If you are actively employed and do not meet one of the other requirements for a withdrawal, you may request a withdrawal if you have a financial hardship, which is defined by federal income tax regulations as:

  • Uninsured and unreimbursed medical expenses or expenses necessary to obtain medical care for yourself, your spouse, your dependents or your designated beneficiary, or 
  • Payment of tuition, related educational fees, and room and board expenses for the next twelve months of post-secondary education for you, your spouse, or your dependent children, or your designated beneficiary, or 
  • Costs directly related to the purchase (but not renovation, repair, or mortgage repayments) of your primary residence, or 
  • The prevention of foreclosure on or eviction from your primary residence, or 
  • Payment of funeral expenses of parent, spouse, child, legal dependent or designated beneficiary, or 
  • Payment of repairs of damage to your primary residence as a result of a casualty loss. 

If you experience one of the above financial hardships, you can apply for a hardship withdrawal of the part of your account attributable to voluntary and catch-up contributions (but excluding any investment earnings on those contributions earned after December 31, 1988) and direct transfers from other plans except the Retirement Account. No other contributions to the plan (or earnings thereon) are available for hardship withdrawals. You will be required to provide evidence of the financial need. 


In addition, you must be employed and have already attempted to satisfy your financial need by borrowing the maximum loan amount available from your account or, if less, the amount necessary to pay for the hardship (if you do not already have an outstanding loan), and have used other readily available financial resources (such as a savings account, marketable securities, a discontinuation of contributions to the Plan, or a loan from a commercial lender) or those resources are not available.


Normally, the amount of your hardship withdrawal may not exceed the amount required to satisfy the immediate need created by the financial hardship (increased by the amount of income taxes). There is no minimum hardship withdrawal amount.


IMPORTANT: CHANGES TO FINANCIAL HARDSHIP WITHDRAWAL RULES FOR 2021: 


The 2021 Consolidated Appropriations Act allows for distributions from retirement plans for participants affected by disasters other than the COVID-19 pandemic, as declared by the president. Participants in 401(k), 403(b), and government 457(b) plans may take up to $100,000 in aggregate from whatever retirement plan accounts they own without tax penalties. Income tax on these distributions may be spread over three years, and participants may repay them into a plan that is designed to accept rollovers within three years.


Participants have until 180 days after enactment of the bill to take qualified disaster distributions.


For details, go to HCAGHR.com, click Benefits, and select BConnected or call (800) 566-4114. 



Remotiv is not affiliated with HCA Healthcare and is a private company hired to provide independent investment education.  All responses are intended to be educational in nature and should not be considered advice.