According to the new self-certification procedure if someone were to miss the 60 day roll-over deadline, one of the mitigating circumstances was (c) the distribution was deposited into and remained in an account that the taxpayer mistakenly thought was an eligible retirement plan".
I received a refund from IL TRS because of IL General Assembly Action that ended the ERO. It was unexpected. I took the distribution directly knowing I would have to pay tax and that tax would be withheld at 20%. What I did not know is that I had a deadline of 60 days to roll it over if I changed my mind. Consequently, I placed the money in a savings account and forgot about it. However, in doing my taxes I realized (something else I didn't know) that the additional income would make me ineligible for traditional IRA deduction and lower my child tax credit resulting in a tax ding of over $2000, almost half of the distribution. Obviously, opting for the direct rollover would have been the best option, however, ignorance of the 60 day rule and of the fact that I couldn't just put it into the savings for a time hurt me. Does this scenario sound like a scenario that qualifies as the circumstance above?
