Q: I am a 62-year-old federal employee who will retire in January 2010 under the Civil Service Retirement System. I have put after-tax money into the voluntary contributions (VC) program and plan upon retirement to roll the interest earned directly to my Thrift Savings Plan account and the after-tax contributions to a Roth IRA. I understand that the IRS says that the VC program is a Qualified Retirement Plan. Can the after-tax contributions can be rolled directly to a Roth IRA without paying taxes on the rollover?
A: In general, it is possible to roll your VC balance into a Roth IRA. You will have to aggregate your other IRA balances, if any, for the purposes of figuring out the taxable amount of the conversion. Your TSP balance will not be included in the aggregation.