Disability retirement

[Gab79]

I retired early this year at the age of 48 on a disability retirement from government job.  I was a federal law enforcement officer.  I was allowed to take money out of my TSP (401K) and TSP took part of it for taxes.  Will I have to pay the IRS any penalty for taking a partial disbursement from my TSP?   If I didn’t get hurt on the job I would have retired at 52.

[emina]

Hello, thanks for joining us today! 

If you receive a TSP distribution or withdrawal before you reach age 59½, in addition to the regular income tax, you may have to pay an early withdrawal penalty tax equal to 10% of any taxable portion of the distribution or withdrawal not rolled over. The additional 10% tax generally does not apply to payments resulting from total and permanent disability.

Resource: https://www.tsp.gov/withdrawals-in-retirement/ 

• Tax Rules about TSP Payments (437kb)

[Anonymous]

Hello and thank you for your question. 

If you became totally and permanently disabled and received a distribution from a retirement plan before the age of 59 1/2 it is not subject to the 10% penalties for early distributions.  You still need to report it as income.  

Please see for more details

Retirement Topics - Disability

https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-disability

I hope this answered your question

Thank you so much

Martha