Court Case Changes Rules on IRA Rollovers

A recent Tax Court decision will change the way the IRS applies the law on IRA rollovers.

For years, the IRS has interpreted the IRA rollover rules to mean that a taxpayer could do one rollover per year for each IRA he or she owned. In doing a rollover, the taxpayer is not taxed on the funds taken from the IRA so long as the funds are redeposited into an IRA within 60 days of the withdrawal.

The recent court decision changed the way the tax rule is applied, ruling that the limit on rollovers should be applied on an aggregate basis - that is, only one rollover per year is allowed for all the IRAs a taxpayer owns. If a taxpayer takes funds from one IRA and rolls the money back into an IRA within 60 days, he or she can't do any other tax-free rollovers within the following 365 days.

This change goes into effect January 1, 2015; therefore, the aggregate rule won't apply for rollovers done during the remainder of 2014. Note, also, that trustee-to-trustee transfers can still be done as often as the taxpayer likes; the limit doesn't apply to these transfers because the taxpayer never has possession of any of the IRA funds.