, for a single filer with $60,000 of other taxable income in 2026 (wages for the part of the year worked), the standard deduction and a 401(k) that is all pre-tax money:

Example 1: $30,000 at 50. You leave your job in the year you turn 50 and take $30,000 from the 401(k). The withdrawal adds $5,950 of federal income tax: part of it falls in the 12% bracket and the rest in the 22% bracket. The 10% additional tax is $3,000. You keep $21,050, which is 70% of the withdrawal. The plan withholds 20%, $6,000, so $24,000 reaches you, and about $2,950 is still due when you file. Run example 1 in the calculator.

Example 2: $30,000 at 56, under the rule of 55. You leave in the year you turn 56 and take the same $30,000 from that employer’s 401(k). The income tax is the same $5,950. The 10% is $0, so you keep $24,050, which is 80%. The plan still withholds $6,000, and about $50 comes back as a refund, if your other withholding covers the tax on your other income. Run example 2.

Example 3: the same money in an IRA. If you roll the 401(k) to an IRA first and then take $30,000 at 56, the rule of 55 is gone: the 10% is $3,000 again and you keep $21,050. The IRA withholds 10% by default, $3,000, so $27,000 reaches you and about $5,950 is due at filing. Run example 3.

The only difference between examples 1 and 2 is the $3,000 additional tax. Our rule of 55 guide covers the calendar-year test, the public safety version and what breaks the rule.

Substantially equal periodic payments: the 72(t) rule

The 72(t) exception lets you take a series of “substantially equal periodic payments” at any age without the 10%. The IRS accepts three ways to figure them: “(1) the required minimum distribution method; (2) the fixed amortization method; or (3) the fixed annuitization method.” The two fixed methods use an interest rate of up to “the greater of (i) 5% or (ii) 120% of the federal mid-term rate”.

The catch is the lock-in. If you change the payments, other than because of death or disability, before the later of 5 years after the first payment or the date you reach 59 and a half, the tax for that year rises by the 10% that the earlier payments taken before 59 and a half would have owed, “plus interest for the deferral period”. One change is allowed: a single switch from a fixed method to the RMD method. From a workplace plan, the payments qualify only if they begin after you leave that employer. Our 72(t) rule guide works the three methods on a $500,000 IRA.

Roth IRA and Roth 401(k) withdrawal rules

Roth IRA

Roth IRA withdrawals follow an ordering rule. Money comes out in this order: “1. Regular contributions. 2. Conversion and rollover contributions, on a first-in, first-out basis”, then “3. Earnings on contributions.” Your own contributions come out first, and they are not taxed and owe no 10%, at any age.

Earnings are tax-free only in a qualified distribution. That needs two things. First, the payment comes after the 5-year period that begins with the first tax year for which you contributed to, or converted into, any Roth IRA. Second, it is made on or after 59 and a half, to your beneficiary after your death, because you are disabled, or for a first home, up to $10,000 over your lifetime. Earnings taken out before both are met are taxed, and before 59 and a half usually owe the 10% too.

Conversions have their own clock. Each conversion starts a separate 5-year period, and taking out the converted amount within it before 59 and a half can bring back the 10% on the part that was taxable when you converted. A Roth IRA has no required withdrawals while you are alive. Our Roth IRA withdrawal rules guide covers both 5-year rules.

Roth 401(k)

A Roth 401(k), which the Code calls a designated Roth account, has a 5-year rule of its own. A qualified distribution needs the 5-taxable-year period that starts with the first year you made a Roth contribution to that plan (or to an earlier plan’s Roth account you rolled into it), plus 59 and a half, death or disability. The first-home exception does not count here.

A withdrawal that is not qualified is split pro rata, not contributions first. The IRS example: from an account holding $9,400 of contributions and $600 of earnings, a $5,000 nonqualified withdrawal is “$4,700 of designated Roth contributions (that are not includible in your gross income) and $300 of earnings (that are includible in your gross income)”. Since 2024, designated Roth accounts have no required minimum distributions while you are alive. See our Roth 401(k) withdrawal rules.

403(b) and 457(b) withdrawal rules

A 403(b), the plan of public schools and certain tax-exempt employers, works much like a 401(k). The IRS says it may let you take money out when you “reach age 59½; have a severance from employment; become disabled; die; or encounter a financial hardship.” The same 10% rules and exceptions apply, including the rule of 55.

