withdrawals from roth ira IF you take out only what you put in, then how do you explain this to irs? i received a letter from irs because the mf co. simply stated the withdrawal as a pre 59 1/2 withdrawal. the mf co. didn't know nor care what the details were. how can i keep the irs from doing this again. Is there a way to get the mf co. to code it a different way? Don't they know onlt principal was taken out?

They would have no idea what you're taking out. It's up to you to explain it to the IRS.