Early Roth Withdrawal - basic questions

Pre-age 59.5: If I do an early withdrawal from a Roth (for educational purposes, should be penalty exempt), where does the Roth withdrawal get reported? Does it affect AGI like a non-Roth IRA would or does just the income above principle get reported in AGI?

Can I withdraw "principle only" (basis?) to avoid an AGI increase, or am I required to calculate every early withdrawal as a proportion of both principle and growth?

Also, if I end up in the non-exempt zone for the penalty, and also for the "growth" portion if required to withdraw, can I take advantage of identifying some portion as "over the remainder of my life" - and if so, what tables does the IRS use for life expectancy. =============

1) Form 5329. If an exemption applies, it is addressed there. 2) Withdrawals come first from contributions then conversions then earnings. You should have been tracking these. 3) See the IRS "Pensions and Annuities" publication for current periods.

It gets reported on Form 8606 and from there the taxable part, if any, flows to 1040. Form 5329 (the usual IRA penalty form) also gets used if the early withdrawal generates a penalty.

Yes. Unlike trad IRAs which use a pro-rate rule, Roth IRAs follow an explicit ordering:

• Contributions, no matter when they were made, are deemed to come out first. And never any tax or penalty on those.

• Conversions come out in the order they were made. Never any tax on them, but there could be an early withdrawal penalty.

• Finally earnings come out, which will be subject to tax and penalty (unless you meet one of the exceptions).

No. Not as a proportion (see above). But you do need to know the total amount of contributions you've made and the amount and dates of conversions.