4008 / When may rollover contributions be made from an IRA by the owner of the plan?

It depends on the type of individual retirement plan owned and the source from which the funds in the plan originated.

No rollover from a traditional or Roth IRA is permitted if the individual for whose benefit the plan is maintained acquired the plan by reason of the death of another individual (i.e., in the case of an inherited plan) who died after 1983. This does not apply where the plan is maintained for the benefit of the surviving spouse of the deceased individual. This rule also does not prohibit a trustee-to-trustee transfer to an identically-titled beneficiary IRA.¹

A qualified rollover contribution may be made from a Roth IRA to another Roth IRA or from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. A qualified rollover contribution means a rollover contribution to a Roth IRA from another Roth IRA or from a traditional IRA but only if the rollover contribution meets the requirements discussed in Q 4012.² Special rules apply to rollovers of traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs ( Q 3662).

For tax years prior to 2008, no rollover contribution from a tax sheltered annuity or a qualified plan, other than a designated Roth account ( Q 3779), could be made to a Roth IRA, and, thus, no rollover contribution could be made from a Roth IRA to a tax sheltered annuity or to a qualified plan other than to a designated Roth account.³

A distribution from a designated Roth account may be rolled over to another designated Roth account of the individual from whose account the payment or distribution was made or to a Roth IRA of the individual.⁴ Beginning in 2008, a direct rollover or conversion may be made from a qualified plan, a tax sheltered annuity, or a Section 457 eligible governmental plan to a Roth IRA ( Q 3662).

A rollover may be made from one SIMPLE IRA ( Q 3706) to another SIMPLE IRA, but a rollover from a SIMPLE IRA to a traditional IRA or to a Roth IRA is permitted only in the case of distributions to which the 25 percent early distribution penalty does not apply; the penalty generally applies during the first two years of participation ( Q 3969).⁵ Prior to 2016, the only rollover permitted to a SIMPLE IRA was from another SIMPLE IRA. The PATH Act removed this restriction so that amounts from other types of retirement plans may be rolled into a SIMPLE IRA so long as the plan has existed for at least two years. To the extent that an employee is no longer participating in a SIMPLE IRA plan and two years have expired since the employee first participated in the plan, the employee may treat the SIMPLE IRA account as a traditional IRA.⁶

Once in a lifetime, a taxpayer may make a qualified HSA funding distribution ( Q 413).⁷