Roth TSP Withdrawal Calculator

How this is calculated

A Roth TSP balance is not tax-free because it is Roth. It is tax-free once a withdrawal from it is a qualified distribution, and until then only the part you paid in escapes tax. Everything on this page follows from that one distinction.

The two conditions, and why they are an AND

26 U.S.C. § 402A(d)(2) makes a distribution qualified only when both of these hold:

• You have reached 59½, or are permanently and totally disabled, or have died. The half-year is why this tool asks for your birth month: a January birthday reaches 59½ in July of the year they turn 59, and a September birthday not until March of the year they turn 60.
• The 5-taxable-year period of participation is behind you. Under § 402A(d)(2)(B) it begins with the first taxable year for which you made a designated Roth contribution — 1 January of that year, not the date of the contribution. A first contribution on 31 December buys the whole of that year; one made two days later buys none of it.

Neither condition substitutes for the other, and Treas. Reg. § 1.402A-1 Q&A-4(c) adds that the period is never redetermined for any part of the account — a later contribution, a rollover in, or a withdrawal does not restart or shorten it.

How a non-qualified withdrawal divides

Inside the plan there is no ordering rule. § 402A(d)(4) applies § 72 separately to the designated Roth account, and Q&A-3 of the regulation above sends the split through § 72(e)(8) — so every dollar out carries investment in the contract and income in the proportion the account holds them:

taxable part = withdrawal × (earnings ÷ balance)

On the worked example this page opens on — $180,000 in the account, $120,000 of it contributed and $20,000 converted in-plan, so $40,000 is growth — a $20,000 withdrawal is $4,444 of taxable income, whatever the participant would prefer to call it. TSP puts the same rule in its own words: you cannot choose to make a withdrawal of only your Roth contributions.

A Roth IRA does the opposite. § 408A(d)(4) empties regular contributions first, then conversion contributions, then earnings, so the identical withdrawal from a Roth IRA holding this money is $0 of taxable income. That gap is the reason Roth TSP guidance copied from Roth IRA guidance is wrong rather than merely imprecise.

The two penalties, which are not double counting

The 10% additional tax in § 72(t)(1) reaches the taxable part of a non-qualified distribution — the earnings slice, not the whole withdrawal. Separately, IRS Notice 2010-84 Q&A-12 applies § 72(t) to converted money distributed within 5 taxable years of the conversion as if it were includible in gross income. It is a penalty clock only: the converted amount was taxed at conversion and is never taxed again.

One exception list governs both. Reaching 59½ ends them under § 72(t)(2)(A)(i); separating during or after the calendar year you turn 55 ends them under § 72(t)(2)(A)(v), at 50 or 25 years of service for a qualified public safety employee under § 72(t)(10). None of them makes the earnings tax-free — an exception removes the 10% and leaves the income tax standing, which is the difference between “penalty-free” and “tax-free” that costs people the most money in this subject.

Withholding reaches the taxable part only

A partial withdrawal from the plan is an eligible rollover distribution, so § 3405(c) requires a mandatory 20% that cannot be waived — but it applies to the taxable amount, not to the money. On the example, that is $889 rather than the $4,000 people brace for. Once the money is in a Roth IRA, § 3405(b) applies a 10% default you may waive on Form W-4R.

Rolling over: one clock restarts, one may close for good

Treas. Reg. § 1.408A-10 Q&A-4 starts the receiving Roth IRA’s own 5-year period at the earlier of the year that IRA was first funded and the year of the rollover, and states that it and the plan’s period are determined independently. Years of participation in the TSP do not carry over. The remedy is trivial and almost never mentioned: funding any Roth IRA with a token amount starts that clock in the year you do it.

Q&A-3 of the same regulation runs the other way. A rollover made while the plan account is already qualified arrives in the IRA entirely as a regular contribution — earnings included — so they can never be taxed again. A rollover made a month earlier carries those earnings across as earnings. Same money, same accounts, and the order decides it.

Required minimum distributions

There is no RMD term anywhere in this tool, and that is the answer rather than an omission. § 402A(d)(5), added by § 325 of the SECURE 2.0 Act (Pub. L. 117-328, Div. T) for taxable years beginning after 31 December 2023, disapplies § 401(a)(9)(A) to a designated Roth account before death. The traditional balance still has one, and the TSP withdrawal calculator computes it.

What this does not model

• The traditional balance. Different rules end to end — the TSP withdrawal calculator covers the penalty, the three withholding regimes and required minimum distributions.
• More than one conversion year. The tool tracks one tranche and one recapture clock. TSP has only accepted in-plan conversions since 28 January 2026 (FRTIB final rule, 91 FR 1669), so a second year is not reachable until 2027 — a dated simplification rather than a permanent one.
• Beneficiary participant accounts and the qualification rules that apply after death, which run on their own tests.
• Roth IRA mechanics beyond this withdrawal — the first-in-first-out ordering across multiple conversion years, and aggregation across several Roth IRAs.
• The other § 72(t) exceptions, chiefly the substantially-equal-periodic-payments route in (2)(A)(iv).
• State income tax, the TSP life annuity, and loans.
• Whether converting is worth it. That is a forecast about your future tax rates, not a rule, and this site computes rules.

Sources

• 26 U.S.C. § 402A — qualified distributions and the 5-taxable-year period (d)(2); § 72 applied separately to the account (d)(4); rollovers (c)(3); and the removal of lifetime required minimum distributions (d)(5).
• Treas. Reg. § 1.402A-1 — Q&A-3 on taxing a non-qualified distribution through § 72(e)(8), and Q&A-4 on when the period of participation begins and that it is never redetermined.
• Treas. Reg. § 1.408A-10 — Q&A-3 on how a rollover from a designated Roth account lands in a Roth IRA, and Q&A-4 on the two five-year periods being determined independently.
• 26 U.S.C. § 72 — the pro-rata rule for amounts not received as an annuity (e)(8); the 10% additional tax (t)(1); and the exceptions at 59½, for disability, and on separation after age 55.
• 26 U.S.C. § 408A(d) — the Roth IRA ordering rules the plan deliberately does not share.
• IRS Notice 2010-84 — Q&A-12, the 5-year recapture period on an in-plan conversion.
• FRTIB, Roth In-Plan Conversions, 91 FR 1669 — the final rule permitting TSP conversions, effective 28 January 2026.
• TSP — Tax Rules about TSP Payments — how the plan states the same rules to participants, including that a withdrawal of Roth contributions alone cannot be elected.

Last reviewed: August 2026