A governmental 457(b), a plan of a state or local government employer, is different: “Distributions from a governmental 457(b) plan are not subject to the 10% additional tax except for distributions attributable to rollovers from another type of plan or IRA.” Income tax still applies. The exemption belongs to the 457(b): money rolled from it into an IRA or a 401(k) is paid out under that account’s rules, 10% included. Our 403(b) and 457(b) withdrawal rules guide covers both plans.

Hardship withdrawals, 401(k) loans and paying off debt

Hardship withdrawals

A plan does not have to offer hardship withdrawals; in the IRS’s words, “Although not required, a retirement plan may allow participants to receive hardship distributions.” Where it does, the withdrawal must meet “an immediate and heavy financial need” and be “Limited to the amount necessary to satisfy that financial need”, which may include the taxes the withdrawal causes.

Treasury regulations list seven expenses that count automatically: medical care, buying your main home, college costs for up to the next 12 months, payments to prevent eviction or foreclosure on your main home, funeral expenses, certain repairs to your main home, and losses from a disaster declared by FEMA in an area where you live or work.

A hardship withdrawal is taxed like any other and may owe the 10%: hardship alone is not an exception. And as a rule it cannot be undone: you “can’t: repay it to the plan, or roll it over to another plan or an IRA.” Our 401(k) hardship withdrawal rules guide goes deeper.

401(k) loans

A loan is not a withdrawal if it follows the rules in section 72(p). Not every plan offers one: “a plan sponsor is not required to include loan provisions in its plan.” Where a plan does, the most you can borrow is “50% of his or her vested account balance or $50,000, whichever is less”; a plan may allow up to $10,000 when half the balance is less than that. You repay within 5 years, with payments at least quarterly. The 5-year limit does not apply to a loan used to buy your main home.

Repaid on time, a loan is not taxed. Miss the schedule and the unpaid balance becomes a “deemed distribution”, taxed and possibly subject to the 10%. Leaving your job changes the loan: a plan may require full repayment when you leave, and if you cannot repay, the balance is treated as a distribution. If the loan was in good standing and the plan offsets it within 12 months after you leave, you can still avoid the tax by rolling that amount into an IRA or plan “by the due date (including extensions) for filing the Federal income tax return for the year in which the loan is treated as a distribution.” Other offsets have the usual 60 days. Our guide to 401(k) loans versus withdrawals compares the two.

Using a 401(k) to pay off debt

No special rule covers paying debts from a 401(k): the money comes out as a regular withdrawal, a hardship withdrawal or a loan, under the rules above. Before 59 and a half, a withdrawal to pay a credit card or a mortgage usually owes income tax and the 10%, since no exception covers debt as such, though a hardship withdrawal can cover payments needed to prevent eviction or foreclosure on your main home. Our guide to using a 401(k) to pay off debt covers debts and mortgages in detail.

Taxes on 401(k) withdrawals

Money that went in pre-tax is taxed as ordinary income when it comes out. In the IRS’s words: “Distributions from traditional IRAs that you include in income are taxed as ordinary income.” Plan withdrawals of pre-tax money are taxed the same way. The withdrawal is added to your other income for the year, so it is taxed at the rates on top of that income, not at an average. For 2026, a single filer’s taxable income from $50,400 to $105,700 is taxed at 22%, and the standard deduction is $16,100 ($32,200 for a married couple filing jointly). At 65 or older you get an extra $2,050 if single, or $1,650 each if married, and from 2025 to 2028 a separate $6,000 senior deduction that phases out above $75,000 of modified adjusted gross income ($150,000 joint).

A withdrawal can also raise two other bills:

• Taxes on Social Security benefits. The IRS test adds “One-half of your benefits; plus 2. All your other income, including tax-exempt interest.” A 401(k) or IRA withdrawal is other income, so it can make more of your benefit taxable. See is Social Security taxable.
• Medicare premiums. The income-related surcharge (IRMAA) uses your income from “the tax year 2 years prior”. In 2026 it starts above $109,000 of modified adjusted gross income for a single filer and $218,000 for a joint return, so a large withdrawal in 2026 can raise your premiums in 2028 if you are on Medicare then.

