Q. I am a GS employee that is also a member of the Air Guard. I will be leaving on leave without pay to go through military training for roughly five to six months. How will this affect my FERS retirement and my Thrift Savings Plan contributions? Do I have to buy back my military retirement to obtain my FERS retirement contributions during my LWOP?
A. Mike Miles: You may not contribute to the TSP while in LWOP status.
Reg Jones: You will be on LWOP-US. Therefore, you will have to make a deposit to the retirement system to get credit for that period of active-duty service.
1 Comment
While you cannot contribute to the civilian TSP account while on active duty, you can make retroactive TSP deposits in order to receive the automatic contribution and contribution matching by the government. The government can base this on contributions to a military TSP account or be made retroactively upon return to a civilian duty status. Look at TSP Fact Sheet OC 95-5 for details. Also, a quirk allows for the make-up of lost earnings on the automatic and contribution matching by the government.