What is Form 8915-F Qualified Disaster Retirement Plan Distributions and Repayments?

To qualify for Form 8915-F—and to be exempt from the early withdrawal penalty—a few rules must be met:

1. The withdrawal must come from an eligible retirement plan. This could be any of the following:

• A qualified pension, profit-sharing, or stock bonus plan (including a 401(k))
• A qualified annuity plan
• A tax-sheltered annuity contract
• A governmental section 457 deferred compensation plan
• A traditional, SEP, SIMPLE, or Roth IRA

2. The distribution must be to an eligible individual. This is a person who was affected while living in a federally declared disaster area. This doesn't include any area that was declared a federal disaster area only because of COVID-19.

There's also a $22,000 distribution limit to the exemption. Any distributions over that amount may be subject to additional tax.

The COVID-related distribution exemption was only for distributions made prior to December 31, 2020.

You had two options to pay tax on the distributions you took due to COVID in 2020:

1. You chose to report the income over three years, starting with the year you received your distribution.
   • So, for example, if you withdrew $15,000 in 2020 because of COVID, you'd report $5,000 in income each year on your return for 2020, 2021, and 2022.
   • You would have selected this option when completing your 2020 tax return. The portion of the prior-year distribution to be taxed in 2022 will appear on Form 8915-F.
2. You included the entire distribution as your income in 2020 and were taxed on the entire distribution at that time.