Our guide to taxes on 401(k) withdrawals works through the brackets and after-tax money in detail.

Withholding: 20% from a plan, 10% from an IRA

Withholding is a prepayment of your tax, not the tax itself. The rules differ by account:

Payment	Federal withholding	Can you change it?
401(k), 403(b) or governmental 457(b) payment you could roll over, paid to you	20%	Only upward
Direct rollover to an IRA or another plan	None	Not needed
IRA withdrawal payable on demand	10% by default	Any rate from 0% to 100% on Form W-4R
Hardship withdrawal or RMD, paid as a single payment	10% by default	Yes, on Form W-4R

The 20% comes from section 3405(c), and Form W-4R adds: “You may not choose a rate less than 20%.” Hardship withdrawals and RMDs “are not eligible rollover distributions for purposes of these withholding rules”, so the 10% default applies to them instead. Installments differ. From a plan, a series over your life expectancy or “a specified period of 10 years or more” cannot be rolled over, so it is withheld like wages under Form W-4P, and you can choose none; a shorter series still has 20% withheld. IRA withdrawals payable on demand stay nonperiodic even when paid in installments: 10% by default, on Form W-4R.

If too little is withheld, Form W-4R warns, “you will generally owe tax when you file your tax return and may owe a penalty unless you make timely payments of estimated tax.” Example 1 above shows the gap: $6,000 withheld against $8,950 of added tax. Our guide to IRA distribution withholding covers Form W-4R.

Cashing out versus rolling over

When you leave a job, the IRS lists four choices: leave the money in the plan, roll it to a new employer’s plan, withdraw it, or roll it to an IRA. Cashing out is the third. A lump sum means income tax “on any previously untaxed amount that you receive” and possibly the 10% “if you aren’t at least age 55 (59½, if from a SEP or SIMPLE IRA plan)”.

A cash-out can still be undone. “You have 60 days from the date you receive an IRA or retirement plan distribution to roll it over to another plan or IRA.” But the plan has already withheld 20%, so to roll over the full amount you must add that 20% from other money; any part you do not replace is taxed, and may owe the 10%. A direct rollover avoids both the withholding and the 60-day clock. If you take money out of an IRA and put it back into an IRA yourself, you can do that only once in any 12-month period; trustee-to-trustee transfers between IRAs do not count. Our guide on how to cash out a 401(k) adds up what it costs.

401(k) withdrawals after a layoff

A layoff is a severance from employment, so the plan may then pay you. The rules that matter most after 50:

• Your age in the year you leave decides the rule of 55. Laid off in the year you turn 55 or later, that plan can pay you without the 10%; laid off in the year you turn 54, it cannot, even if you wait.
• Keep it in the plan or roll it over. Moving the money to an IRA ends the rule of 55 for it.
• An outstanding loan may have to be repaid when you leave, or it is treated as a distribution. If the plan offsets it within 12 months after you leave, you have until your tax return due date, with extensions, to roll over that amount.
• Health insurance premiums paid while unemployed escape the 10% only from an IRA, not from a 401(k).

Our guide to your 401(k) after a layoff goes deeper.

Taking 401(k) money in retirement

After 59 and a half the question changes from penalties to pace. A plan may pay a lump sum, installments over a set period or an annuity, as listed above, or you can roll the balance to an IRA and set your own withdrawals. In each form, pre-tax money is taxed as ordinary income when it is paid. Our guide to 401(k) distribution options compares them.

How much you can take each year is a separate question. Our “Will my money last?” calculator tests a yearly withdrawal against every historical period in its data, which starts in 1928.

Example 4: $500,000 at two withdrawal rates. You start with $500,000, invested 60% in US stocks and 40% in 10-year Treasury bonds, with 0.5% a year in fees. You withdraw a fixed amount each year, raised with inflation, for 30 years:

• $20,000 a year (4% of the start): the money lasted in 62 of the 69 historical periods tested (90%), start years 1928 to 1996. The worst start year was 1966; the money ran out in 1989, year 24 of 30. Run the 4% case.
• $25,000 a year (5%): it lasted in 45 of 69 periods (65%). Run the 5% case.

These are pre-tax amounts. From a traditional 401(k), part of each withdrawal goes to income tax, so the spendable amount is lower. Past results do not predict future ones.

