Do you need to continue to pay LTD premiums if on LTD to maintain tax free status?

[pigwidgin]

I am currently on short term disability and will be changing to long term disability at the end of January 2020.  At that point, my employment will end and my income will be coming from LTD and SSDI (also starting January 2020).  I have been paying the LTD premiums (post-tax) for 5 years so I know that due to the 3 year look back rule, any distributions coming from LTD will be tax free (where as SSDI is taxable).  My question is this:  If you have been paying your LTD premiums instead of your employer, once you are on LTD do you still need to some how pay the premiums to maintain that 3 year look back rule so that the distributions stay tax free?  Or do you just stop paying the premiums once you are on LTD?  I tried calling the IRS and unbelievably the person I talked to could not answer the question and had no clue who to send my question to.  She told me to look at the IRS website, which I had already done many times before.  Thanks for the help.

[Critter]

The LTD is being paid because you had a paid policy when the payments began ... ask the insurance company for the details (not the IRS) on if you need to keep paying for this policy to continue to receive payments.

[pigwidgin]

Thank you for the quick response to my question.  I definitely plan to talk to the insurance company as to the continuation of payments, but I'm also wondering about it from the perspective of the IRS in regards to tax free status.  If you are on LTD and no longer paying premiums (and the insurance company pays distributions monthly), are your LTD distributions still tax free if you are not paying premiums anymore?  I'm assuming so, but I can't find anything anywhere that mentions this once you are on LTD.  I only can find documentation about prior to LTD being taken.

[Critter]

The IRS doesn't care if you ever pay another premium ... you are asking the wrong question.  The payer should be able to tell you when (if ever) the payments become taxable and why.  In many cases the LTD transitions to SSDI ... so ask them what the time frame is.