Hello, I would like to ask a financial advisor a question in regards to Roth IRA. Is it true you can withdraw your contributions at any time, tax free and penalty free, even before the 5 year rule? As

[TomD8]

Yes, you can withdraw your Roth IRA contributions at any time, tax and penalty free.

The 5-year rule applies in three situations: if you withdraw account earnings, if you convert a traditional IRA to a Roth, and if a beneficiary inherits a Roth IRA.

[macuser_22]

Also see Pub 590B Ordering Rules

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p590b#en_US_2019_publink1000231071

Ordering Rules for Distributions

If you receive a distribution from your Roth IRA that isn't a qualified distribution, part of it may be taxable. There is a set order in which contributions (including conversion contributions and rollover contributions from qualified retirement plans) and earnings are considered to be distributed from your Roth IRA. For these purposes, disregard the withdrawal of excess contributions and the earnings on them (discussed under What if You Contribute Too Much? in chapter 2 of Pub. 590-A). Order the distributions as follows.

1. Regular contributions.

2. Conversion and rollover contributions, on a first-in, first-out basis (generally, total conversions and rollovers from the earliest year first). See Aggregation (grouping and adding) rules, later. Take these conversion and rollover contributions into account as follows:

   1. Taxable portion (the amount required to be included in gross income because of the conversion or rollover) first, and then the

   2. Nontaxable portion.

3. Earnings on contributions.

Disregard rollover contributions from other Roth IRAs for this purpose.

[dmertz]

To clarify what TomD8 said regarding the 5-year rule, the 5-year rule pertaining to distribution of earnings and the 5-year rule for conversions are two different 5-year rules for different purposes, neither of which applies to distributions consisting of your original Roth IRA contributions.  Only the 5-year rule pertaining to a distribution of earnings would potentially apply to an inherited Roth IRA.