Quote from Rabbitone:
I believe your friend will pay the IRS for the distribution including a pile of penalties in back interest if the IRA money did not go back into another rollover account. I did this a couple of times prior to retiring. One option in IRA rollover transfers is a check for the IRA amount made out to you. When they do this they give you the rules you must follow to avoid taxes. I did a few years back using a standard rollover IRA following IRS pub 590. IRS rules are specific in Publication 590. If the rollover was a cash check made directly to you. To notify the IRS what you did with the cash you must add Form 8606 to your tax return stating where the money ended up. The IRS says in 590:
Form 8606. You must complete Form 8606, and attach it to your return, if you receive a distribution from a traditional IRA and have ever made nondeductible contributions or rolled over after-tax amounts to any of your traditional IRAs. Using the form, you will figure the nontaxable distributions for 2010, and your total IRA basis for 2010 and earlier years.
Iâm sure your friend got the distribution notice along with the check and another notice at the end of the tax year so form 8606 can be filled out. What I wrote above was for just one type of distribution. Publication 590 from the IRS goes into all the types of distributions. Publication 590 shows you how to compute the taxable part of your distribution.
So where they get you is when you donât file an 8606 with your taxes. That is when the fireworks start.