Is there any relief from taxes for a late IRA or 401K rollover?

The general rule is that if you take a distribution, it must be rolled over into another qualified plan within 60 days to avoid taxation and the 10% penalty. There has always been a “hardship” waiver for certain events causing late rollovers, such as a casualty, disaster or other event beyond the taxpayer’s control.   These have to be approved by the IRS.  However, now the IRS has just established a new Self-Certification procedure to help taxpayers in your situation. If you meet one of 11 criteria you can submit a written certification to the plan administrator explaining why you missed the deadline and the transfer will be treated as within the 60 days without specific IRS pre-approval. They are: (1) An error was made by the financial institution, (2) The distribution check was misplaced and not cashed, (3) The funds were deposited into an account the taxpayer thought was qualified, (4) The taxpayer’s residence was severely damaged, (5) A member of the taxpayer’s family died, (6) The taxpayer or a member of his family was seriously ill, (7) The taxpayer was incarcerated, (8) Restrictions were imposed by a foreign country, (9) A postal error occurred, (10)  The distribution was levied but the funds were returned to the taxpayer and (11) The institution making the distribution did not provide the proper information to the receiving institution in a timely manner.