Q. I was just told by my human resources specialist that when pretax Federal Employees Health Benefits premiums reduce my taxable income, they also reduce my salary for the computation of high-3 average salary for retirement. Is this true? It doesn’t sound right to me, and I’ve never heard such a thing.
A. You haven’t heard such a thing because it isn’t true. Your high-3 is based on your highest average pay rates during any three consecutive years before any deductions are taken from that pay.
