Q. I am a CSRS employee who will have 40 years of government service in mid-April 2010 at age 63. When would it be in my best interest to retire to obtain the 80 percent annuity? Whatever that date may be, would I then be entitled to the next full cost-of-living increase? A. To receive an annuity worth 80 percent of your high-3, you’d need to have 41 years an 11 months of creditable service and owe no deposits or redeposits to the retirement fund. If you worked longer than that, any retirement contributions you made to the retirement fund…
Author Reg Jones
Reg Jones
Reg Jones was head of retirement and insurance policy at the Office of Personnel Management. Email your retirement-related questions to fedexperts@federaltimes.com.
Q. What office does a Senior Executive Service employee apply to for retirement and where is the pay office located for SES personnel? Is it a different office than a regular CSRS employee who deals with the Office of Personnel Management? A. Senior Executive Service employees are no different from other employees when it comes to retirement. They fill out the same paperwork and submit it to their servicing personnel office. Once retired, their annuity, like that of other employees, is paid out of the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, which is maintained by the Department of the Treasury…
Q. I am eligible for retirement under CSRS with over 30 years of employment with the USGS. One intriguing retirement option was the proposal that was floated last year regarding a transition into retirement by working part time. I understand this proposal has been recently finalized; however, my main concern is how this legislation affects retirement benefits at the “high 3” level. A. There hasn’t been any change in law regarding a transition into retirement by working part time. However, there has been a change to the way that the annuities of part-time CSRS employees are calculated, which will produce…
Q. Thank you so much for your article entitled “Making sense of 2 types of annuities.” It was very informative to the fifty-something people in my office. Assuming FERS, two questions. When you refer to annuity, are you referring to 1) the person’s pension or 2) the person getting the equivalent of some of type of early Social Security benefits? And if the answer to the above is the person’s pension, is it possible for one to start collecting Social Security benefits (or the equivalent of) once they do early retirement (for example, age 57)? Obviously, if this was so,…
Q. I retired as a FERS annuitant on Feb. 1, 2006 at age 62 plus a couple of weeks. If I am rehired please help with these questions. Will my current FERS gross annuity before taxes be deducted from the new gross salary before taxes? If I have the maximum for retirement, including the over-50 extra amount, deducted and invested in the Thrift Savings Plan, am I matched by the federal government and vested from day one for as long as I decide to work? I left my TSP with the federal government and I have not taking anything from…
Q. I will be 62 years old in November 2010. I plan on retiring Dec 31, 2010. I will draw a FERS annuity from the government; I also will be drawing Social Security. My question is, will my FERS annuity be considered taxable income to Social Security and will my Social Security benefit be taxed for it ? A. Your FERS annuity will be taxable as regular income; however, a portion of it will be tax-exempt because it represents a return of the contributions you made to the retirement system, which have already been taxed. When determining if you have…
Q. I am retired under a combination of CSRS (14 years) and FERS (12 years). My CSRS annuity is $3,000 a month and my Social Security is $600 a month. If my spouse dies, can I get any part of his $1,600 monthly Social Security? A. If you are a federal retiree who elected to switch from the Civil Service Retirement System to the Federal Employees’ Retirement System (FERS) on or before June 30, 1988 or you if you switched after that date, including during the open season from July 1, 1998, through December 31, 1998, the fact that you had at least…
Q. I am currently 54 years old under FERS and considering early retirement in the next 3 – 4 years. I am also retired from the military and bought my service time. I currently do not carry any Federal Health Care Benefit; I use my military benefit. Once I retire from federal civilian service my retirement pay from the military will stop; does this have any effect on my military health benefits? A. It’s my understanding that waiving your military retired pay will not affect any other military benefits to which you are entitled; however, to be sure, you’d need to…
Q. I retired from the U.S Forest Service on 7/03/05 at age 52 under CSRS Firefighter retirement. I retired out of a secondary firefighter position that I went into from a primary firefighter position with no break in service. If I am rehired by the U.S Forest Service now, after 4.5 years retired, into a secondary firefighter position, will I still have to take mandatory retirement at age 57 or will the break in service mean that no firefighter retirement will be in effect for any “supplemental” or separate annuity I may acquire? Basically, in this scenario, can I work…
Q. I retired on June 30, 1999 at age 47 on disability under the CSRS offset. I had exactly 21 years of service at the time of retirement. I show the disability amount as wages on my tax return. At what point can I start showing this income as a pension rather than wages? A. This is a tax matter and falls outside my area of knowledge. You’ll have to check with the IRS. To get a head start, download a copy of IRS Publication 721, Tax Guide to U.S. Civil Service Benefits, available at www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p721.pdf.