Normally if you have capital gains in a Roth IRA account and you withdraw them before you're 59.5, you must pay tax on them and a 10% penalty. I am wondering if you have capital loss carryover from a non-Roth account if you can apply the Roth earning against that to avoid paying tax on them if you prematurely withdraw the earnings.
havent researched it but i would guess yes up to the 3000 limit per year. roth early withdrawls are considered ordinary income not capital gains.
That's unfortunate that Roth IRA earnings which are withdrawn would be considered ordinary income instead of capital gains, because then that eats into your $3000/year allowance (for using capital losses against ordinary income). I wonder if it matters whether the Roth earnings were derived from stock sales or from something else like money market earnings, bonds, etc.