On July 8, 2020, the Tax Court issued a Memorandum Opinion in the case of Tillard v. Commissioner (T.C. Memo. 2020-101). The primary issue before the court in Tillard v. Commissioner was whether the distributions from the petitioner’s retirement account were taxable and subject to the 10% additional tax on early distributions from that account pursuant to IRC § 72(t). Background to Tillard v. Commissioner To finance her eldest son’s college tuition, the petitioner made two withdrawals from her IRA totaling $54,500. The petitioner was under 59-1/2 when she received the distributions. The petitioner also made withdrawals totaling $15,000 from her New York § 529 College Savings Program Account, $9,000 of which was paid directly to the college and $6,000 was paid directly to the petitioner. Petitioner prepared and filed a timely return for 2016. She reported the entire $54,500 of IRA distributions but reported only $39,500 as being taxable.…