Updated July 30, 2026. Quick answer: Using the contract as collateral is a taxable event. IRC §72(e)(4)(A) treats an individual who “receives (directly or indirectly) any amount as a loan” under the contract, or who “assigns or pledges (or agrees to assign or pledge) any portion of the value” of it, as having received that amount as an amount not received as an annuity — which routes it straight into the gain-first rule.
Three triggers, and two of them involve no cash
§72(e)(4)(A): if during any taxable year an individual “(i) receives (directly or indirectly) any amount as a loan under any contract to which this subsection applies, or (ii) assigns or pledges (or agrees to assign or pledge) any portion of the value of any such contract, such amount or portion shall be treated as received under the contract as an amount not received as an annuity.”
Count the triggers. A loan. An assignment. A pledge. And — the one nobody expects — an agreement to assign or pledge. Signing a document that promises the contract as security is enough. No money has to change hands.
Because the amount is treated as not received as an annuity, it lands in §72(e)(2)(B), and from there in the gain-first allocation of §72(e)(3). If the contract holds gain, the pledged portion is taxable, and before 59½ the §72(q) penalty applies to the same includible portion.
The one piece of relief in the paragraph
The closing sentence prevents double taxation: the loan-as-distribution treatment “shall not apply for purposes of determining investment in the contract, except that the investment in the contract shall be increased by any amount included in gross income by reason of the amount treated as received.” In plain terms, whatever you were taxed on gets added to your basis, so you are not taxed on it again later. Real relief, and it does nothing about the timing — the tax is due for the year of the pledge, not the year you finally take the money.
Where this bites in practice. A lender asking for collateral on a business or personal loan may propose the annuity because it is a liquid asset sitting there. Pledging it converts a financing decision into a taxable event in the same year, on money you never see, and possibly with a penalty attached. Say what the asset is before the paperwork is drawn, not after.
The half of this decision that is not in the Code. The tax treatment below is statutory and applies to everyone. What it costs you to leave is contractual: the surrender-charge schedule and where you sit in it, any guaranteed withdrawal or income rider and what it is actually worth, and the death benefit. Those live in your contract and the annual statement, not in the law, and this site does not guess at them. Ask the issuer in writing for the current surrender value, the remaining surrender period, and the value of every rider — then the statutory side below tells you what the tax does to whatever is left.
Sources
IRC §72(e)(4)(A), quoted verbatim, including clauses (i) and (ii) and the investment-in-the-contract sentence. Retrieved from the United States Code, July 2026.
This states what the cited authority says about a non-qualified annuity — one bought with after-tax money outside a retirement plan — unless a page says otherwise. It is not tax, legal or investment advice. An annuity held inside an IRA or a qualified plan is governed by different provisions. This site states no surrender-charge schedule and no rider value, because both are terms of your particular contract rather than rules of law.