How long do I have to complete an IRA rollover?

You generally have 60 calendar days from the day you receive the distribution to deposit it into an eligible retirement account.

Why was 20% withheld from my 401(k) distribution?

Workplace plans generally must withhold 20% from distributions paid to you. To roll over the full amount tax-free, you must replace that withheld money from your own funds until you reclaim it at tax time.

How many 60-day rollovers can I do per year?

Indirect IRA-to-IRA rollovers are limited to one per rolling 12 months across all your IRAs. Direct trustee-to-trustee transfers do not count toward this limit.

What happens if I miss the 60-day rollover deadline?

The distribution generally becomes taxable income and may also face a 10% early-distribution penalty. Certain qualifying circumstances may allow late-rollover self-certification under IRS Rev. Proc. 2020-46.

60 days · then it's income

Your rollover has a 60-day fuse. Then it's taxed.

Move retirement money yourself — a check in your hands instead of a direct transfer — and the IRS gives you exactly 60 calendar days to get it into the new account. Miss the date and the whole distribution becomes taxable income, plus a 10% penalty if you're under 59½. Enter the date the money landed.

01The 60-day rule, precisely

When you take possession of retirement money — a check made out to you, a transfer into your checking account — the distribution is provisionally yours, and the IRS gives you 60 calendar days from receipt to put it into an eligible retirement account. Make it and nothing is taxed; the rollover is reported and ignored. Miss it and the entire amount is ordinary income for the year, with a 10% early-distribution penalty stacked on top if you're under 59½.

If you haven't taken the check yet: don't. Ask both custodians for a direct trustee-to-trustee transfer — the money never touches your hands, no 60-day clock ever starts, none of the traps on this page apply, and you can do it as many times as you like.

02The 20% withholding trap

The trap inside the trap Workplace plans — 401(k), 403(b), TSP — are required by law to withhold 20% of any distribution paid to you, even one you intend to roll over. Take a $50,000 distribution and the check reads $40,000. Here's the trap: to complete a tax-free rollover you must deposit the full $50,000 — which means producing the missing $10,000 from your own money until you reclaim the withholding at tax time. Deposit only the $40,000 you received and the IRS treats the withheld $10,000 as a distribution: taxed, and penalized if you're under 59½. IRAs don't mandate withholding, which is one more reason the direct-transfer route wins.

03The once-a-year rule (IRA only)

Indirect IRA-to-IRA rollovers carry a second limit that has nothing to do with speed: one per rolling 12 months, counted across every IRA you own — traditional and Roth together. The tax court settled this in 2014, and there is no fix after the fact; a second indirect rollover inside the window is simply a taxable distribution, even if you redeposit the money the same afternoon. The rule does not apply to direct trustee-to-trustee transfers, to rollovers between a workplace plan and an IRA in either direction, or to Roth conversions. If you find yourself doing indirect rollovers often enough to track this rule, switch to direct transfers and stop needing to.

04Missed it? Self-certification first

A blown deadline used to require a private letter ruling — months of waiting and a five-figure IRS fee. Since 2016 there's a self-service path: if you missed the 60 days for one of 12 enumerated reasons (custodian error, lost check, illness, family death, disaster, incarceration, and others), you write a one-page letter following the IRS model text in Rev. Proc. 2020-46, hand it to the receiving custodian, and complete the deposit as soon as practicable — within 30 days of the reason resolving is the safe harbor. No fee, no pre-approval; the IRS can check the claim on audit, so the reason has to be true.

More money-deadline tools: GraceWindow (your CD's exit window), ZeroEnds (your 0% APR cliff), LateMark (the 30-day late line) — all tools.