Q. I have 38 years with the federal government. I have 240 hours of stored leave and, if I save my annual leave this year, I will have 208 hours of annual leave. This equates to 448 hours times my base pay, which is $33.92 for $15,196. When I retire at the end of this year, can I roll my lump-sum payment over to my Thrift Savings Plan account before taxes? A. No.
Browsing: annual leave
Q. I am in FERS (age 57 with 30 years). I have been offered the buyout and will have to be off the roll Jan. 31. How should I go about having a portion of my lump-sum annual leave payment go directly into my Thrift Savings Plan account? A. This is not allowed.
Q. If the lump-sum payment is considered earned income for tax purposes but is not eligible to Thrift Savings Plan deferral nor does it serve as the base for automatic agency contributions, wouldn’t it make better sense not to cash in the leave? Rather, wouldn’t it be more lucrative to continue working, take the earned vacation over the year, collect matching funds for TSP, matching funds for health insurance, and on top of that, continue to accrue more annual leave, more sick leave, and enjoy the vacation time off? I understand no supervisor/manager would approve a single vacation of 5+…
Q. I’m 59 and retiring June 2, which is the first day of a new pay period. Will my Thrift Savings Plan election and catch-up contribution be deducted from my last paycheck? I will have earned no salary in that pay period, but I will have my lump-sum annual leave payout. A. TSP deferrals are not taken from annual leave payout checks.
Q. I am a fully vested CSRS employee with the Environmental Protection Agency for 33 years at age 55. I have received my numbers, but I missed my first date to retire. How long does it take to receive my first full check? Worst-case scenario? Best-case scenario? And is there any way to speed up processing? When will I receive my annual leave payment? Will it be immediate in one lump sum without taxes since I already paid taxes on my leave? Should I take all of my Thrift Savings Plan out at once or leave about 10,000 in and…
Q. I am a letter carrier, age 52, started in 1985 and have 28 years of creditable service. If I understand what I’ve gleaned from the posts here and the Postal Service were to offer me a Voluntary Early Retirement Authority this year, 1. Would I begin my annuity immediately? 2. Would I have no reductions in calculations of my annuity? (average high-3 x 1 percent x 28) 3. Would I receive credit for half of my sick leave and all of my annual leave? (How are these applied?) 4. Would I receive the special retirement supplement beginning at age…
Q. I will be eligible to retire Dec. 4 with both minimum retirement age and years of service under FERS. I would like to wait until Jan. 31 to retire to complete a project. I will have 240 hours of annual leave going into 2013. The combination of my lump-sum payment for my annual leave and my January wage earnings would exceed the Social Security earnings limit for 2013. Since the Social Security earning limit is the same as the FERS annuity supplement earnings limit, would this make me ineligible for the special retirement supplement for 2013? If I put all…
Q. My husband was a temporary federal employee for the Defense Department for five years. He was laid off in August. He had two years of military service, which he bought that time back, so in essence he has seven years of federal service. He is 60 years old. He put 10 percent of his salary in the Thrift Savings Plan. Should he leave that money in TSP or put it in another vehicle? Also, when he reaches retirement age (62), will he receive a pension for the seven years of federal service? He left DoD with a sick leave…
Q. If I retire at the end of August, and had not previously taken advantage of TSP catch-up, can I max out the tax benefit by having the balance of my annual allowable TSP contribution limit, plus the full retirement catch-up amount all taken out of the last close-out check for unused annual leave and sick leave? I’m in senior-level service, so I get 50 percent of unused sick leave.) A. You may set your Thrift Savings Plan deferral amount as high as you like, within the limits of your paycheck amount. Once the annual deferral limit, including catch-up, is…
Q. I am a FERS employee who did a one-year-and-one-day residency (366 days) at the Veterans Affairs Department. During this residency, I was a full-time (40-hour-a-week) employee receiving benefits (health care, annual leave, sick leave, etc.). However, I did not contribute to FERS or the Thrift Savings Plan during this year and my “term” of employment was allotted for only one year. After the residency, I was hired as a full-time employee at VA contributing to the FERS pension, and I still continue to work in the VA system. 1. Does this one year of residency count as a year of…