TSP to Gold IRA: Federal Account Rollover Checklist

A TSP-to-Gold-IRA movement is a source-plan rollover, not an IRA trustee transfer. Establish that the TSP payment is available and rollover-eligible, match traditional/Roth/tax-exempt sources to the receiving account, and treat any later metal order as a separate instruction. TSP’s April 2026 tax booklet is the source for payment tax distinctions.44

Evidence reviewed October 12, 2026. IRS publications are identified by their tax-year edition; annual dollar amounts below use the stated year. Educational information, not personal financial, tax or legal advice. Gold IRA Path may receive compensation through site links; see our affiliate disclosure.

Eligibility Comes Before the Receiving Account’s Minimum

Post-separation and in-service payments use different routes. The TSP tax booklet describes age-based in-service withdrawals at 59½ and financial-hardship withdrawals; hardship payments are not eligible for rollover. An account provider cannot turn the hardship route into a tax-deferred movement.44

Use the current TSP withdrawal process in My Account and its official withdrawals-in-retirement page. Confirm the permitted amount/payment form, any spouse requirements, and whether an RMD or other excluded amount must be paid separately. Do not infer eligibility solely from a $200,000 account statement or a federal retirement date.19, 44

Source-Balance Checklist

Do not use the account’s investment funds as tax categories. A C Fund holding can be within traditional or Roth; choosing an asset fund does not decide its tax-source treatment.

OPM Pension Is Not the TSP Balance

OPM describes FERS as Basic Benefit, Social Security and TSP components, while CSRS is a contributory defined-benefit system with its own TSP contribution framework. Those benefit facts do not establish an affordable gold allocation or transform an OPM monthly annuity into TSP money.75, 76

Keep pension election/survivor documents separate from the TSP payment. IRS Publication 721 distinguishes civil-service benefits and TSP taxation. See the federal employee guide for this benefits map rather than applying a pension-floor argument to metal risk.16

Direct Rollover Handoff

1. Verify employment/status and the available TSP payment category.
2. Obtain the eligible amount and traditional/Roth/tax-exempt split.
3. Read current spouse and required-distribution instructions.
4. Open the receiving account in the intended tax type and verify acceptance.
5. Enter the legal trustee/account payment instructions in the TSP request.
6. Save release confirmation and the receiving trustee’s receipt.
7. Approve eligible products separately, then reconcile invoice and inventory.
8. Compare tax forms with the actual movement and source records.10

No current paper form number or promised three-week duration is assumed. A trade invoice is not evidence that TSP funds were properly received as a rollover.

Hypothetical Partial Payment Without an Allocation Recommendation

Assume a fictional $200,000 traditional TSP and an eligible direct rollover request for $40,000 to a traditional IRA. After a completed $40,000 payment, a simple unchanged-value ledger would leave $160,000 in TSP before other activity. This is a cash movement example, not a recommendation to allocate 20% to metals.44

If the same $40,000 pre-tax amount went to Roth, it would generally be taxable conversion income. At an invented flat 22% incremental rate, that is $8,800 income tax before other effects. Actual tax brackets, basis and state rules can change it.44

Compare Actual Costs Without Unsupported Fund Returns

Request the applicable TSP expense data for the specific observation year and the actual receiving account’s custody/storage schedule. Separate one-time charges, recurring charges, fund expenses, product-price gaps and exit events. No source here supplies a universal TSP 0.04% current cost or a $300–$500 metals bill.

A G Fund guarantee or historical fund return, where relevant, should be read from the official fund documents rather than inferred from a gold comparison. This guide makes no current TSP performance table, principal-protection equivalence or inflation-hedge guarantee.

Access After the Rollover

The source-plan separation-from-service exception does not apply to IRA withdrawals. Check any age/service-specific plan exception before moving money needed before 59½. Required distribution amounts cannot be rolled, and Roth-source money needs its own qualification review.11, 44

The TSP tax-free rollover guide explains the tax-scenario comparison; this page explains the TSP document/execution sequence. It does not prescribe a full or partial percentage rollover.

TSP Rules Come From the TSP, Not From IRA Sales Literature

The TSP’s April 2026 Tax Rules about TSP Payments booklet separates traditional and Roth balances, qualified Roth earnings, rollover-eligible payments, withholding and in-service withdrawals. An age-based in-service route and a financial-hardship withdrawal are not the same: hardship payments are not eligible for rollover.44

Use the current withdrawal process in TSP My Account and the official withdrawals-in-retirement instructions, not an obsolete paper-form number or a dealer’s universal release timetable. Confirm payment selection, the source balance, spouse requirements if applicable, payee and receiving-account acceptance before submission.19, 44

The IRA once-per-year restriction is for IRA-to-IRA indirect rollovers; it does not apply to a TSP-to-IRA rollover. Eligible plan payments paid to you generally invoke mandatory 20% withholding on the taxable eligible amount; a direct rollover avoids that participant-payment withholding route. Withholding does not measure your final tax liability.9, 44

No current TSP expense ratio, fund return or promised gold return is assumed in this guide. Any financial comparison should use the same observation dates, actual account costs and the same pre-tax or after-tax starting wealth. A rollover decision can also change access to plan-specific withdrawal exceptions.

