If you are no longer employed in a position covered by this system, you are eligible for a lump sum refund of your member contributions plus interest.
PLEASE NOTE: If you withdraw your funds in a lump sum, you will cancel all your credited
service (both contributory and noncontributory) and forfeit your rights to all retirement benefits. A refund cancels ALL member Service Credit (contributory and noncontributory), ALL membership rights, and ALL beneficiary designations.
The employer's contributions are NOT refundable and therefore do not apply towards a member's refund.
The refundable balance is the member's contributions plus interest. However, interest is not paid on member contributions made in the year in which a refund is paid.
Presently, five (5) years of service are required to vest for monthly benefits. Until withdrawn, your account will earn 0.08% interest compounded annually. Interest is credited each year on June 30th.
If you wish to apply for a refund, please contact our office to request the application. You will need to complete and return the Application for Refund (#101a), Tax Election form (#101b) and Waiver of Retirement Benefits form (#101c). Failure to complete any section of these forms will result in delay of payment.
If you were employed in an ATRS covered position during the current or previous fiscal year (July 1 through June 30), the school district's bookkeeper or payroll officer will need to complete the ATRS Employer section on Form #101a. Do not submit the Application prior to your last working day.
Your refund will be processed within 30 days following the receipt of the correctly completed above referenced forms and will include all member contributions and accumulated interest currently updated in your ATRS account. Any additional member contributions not included in the original amount will be refunded as a second refund, after the account has been audited. This will be approximately three months after the completion of the last quarter in which you were paid.
Members have the following options for the distribution of the taxable amount of his or her refund:
- Rollover of all taxable amounts to an eligible tax deferred retirement account
- Rollover a portion of the taxable amount to an eligible tax deferred retirement account, with the remaining balance of the taxable amount paid to you after applicable federal and state taxes
- Receive a direct payment (check) to you of all contributions with interest after the required federal withholding (20%) and state withholding (5%) are deducted. (An additional early withdrawal penalty of 10% for members under age 59 1/2 may be applicable by the IRS.)
All rollovers will be completed after all quarters worked have been updated to the members contribution account. If you have current year contributions, this will take longer than 30 days.
Refunds do not change a member's status from contributory to noncontributory.
If you become an active member of Teacher Retirement after receiving a refund of your contributions, you may request a cost estimate to repay the refund and reestablish your Service Credit years by purchasing refunded service. However, the cost to repay the refund will be computed at actuarial cost value of the service, not the amount of contributions that you withdrew. It is very costly to reestablish this service credit.
ATRS does not have any provisions that allow borrowing or loans from a member's account.
For more information contact ATRS at (501) 682-1517 or info@artrs.gov or see the Refund FAQs