dmertz
Level 15

Retirement tax questions

"Hardship" is not an exception to the early-distribution penalty, nor is using the money to pay funeral expenses.  The death exception applies only to a distribution from an account that was owned by the deceased.

See the following IRS web page for a list of possible exceptions:

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-tax-on-early-distri...