You must provide sufficient documentation to show you are suffering a hardship resulting in an immediate and heavy financial need and that the amount needed for the hardship withdrawal or unforeseen emergency in the amount you are requesting.
It’s not sufficient for plan sponsors to rely on participants to keep their own records of hardship distributions. Participants may leave employment or fail to keep copies of hardship documentation, making their records inaccessible in an IRS audit.
Also, electronic self-certification is not sufficient documentation of the nature of your hardship or emergency. While self-certification is permitted to show that a distribution was the sole way to alleviate a hardship, self-certification is not allowed to show the nature of the hardship or the amount needed.
Tax Deferred Solutions requires not only the transaction request forms required of your investment provider(s) but also a Tax Deferred Solutions Transaction Request Form, available on our website or by contacting our customer service department. The TDS form contains a section for your certification that you have exhausted all other reasonable means and certifying that you are suffering an immediate and heavy financial need.
