Waiver of the 60-Day Rollover Period

A participant who misses the 60-day rollover window may be eligible for an automatic waiver of the 60-day rollover rule if all of the following five requirements are met:

1. The financial institution receives the funds on the participant's behalf before the end of the 60-day rollover period.
2. The participant followed all of the procedures set by the financial institution for depositing the funds into an eligible retirement plan (including an IRA) within the 60-day rollover period (including giving instructions to deposit the funds into an eligible retirement plan).
3. The funds are not deposited into an eligible retirement plan within the 60-day rollover period solely because of an error on the part of the financial institution.
4. The funds are deposited into an eligible retirement plan within one year from the beginning of the 60-day rollover period.
5. The deposit would have been a valid rollover if the financial institution had deposited the funds as instructed.

In addition to the automatic waiver of the rollover period discussed above, the IRS may grant a waiver of the 60-day rollover rule upon submission of a ruling request, along with the applicable user fee. The amount of the user fee is based on the amount of the rollover as set forth in the chart below.

Amount of Rollover	Applicable User Fee
Less Than $50,000	$500
$50,000 but less than $100,000	$1,500
$100,000 or more	$3,000

The IRS will consider all of the relevant facts and circumstances when considering whether to grant the request including:

1. Whether errors were made by the financial institution (in addition to those described under the automatic waiver discussed above).
2. Whether the participant was unable to complete the rollover due to death, disability, hospitalization, incarceration, restrictions imposed by a foreign country or postal errors.
3. Whether the participant used the amount distributed (for example, in the case of payment by check, whether the check was cashed).
4. The amount of time that has elapsed since the date of distribution.

Only IRA owners, plan participants and surviving spouses are eligible to receive a waiver under this procedure. Non-spouse beneficiaries will not receive an extension of the 60-day rollover period.  

• Read the full Summer 2012 Employment, Labor & Benefits Quarterly