RMDs: when withdrawals become required

At some point the withdrawals stop being optional. Required minimum distributions (RMDs) start at 73 if you were born from 1951 to 1958 and at 75 if you were born in 1960 or later. For people born in 1959, the final regulations leave the age “[Reserved]” and proposed regulations say 73. A workplace plan may let you delay until you retire, unless you are a 5-percent owner of the employer. An IRA never can: its RMDs start even if you are still working.

Three points tie RMDs to the rest of this guide. An RMD from pre-tax money is taxed as ordinary income. It cannot be rolled over, so a plan withholds 10% by default, not 20%. And Roth IRAs and Roth 401(k)s have no RMDs while you are alive. Our guide to required minimum distributions covers the age, the table, the penalty and the taxes.

Key 401(k) and IRA withdrawal numbers for 2026

Item	2026 figure
Age when the 10% stops	59 and a half
10% additional tax (SIMPLE IRA in the first 2 years)	10% (25%)
Rule of 55 age (qualified public safety employees)	55 (50)
Federal withholding: plan payment you could roll over / IRA default	20% / 10%
Rollover deadline	60 days
401(k) loan limit	Lesser of $50,000 or 50% of the vested balance
Emergency personal expense exception	$1,000 a year
Birth or adoption exception	$5,000 per child
Domestic abuse exception	$10,500 or 50%, if less
Disaster exception	$22,000 per disaster
First-time home, IRAs only	$10,000 lifetime
Long-term care insurance premiums, defined contribution plans only	$2,600
Standard deduction, single / joint	$16,100 / $32,200
22% bracket starts (single, taxable income)	$50,400
Medicare IRMAA starts, single / joint (2026 premiums, 2024 income)	$109,000 / $218,000
RMD age	73 (born 1951 to 1958), 75 (born 1960 or later)

The tax and Medicare figures change every year. The 2027 figures had not been published on October 29, 2026.

Common 401(k) withdrawal mistakes

1. Rolling to an IRA before using the rule of 55. The exception stays with the employer’s plan. In the IRA, the 10% is back until 59 and a half.
2. Counting the year, not the date, at 59 and a half. A withdrawal earlier in that year, before the date, is still early.
3. Treating withholding as the tax. 20% or 10% is a prepayment. A withdrawal taxed at 22% plus the 10% owes more at filing.
4. Missing the 60 days on a check paid to you, or rolling over only the net amount and leaving the withheld 20% taxable.
5. Assuming an exception covers everything. Most have limits, and every one removes only the 10%, never the income tax.
6. Taking Roth earnings out too early. Contributions come out tax-free at any age; earnings need 5 years and 59 and a half (or another qualifying event).
7. Forgetting the loan when leaving a job. An unpaid loan becomes a taxable distribution unless you roll that amount over, by your tax return due date (extensions included) if the plan offsets it within 12 months after you leave.

About this guide

Written by the Diversify Guy editorial desk. Diversify Guy is a pen name. It is the byline of our editorial team, not a single individual. We do not publish personal trading records or claim to be your adviser. We tell you where every figure came from so you can check it yourself. How we work and how we get paid.

This guide explains federal rules. It is not personalized tax or investment advice.

Sources and check dates

Sources were fetched and checked on October 27, 2026, and all were checked again on October 29, 2026. Calculator results come from running the site’s own 401(k) withdrawal calculator and “Will my money last?” calculator on the inputs given.

