Q. I will complete nine years of civil service as of August, as well as 22 years of military service. If I apply for Voluntary Separation Incentive Pay, what, if anything, can I expect to receive?
Browsing: taxes
Q. What are the tax benefits, if any, for buying back my military time into my FERS? In 2012, I paid close to $11,000 to buy back my military time into my FERS. Now I’m finishing up my 2012 taxes and I’m curious if there is any kind of adjustment/deduction for having shelled out $11,000 toward retirement?
Q. The following statement was made in an answer to a question ask about post-1956 deposit: “You can’t get a refund of the deposit you made for your active-duty service. What’s done is done. If you retire at age 62 and aren’t eligible for a Social Security benefit at that time, you’ll never have to worry about losing those years and having your annuity recomputed.” I will retire at age 60 and have paid in a post-1956 deposit. I am in CSRS and will have 41 years and eight months with the post-56 deposit (eight years, six months of military…
Q. How does my dad change the amount of taxes to be taken out on his civil service retirement check? He is not taking out enough and is getting penalized. A. Have him call the Office of Personnel Management at 1-888-767-6738 or 724-794-2005 and talk to one of the benefits specialists.
Q. I worked for an independent federal agency from 1977 to 1989, which had its own retirement system that was neither CSRS nor FERS. I had a break in service for one year then returned to work for the federal government (Transportation Department), where I was erroneously placed in FERS by human resources. In 2006, following a FERCCA ruling that took over 2½ years, I chose to be placed in CSRS Offset rather than FERS. I paid Social Security as a federal employee (plus through part-time jobs dating back to 1970) until I retired in 2010 with 32 years of service. I…
Q. I am 67 years old, employed as a federal civil servant with 35 years of service this year. Can I collect Social Security benefits? What effect will that have on my retirement? I was under CSRS until FERS came into existence. I switched to FERS, believing I would not stay in civil service and wanted to pay Social Security taxes. It worked out that I did stay in the government, so I should have a portion of CSRS (about eight years) and the rest under FERS when I retire. A. Because you have reached full Social Security retirement age,…
Q. I retired Jan. 3 with 31 years of federal service. I just moved to North Carolina. Could you tell me if I have to pay state taxes for North Carolina? A. In North Carolina, annuities aren’t taxed beginning with 1998 if you had five years of creditable government service as of Aug. 12, 1989.
Q. I am anticipating retiring Jan. 3 after almost 40 years of continuous service for the Veterans Affairs Department. I recall, many years ago, retirees electing withdrawal of their cumulative contributions to the retirement fund and receiving a minimum penalty in their annuity. I am unable to find anything online relating to this option and my human resources people say they’ve never heard of it. When did we lose this option? On that subject, my earnings and leave do not reflect the total amount that I have contributed to the retirement fund, but only the amount contributed since conversion to…
Q. What is the percentage paid by the U.S. Treasury toward our monthly annuity account when we retire under CSRS? A. It’s not surprising that no one could answer the question, because there isn’t any one answer. It all depends. If an employee retired before June 2, 1986, all of his annuity payments were considered to be a return of his retirement contributions and weren’t taxable, since they had already been taxed as income while he was working. When the amount in his account ran out, all of the annuity payments he received were from the government and, as such,…
Q. Is the pretax Federal Employees Health Benefits exclusion still available after retirement? A. No.