Q. I am currently working, have both a Traditional and Roth TSP but will be subject to required minimum distribution upon retirement. The five-year Roth requirement will not be satisfied by the time I retire. I would like to transfer the entire Roth account, both qualified and nonqualified, to an outside Roth IRA before I retire to avoid paying RMD on the Roth portion. Can I do this without penalty, or am I limited to transferring the qualified portion only? A. Rolling money over from the TSP to an IRA should be free from any penalty, if you do it…
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Q. I know you can take required minimum distribution from either a Traditional or Roth account. Is the amount of the RMD due figured on just the traditional balance or the combination of the Traditional and Roth balance? A. TSP RMD are figured using the total account balance, including both Traditional and Roth money.
Q. Can I rollover a Roth TSP into a Roth IRA before age 70 ½ to avoid required minimum distributions on the Roth TSP? A. Yes.
Q. Can a deceased spouse’s TSP account be rolled into the survivors existing TSP account? A. From the brochure “Your TSP Account”: If you have an existing TSP account from your own employment with the federal government or the uniformed services, you can move your beneficiary participant account into your existing TSP account. The money that you move will be treated as an employee contribution, but it will not be subject to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) annual elective deferral limit, which limits the amount of regular tax-deferred and Roth contributions you can make to the TSP in a calendar…
Q. When I retire, if I use the funds from my Roth TSP to buy an annuity, are the monthly proceeds tax free? A. If Roth funds are used to buy a life annuity, and the annuity is designated a Roth IRA annuity, the payments will be tax free.
Q. In your May 7, 2018, “Money Matters” blog you provided information concerning the rollover of CSRS Voluntary Contribution Program (VCP) funds into a Roth IRA. Can the contribution portion of such funds (non-interest, after tax portion) be rolled over into the Roth TSP? Form RI 38-124, referenced in your earlier column, suggests not, but the most current version of that form predates the creation of the Roth TSP. Such a rollover would be particularly attractive in light of the ability to designate TSP withdrawals as traditional, Roth or a proportional amount of each, with the new withdrawal flexibilities coming to…
Q. I’m a retired worker over 70 1/2. Are required minimum withdrawals required for the Roth TSP portion after the new rules go into effect or only for the Traditional amount of the TSP? If only for the traditional part, then the payment can come from either the Traditional or Roth part or both?
Q. Some employees are in disagreement over the minimum required distributions of TSP accounts. We are discussing retirements beginning five years or more from now, so the new TSP rules would apply. Would moving the Roth TSP funds to an outside Roth IRA account avoid the need for minimum required distributions on this Roth portion of a TSP account or would those particular funds still be a part of the funds subjected to MRD?
Q. I’m 55 and a civilian employee. I’m retired Air Force, with a bit in my military TSP and a growing amount in my civilian TSP. I’ve just started converting all of my future TSP contributions to go to Roth, for one main reason: I plan to retire at age 62, and we’re going to take a lump-sum distribution of my TSP to purchase a house (won’t be eligible for a mortgage). The TSP balance at the time will be about $400,000 or so (hopefully closer to $500,000). I estimate that roughly 40-50 percent of it will be Traditional, and the rest Roth.…
Q. A co-worker inadvertently put $4,000 into each of their Roth and Traditional IRA TSP accounts this year (they misunderstood the IRA limit laws). What is the best, simplest, and/or most efficient, method for them to rectify this situation with TSP?