• Internal Revenue Code section 72(t) (10% additional tax and exceptions, including (t)(2)(A)(ix) on returned IRA contribution earnings and the note adding (t)(2)(N), long-term care) and 72(p) (loans), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapB-partII-sec72.htm
• Internal Revenue Code section 408A (Roth IRAs), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapD-partI-subpartA-sec408A.htm
• 26 CFR 1.408A-6 (Roth IRA distributions and the 5-year period), eCFR, title 26 up to date as of October 27, 2026: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.408A-6
• Internal Revenue Code section 402A (designated Roth accounts), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapD-partI-subpartA-sec402A.htm
• Internal Revenue Code section 402(c)(3)(C) (plan loan offset rollovers) and 402(c)(4) (eligible rollover distributions), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapD-partI-subpartA-sec402.htm
• Internal Revenue Code section 401(a)(39) and its 2022 amendment note (long-term care distributions), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleA-chap1-subchapD-partI-subpartA-sec401.htm
• Internal Revenue Code section 3405 (withholding on periodic, nonperiodic and eligible rollover distributions), U.S. Code 2024 edition: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-2024-title26/html/USCODE-2024-title26-subtitleC-chap24-sec3405.htm
• IRS, Retirement topics: Exceptions to tax on early distributions, page last updated December 11, 2025: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-exceptions-to-tax-on-early-distributions
• IRS, When can a retirement plan distribute benefits?, page last updated June 28, 2026: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/when-can-a-retirement-plan-distribute-benefits
• IRS, 401(k) resource guide: General distribution rules: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/401k-resource-guide-plan-participants-general-distribution-rules
• IRS, Retirement topics: Termination of employment, page last updated August 1, 2026: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-termination-of-employment
• IRS, Rollovers of retirement plan and IRA distributions: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/rollovers-of-retirement-plan-and-ira-distributions
• IRS, Retirement topics: Hardship distributions: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-hardship-distributions
• 26 CFR 1.401(k)-1(d)(3) (hardship distributions), eCFR, title 26 up to date as of October 26, 2026: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.401(k)-1
• IRS, Retirement topics: Loans: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-loans
• 26 CFR 1.402(c)-2(g) (plan loan offsets, the 12-month window), eCFR, title 26 up to date as of October 27, 2026: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.402(c)-2
• IRS, Retirement plans FAQs on designated Roth accounts: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-on-designated-roth-accounts
• IRS, Retirement plans FAQs regarding 403(b) tax-sheltered annuity plans: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/retirement-plans-faqs-regarding-403b-tax-sheltered-annuity-plans
• IRS Topic no. 557, Additional tax on early distributions from traditional and Roth IRAs: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc557
• IRS Topic no. 558, Additional tax on early distributions from retirement plans other than IRAs: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc558
• IRS Publication 590-B (2025), Distributions from Individual Retirement Arrangements (IRAs): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p590b.pdf
• IRS Publication 575 (2025), Pension and Annuity Income: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p575.pdf
• IRS Publication 915 (2025), Social Security and Equivalent Railroad Retirement Benefits: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p915.pdf
• IRS Form W-4R (2026), Withholding Certificate for Nonperiodic Payments and Eligible Rollover Distributions: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4r.pdf
• IRS Instructions for Form 5329 (2025): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i5329.pdf
• IRS Instructions for Forms 1099-R and 5498 (2026): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1099r.pdf
• IRS Notice 2022-6 (substantially equal periodic payments): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-22-06.pdf
• IRS, Substantially equal periodic payments (questions and answers, including the age 59 and a half example), page last updated July 23, 2026: https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/substantially-equal-periodic-payments
• IRS Notice 2024-2 (SECURE 2.0 guidance, terminally ill individual distributions): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-24-02.pdf
• IRS Notice 2025-67 (2026 retirement plan limits, including the domestic abuse and long-term care limits): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-25-67.pdf
• IRS Notice 2026-33 (qualified long-term care distributions): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-26-33.pdf
• IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32 (2026 tax brackets and standard deduction): https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-25-32.pdf
• IRS, Working Families Tax Cuts: tax deductions for working Americans and seniors (senior deduction): https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/working-families-tax-cuts-tax-deductions-for-working-americans-and-seniors
• IRS, Retirement topics: Required minimum distributions (RMDs): https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-required-minimum-distributions-rmds
• 26 CFR 1.401(a)(9)-2 (RMD age), eCFR: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-26/section-1.401(a)(9)-2
• Proposed regulations REG-103529-23, Required minimum distributions, Federal Register, July 19, 2024 (age for people born in 1959): https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2024/07/19/2024-14543/required-minimum-distributions
• IRS, RMD comparison chart (IRAs vs. defined contribution plans): https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/rmd-comparison-chart-iras-vs-defined-contribution-plans
• IRS, Inflation-adjusted tax items by tax year: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/inflation-adjusted-tax-items-by-tax-year
• 20 CFR 418.1135 (IRMAA income year), eCFR: https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-20/section-418.1135
• CMS, 2026 Medicare Parts A and B premiums and deductibles: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/2026-medicare-parts-b-premiums-deductibles