If you have questions about your 401(k) as a General Dynamics employee, most of them come back to a handful of topics: how much you can put in, how it is taxed, what happens to loans and old balances when you leave, and when you must start taking money out.

The limits, deadlines and tax rules below apply for tax year 2026; the General Dynamics section near the end lists what public filings show about General Dynamics's own plan.

What can you contribute to a 401(k) in 2026?

For 2026, the IRS limit on employee elective deferrals to a 401(k) is $24,500, up from $23,500 in 2025.

Participants age 50 or older can add a catch-up contribution of $8,000 in 2026, and those who turn 60, 61, 62 or 63 during the year can add a higher catch-up of $11,250 instead of the regular amount.

Starting with 2026 contributions, anyone whose prior-year wages from the plan sponsor topped $150,000 must make catch-up contributions on a Roth, after-tax basis instead of pre-tax; the regular, non-catch-up deferral can still be pre-tax.

Counting the employer's contributions too, the overall limit on additions to your account for 2026 is the lesser of 100% of pay or $72,000, which rises to $80,000 with the regular catch-up or up to $83,250 with the age 60-63 catch-up, and only the first $360,000 of pay counts toward that calculation.

Are 401(k) contributions taxed?

Traditional, pre-tax 401(k) contributions lower the wages reported in Box 1 of your Form W-2 for federal income tax, but they still count for Social Security and Medicare tax.

Roth 401(k) contributions are made after tax, so they do not lower your current taxable wages, but a qualified withdrawal of both contributions and earnings is not subject to federal income tax.

Do you need to report 401(k) withdrawals to the IRS?

If you have not taken any distributions, there is nothing to report for your 401(k) that year.

A distribution from a traditional 401(k) is reported to you on Form 1099-R and taxed as ordinary income, and a plan generally must withhold 20% from a distribution paid directly to you instead of rolled over to another plan or IRA.

A qualified distribution from a Roth 401(k) is also reported on Form 1099-R, but the qualified portion is not subject to federal income tax.

Withdrawing before age 59 1/2 can trigger an additional 10% early-withdrawal tax on the taxable part of the distribution, in addition to ordinary income tax, unless an exception applies.

What happens to an outstanding 401(k) loan when you leave General Dynamics?

Loans from a 401(k) generally cannot exceed the lesser of $50,000 or 50% of your vested balance (or up to $10,000 if that is greater and your plan allows it), and must generally be repaid within 5 years unless the loan was used to buy a primary home.

If you separate from General Dynamics with an unpaid loan balance that gets offset against your account, you have until your federal tax return's due date, including extensions, for that year to roll the offset amount into an IRA or another employer's plan so it does not count as a taxable distribution.

Check General Dynamics's plan document or Summary Plan Description for the loan repayment terms that apply after you leave; plans differ on whether continued payments are allowed once payroll deduction stops.

What are your options for a 401(k) when you leave General Dynamics?

A direct, trustee-to-trustee rollover to an IRA or a new employer's plan moves the money without current tax, and the Form 1099-R for a direct rollover shows $0 as the taxable amount.

An indirect rollover, where you receive the funds yourself, must be redeposited within 60 days for the money to roll over without current tax, and 20% is generally withheld up front from a distribution paid directly to you, so you need other funds to make up that amount if you want to roll over the full balance.

Cashing out is taxed as ordinary income on the taxable portion, plus the 10% early-withdrawal tax if you are under 59 1/2 and no exception applies.

If your vested balance is small, General Dynamics's plan may be allowed to pay it out without your consent: federal law lets a plan set that threshold anywhere up to $7,000, paying $1,000 or less in cash and rolling anything above $1,000 into an IRA for you unless you choose otherwise.

Which ages change your 401(k) choices?

A few ages change what you can do with a 401(k): 50 is when catch-up contributions start, 59 1/2 is when withdrawals stop triggering the extra 10% early-withdrawal tax, and 60 through 63 is when the higher catch-up applies.

• Age 50: catch-up contributions become available
• Age 59 1/2: withdrawals no longer trigger the 10% early-withdrawal tax
• Ages 60-63: the higher catch-up limit applies

Required minimum distributions generally must start at age 73 for anyone born in 1951 through 1959, and at age 75 for anyone born in 1960 or later; the first one is due by April 1 of the following year.

A Roth 401(k) works differently: SECURE 2.0 removed the lifetime RMD requirement for designated Roth accounts starting in 2024, so if your whole 401(k) is Roth, you do not have to take a distribution while you are alive.

Does General Dynamics's plan automatically enroll new employees?

A 401(k) or 403(b) plan set up after December 29, 2022 generally must automatically enroll eligible employees starting with the 2025 and later plan years, defaulting new hires into a 3% to 10% contribution that rises 1 percentage point a year up to at least 10%, capped at 15%, unless the employee opts out or picks a different rate.

Plans that already existed before that date, which is common for established employers, are not required to add automatic enrollment under this rule, and small or new businesses, church plans and governmental plans are excepted either way; check General Dynamics's own plan document or enrollment materials for whether and how it auto-enrolls.

What does General Dynamics put into your 401(k)?

General Dynamics' own plan filings answer several of these questions, starting with how the plan treats new hires and contributions. General Dynamics sponsors the General Dynamics Corporation 401(k) Plan 6.0 (EIN 13-1673581, PN 069) for employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement, with Fidelity as trustee and recordkeeper. The plan held 70,316 participants and $14.28 billion in net assets at the close of 2025, up from $12.40 billion a year earlier. New hires who make no election are automatically enrolled at a 6% deferral rate, and General Dynamics matches 100% of the first 6% of pay contributed. Contributions and that match, plus their earnings, vest in full right away, while any other matching or discretionary contribution a business unit offers generally vests within three years.

What happens to a 401(k) loan or withdrawal when you leave General Dynamics?

Active participants may qualify for an in-service or hardship withdrawal, or a withdrawal available at age 59 1/2, under the terms the plan document sets. A participant can borrow up to $50,000 or 50% of the vested balance, whichever is less, hold up to two loans at a time, and repay a regular loan over five years or a home loan over 20 years, at the prime rate plus 1%. Employees under a collective bargaining agreement instead build savings in the separate 401(k) Plan for Represented Employees (PN 013), which held 22,339 participants and close to $2.4 billion in assets at the end of 2025.