Thanks for the replies. I took the distribution in 2020 because I lost my job. I chose to spread it out over the three years. But I continued to defer money from my paycheck into the 401K thinking that was repayment of what I took out. Regarding these replies:
"Regular contributions from your paycheck does not count towards repayment. Only funds outside of the payroll situation would count. "
"You have to make the repayment with money from outside."
Where in the tax code is this stated? Why can I not use the convenance of my payroll deferral into my 401k to pay back the withdrawal. It seems unnecessarily restrictive to disallow that and against the spirit of the CARES withdrawals/repayment. If this is something that 401k plan admins are saying, then it makes me wonder if they are just trying to get the max money back for their own benefit.
