trustee to trustee transfer

[bills043]

I am a retired teacher and during my working years I contributed to the 403b annuity plans sponsored by Valic. I retired in 2014 and left the balances there to accrue interest. Last month I transferred the money out to another trustee to get a better interest rate. I did not touch the funds, it was a trustee to trustee transfer of my former 403b investment. Will I have any tax liability?

[Opus 17]

In general, no.  You would only have a liability if you transferred a pre-tax account to a Roth (after tax) account.  That's a taxable conversion.

Also, the account is probably no longer a 403b, unless you have a different 403b with a current employer.  You probably transferred the money from a 403b to an IRA.  That's not a problem, except that in the future, if there are any differences in how 403b withdrawals are handled compared to IRAs, you would now follow the IRA rules, if the money is now in an IRA.  

[dmertz]

Note that this movement of funds is called a direct rollover, so you'll get a Form 1099-R that needs to be reported on your tax return but the transaction is not taxable (unless the rollover was from the traditional account in the 403(b) to a Roth IRA).