Assuming I am eligible to make withdrawals from my qualified plan or 403(b) account, can I rollover the withdrawn amounts to my IRA?

It depends. First, the receiving IRA must be a Traditional (including a SEP) IRA. These amounts cannot be rolled over to aSIMPLE IRA . And, the amount must be rollover eligible. Rollover eligible amounts usually include all of your account balance, except for the following amounts.

• Part of a series of substantially equal payments mad
  • over a period of 10 years or longer
  • over the participant’s life or life expectancy, or over the joint lives or joint life expectancies of the participant and the participant’sdesignated beneficiary
• Required minimum distribution amounts
• Anydistribution which is made upon hardship of the participant, or in the case of a 457(b) plan, any distribution on account of an unforeseeable emergency
• Death distributions made to nonspouse beneficiaries , unless the plan allows such rollovers
• Distributions due to aqualified domestic relations order (QDRO) paid to a nonspouse alternate-payee
• Return of an excess contribution, excess deferral, or excess annual addition, together with allocable income
• The cost of life insurance coverage
• Deemed distributions upon the default of a participant loan
• Dividends paid on employer securities in an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)

You can rollover the amount withheld for taxes from your other source of funds, if you want to do so; and when you file your tax return, the amount (that was withhled) would be treated as a credit towards any taxes you may owe, or increase your tax refund.

Note: Effective January 1, 2008, participants who are eligible to make withdrawal from a qualified plan, 403(b) plan, 403(a) plan or governmental 457(b) plan may rollover the withdrawn amounts to a Roth IRA, providing the amount is rollover eligible. The individual must meet the Roth IRA conversion eligibility requirements, which are:

• The individual’s (couple if married) MAGI cannot exceed $100,000
• The individual’s tax filing status cannot be married-filing-separately.

These two restrictions are repealed effective January 1, 2010.

See IRS Publication 575 for more information
  Question answered by by Denise Appleby