Q: I am a federal employee with a fairly complicated work history. The Office of Personnel Management tells me that to obtain full credit for all of my time served, I owe approximately $60,000 in deposits and redeposits. It’s worth it to me to pay that amount, because it means the difference between 34 years of service and about 20 years of service if I were to retire now. I just turned 59 1/2. What I would like to do is withdraw the money from my Thrift Savings Plan account and send it directly to OPM to pay off my redeposit account. According to IRS Publication 721, Civil Service Retirement System, Federal Employees Retirement System and Thrift Savings Plan are all considered qualified retirement plans; and a rollover is possible between two qualified retirement plans without any taxes owed on the money transferred at the time of the rollover. Do you see any problem with me transferring this money from TSP to CSRS as a rollover? If not, do you know which office of OPM I should contact in order to have someone complete Section VI of the TSP withdrawal request (TSP-75) for me?
A: I don’t believe OPM will accept pre-tax money for CSRS service deposits.
1 Comment
The FERS retirement system is confusing. Is it more beneficial to leave money in TSP and draw an annuity or take it out and roll it over into an IRA and get a monthly check from that account. I hear pros and cons but still don’t know what is best.