How to Complete Form TRS6A: Rollover, Withholding, and Penalties

Form TRS6A is the Refund Rollover Election form from the Teacher Retirement System of Texas. You use it when you want all or part of your TRS refund sent directly to an IRA, 401(k), 403(b), or governmental 457(b) plan instead of paid to you in cash. It travels with Form TRS6, the main Application for Refund, and you cannot file it on its own.¹

When TRS6A Comes Into the Process

TRS6 starts the refund. TRS6A only appears if you want a rollover. On your TRS6 application you indicate interest in rolling funds over; TRS then sends you TRS6A to complete after they receive TRS6 and calculate your balance.¹ If you want the entire refund paid to you personally with no rollover, skip TRS6A entirely.²

What You Put on TRS6A

On the form you specify the dollar amount you want rolled over and identify the receiving plan. A representative from that plan must also sign TRS6A to certify that the plan is eligible to accept the rollover.¹ Contact the plan administrator before completing the form so they can confirm they will accept the transfer and sign off.

Eligible destinations are:

A traditional IRA
A tax-qualified employer plan such as a 401(k)
A Section 403(b) plan
A governmental Section 457(b) plan

The receiving plan must accept incoming rollovers.³

You can split the refund. Roll part into a retirement account and take the rest as a direct payment; just indicate the amounts clearly on TRS6A. Any portion you don’t roll over is subject to mandatory tax withholding.

Why Rolling Over Matters: Tax Withholding and Penalties

Your TRS contributions were made with pre-tax dollars, so the entire refund is taxable. The choice you make on TRS6A determines how much of the tax hits you now.

Taking the Cash

If you take the refund as a direct payment, TRS withholds 20% of the taxable amount for federal income tax whenever the taxable portion exceeds $200.⁴ On a $15,000 refund, $3,000 goes straight to the IRS and you receive $12,000. TRS cannot waive that withholding.³ Your final tax bill is settled when you file your return.

If you are under 59½, the IRS adds a 10% early distribution penalty on top of regular income tax unless an exception applies.³ One exception matters for a lot of TRS members: if you separated from your TRS-covered employer during or after the year you turned 55, the 10% penalty does not apply to distributions from that employer’s plan. Public safety employees of a state or its political subdivisions qualify for that exception at age 50.⁵

Rolling It Over

A direct rollover avoids both the 20% withholding and the early distribution penalty. The money moves directly from TRS to the receiving plan and stays tax-deferred. You won’t owe tax until you eventually withdraw from the new account.² For members who don’t need the cash immediately, this is usually the better option.

What TRS6A Does Not Preserve

A rollover keeps your money tax-deferred, but the underlying decision to take a refund still permanently ends your TRS membership and erases all service credit you’ve built. TRS6A changes where the money lands. It does not save any of the following:⁴

Eligibility for a lifetime monthly retirement annuity once you reach five years of service credit
Disability retirement benefits
The active-member death benefit payable to your beneficiary
Future eligibility for TRS-Care retiree health insurance
The ability to transfer credit between TRS and the Employees Retirement System of Texas
Proportionate retirement across multiple Texas public retirement systems

If you are close to vesting at five years, the lifetime pension almost always exceeds the lump-sum refund. Worth doing the math before you sign anything, rollover or not.

Eligibility to Take the Refund

Texas Government Code Section 822.005 lets any member who has left service, other than by death or retirement, withdraw all accumulated contributions from their member savings account. You cannot be employed by, have applied to, or received a promise of employment from any TRS-covered employer at the time you file.⁶ That includes substitute teaching, part-time community college work, and any other role with a TRS-covered public school district or state university.

TRS contacts your former employer to confirm your termination date and verify no new contributions are pending. If records show you’ve returned to a TRS-covered job before the refund is issued, the payment will not be processed.¹

Submitting the Forms

Mail the completed, notarized TRS6 and your completed TRS6A to:

Teacher Retirement System of Texas
P.O. Box 149676
Austin, Texas 78714-0815¹

Certified mail with a return receipt gives you a delivery record. If you filed TRS6 electronically through MyTRS, TRS sends TRS6A separately when you’ve indicated a rollover; complete and return it by mail or as directed on the portal.

Processing Time and Payment

TRS targets issuing refund payments within 31 days after receiving all required forms and posting the final deposit to your account.⁷ The final deposit piece is the catch: your former employer reports your last salary and contribution on the monthly payroll cycle after the calendar month in which they last paid you. That employer report often controls the timeline more than anything on your end.

In practice, the full timeline from submission to payment can run 60 days and up to 90 days depending on your last date of employment.⁸ Leaving mid-month pushes your final contribution to the next payroll cycle. Members who resign in May often see additional summer delay.

TRS may hold your payment if you owe delinquent child support or have outstanding federal or state tax debts.¹ You can track status by logging into MyTRS.

If You Return to Texas Public Education Later

Coming back to a TRS-covered job doesn’t automatically restore what you gave up. You can buy back the withdrawn service credit, but the cost grows fast. You must repay the original accumulated contributions plus a reinstatement fee of 10% per year, compounded annually, from the date of withdrawal to the date of repayment.⁹ On a $20,000 refund, reinstating after five years costs roughly $32,000; after ten years, over $50,000. TRS advises purchasing service credit as early as possible.¹⁰

You must be an active TRS member again before you can reinstate withdrawn credit. Reinstatement restores both the service credit and eligibility for the benefits you forfeited, but only after the full amount has been paid.

1
Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Refunding Your Member Account
2
Teacher Retirement System of Texas. TRS-6 Application for Refund Instructions
3
Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Special Tax Notice Regarding Rollover Options under TRS
4
Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Application for Refund
5
Internal Revenue Service. Retirement Topics – Exceptions to Tax on Early Distributions
6
State of Texas. Texas Government Code 822.005
7
Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Processing Time Frames
8
Teacher Retirement System of Texas. TRS Account Withdrawal Process
9
Cornell Law Institute. 34 Texas Administrative Code 27.8
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Teacher Retirement System of Texas. Service Credit