Save Records for Reporting, Not Just for Tracking the Shipment

An employer-plan direct rollover is still a distribution from the source plan and can generate Form 1099-R even when its taxable amount is zero. The receiving IRA’s Form 5498 can report a rollover contribution. A same-type traditional IRA trustee-to-trustee transfer, with no payment to the owner, generally is not reported as a distribution on Form 1099-R and is not a transfer contribution reported on Form 5498. Annual fair-market-value and RMD-related Form 5498 reporting can still apply.10

Roth conversions, designated Roth plan rollovers and special SIMPLE IRA rules need their own treatment; do not copy one distribution code onto every transaction. Compare the forms with the actual source, destination and taxable basis. Form instructions for 2026 are the authority for that year’s reporting layout.10

Retain the sending statement, payment confirmation, receiving-account receipt, rollover/transfer designation, and any withholding statement. Add Form 8606 history where after-tax IRA basis matters. If the institution’s records do not match the movement you authorized, request an explanation or correction before filing rather than treating a provider’s “tax-free” label as sufficient evidence.

Receiving Metals: Eligibility and Custody Are Separate Checks

For bullion, section 408(m) ties the exception to the contract-market minimum fineness and the physical possession of a bank or IRS-approved nonbank trustee. CME’s contract rules specify gold at 0.995 and silver at 0.999.51, 64, 65 Platinum and palladium each use 0.9995 in their respective contract chapters. The gold minimum is not 0.9995.66, 67

Specifically enumerated coins have a separate statutory exception; fineness alone is not a complete product approval list. Have the receiving custodian confirm the exact product, mint/refiner, denomination and acceptable documentation before an order is placed. The eligible-metals guide explains both statutory routes.51

The IRS IRA FAQs say the trustee-possession requirement for highly refined bullion also applies when an IRA-owned LLC buys it. Forming an LLC does not establish a home-storage safe harbor. Arrange custodian-authorized delivery to the selected storage facility, not personal delivery while claiming the metal remains inside the IRA.7

Keep the trade confirmation, invoice, storage selection, receipt and inventory record together. Those documents establish the chain from IRA cash to the actual product received. Insurance language should be read with the applicable policy and agreement; it is not protection against falling metal prices or proof of a guaranteed resale bid.

Separate Account Charges From the Metal Quote

The dealer supplies a product quote, the custodian administers the IRA, and the depository holds metal under its agreement. The SEC’s self-directed IRA warning explains that custodians generally do not evaluate an investment’s quality or legitimacy. A custodian accepting a purchase is not an endorsement of its price or suitability.40

Ask for one written worksheet covering setup, custody, selected storage, wires, transactions, sale, transfer, distribution and closure. Specify whether fees are paid from IRA cash or separately, when recurring billing starts, and whether a waiver expires. An undisclosed amount is unknown, not zero. Compare the same product and quantity, with a purchase quote and a same-time executable dealer bid; the bid is not assumed to equal spot.

Our fee definitions and cost arithmetic explain billing and denominators; the dated provider fee comparison distinguishes published schedules, examples and conflicting disclosures. Neither the IRS rollover rules nor a tax-free movement guarantees a cost-free account.

For illustration only, a hypothetical $50 setup, $30 initial wire and $235 annual custody-plus-storage charge total $315 in the first full year and $1,255 over five full years if the schedule stays unchanged. That excludes product-price differences, extra activity, exit charges, taxes and returns. It is not an industry average or any provider’s all-in quote. If the purchase costs $52,500 and the same-day bid is $49,000, the separate $3,500 purchase-to-bid gap is 6.67% of the purchase price, not 7%; the denominator matters.

A useful next step is to obtain the itemized account schedule and exact-product bid before signing an irreversible order. The CFTC/FINRA advisory identifies inflated pricing and pressure tactics as precious-metals red flags; a deadline created by a salesperson is not an IRS deadline.39

If the next step is funding from another retirement account, the Gold IRA rollover guide explains the source-specific movement. That funding process is separate from the asset, tax or distribution question discussed here.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a TSP hardship withdrawal be rolled into an IRA?

It is not rollover-eligible merely because the IRA accepts metals. Use the TSP payment classification before requesting funds.TSP Tax Rules about TSP Payments (April 2026)

Is there a one-per-year TSP-to-IRA rollover rule?

Not under the IRA-to-IRA indirect restriction. Each TSP payment still must be available and eligible.IRS retirement-plan and IRA rollover rules

Does my FERS pension make a gold allocation safe?

The OPM benefit description does not establish asset suitability or a safe percentage. Pension and TSP funding decisions should be separated.OPM FERS benefits

Sources

• 7 IRS IRA FAQs
• 9 IRS retirement-plan and IRA rollover rules
• 10 IRS Forms 1099-R and 5498 instructions (2026)
• 11 IRS early-distribution exception chart
• 16 IRS Publication 721 (2025)
• 19 TSP withdrawals in retirement
• 39 CFTC/FINRA precious-metals advisory
• 40 SEC/Investor.gov self-directed IRA warning
• 44 TSP Tax Rules about TSP Payments (April 2026)
• 51 26 U.S.C. 408: statutory IRA rules
• 64 CME COMEX chapter 113: gold
• 65 CME COMEX chapter 112: silver
• 66 CME NYMEX chapter 105: platinum
• 67 CME NYMEX chapter 106: palladium
• 75 OPM FERS benefits
• 76 OPM CSRS benefits