Can an Employee Borrow Against a SIMPLE IRA?

A savings incentive match plan for employees individual retirement account, which is usually known as a SIMPLE IRA, provides small employers with an investment plan in which they may contribute to their employees’ retirement. The plan, which is designed to be easy to administer, sometimes serves as a small business’s alternative to a traditional 401(k) plan. Although SIMPLE IRAs approximate 401(k)s, the Internal Revenue Service applies much different rules – including those that concern employee loans – to each type of retirement account.

Because the IRS classifies SIMPLE IRAs as straightforward IRAs and not profit-sharing plans such as 401(k)s, employees receive the benefit of pretax contributions to the plan as with all other qualified plans. Similarly, employees can’t access funds for an emergency from a SIMPLE IRA loan or any other IRA-based retirement plan without incurring a penalty as if it were an early, unqualified distribution.

This is the only instance you can borrow from simple IRA. In some circumstances, employees may receive a loan from the balance of their 401(k), however.

​Read More:​ How to Borrow From an SEP

Funds contributed to a SIMPLE IRA aren’t locked away until an employee reaches qualifying retirement age, 59-1/2, but the IRS places heavy penalties on any distribution made from the account before the beneficiary reaches that age. An investor who receives a nonqualified distribution must pay a ​10 percent​ tax on the distribution. In addition, as with distributions from all pretax retirement accounts, the amount received is taxed as if it were earned income, and the investor pays taxes at his marginal tax rate.

For example, if an employee takes an early distribution of $10,000 from his SIMPLE IRA in lieu of an emergency loan, he will pay taxes on that amount on his federal return, in addition to paying a ​10 percent​ penalty fee. The ​10 percent​ penalty increases to ​25 percent​ if the distribution is made within the ​first two years​ of the opening date of the plan.

Employees may only receive loans from their 401(k) balances, not IRA-based plans, and only if the plan is structured to permit loans. The IRS allows investors to borrow up to ​$50,000​ from their 401(k) – though individual plans may reduce that amount – which must be repaid with fair market interest within ​five years​ or the loan goes into default, and payments must be made on at least a quarterly basis to avoid default. The IRS treats a 401(k) loan that’s gone into default as an early distribution and assesses a ​10 percent​ penalty and any income taxes, if applicable.

Even though an employee can’t tap into her SIMPLE IRA for a loan without incurring a penalty, in most cases her employer can’t prevent her from withdrawing money from the SIMPLE IRA plan. Employer contributions to SIMPLE IRA accounts vest immediately, meaning they become employees’ property as soon as an employer makes them. Employees may rollover SIMPLE IRA funds any time ​two years​ after the first contribution is made.

​Read More​: SIMPLE IRA Transfer Rules