Q. What are the best dates to retire for CSRS and FERS in 2012? A. There are no such things as the best dates to retire. There are too many factors involved. However, if, as I suspect, you just want to maximize the amount of money you can get in a lump-sum annual leave payment, then you should retire on Dec. 29, 2012. You’d be on the annuity roll Jan. 1. That’s essential if you are FERS employee; otherwise your annuity wouldn’t begin until the following month. If you are a CSRS employee, you could delay your departure up to the…
Browsing: lump-sum payment
Q. I work for the Postal Service and am eligible to retire later this year. Can I request to receive a lump-sum payment of my retirement contributions and still receive my monthly annuity? How would a lump-sum payment affect my monthly payment? A. No, you can’t receive a refund of your retirement contributions.
Q. I’m a single CSRS retiree for two years with 29 years of service and an early out. I am dying and want to calculate what my lump sum might be for my beneficiary after my death. How does USPS calculate what is left of my lump sum with only two years in retirement. Is there a certain percentage the Post Office puts in monthly and a certain percentage they take from my retirement contributions monthly for retirement funds? A. The lump sum is the amount of your retirement contributions, minus any annuity that you have already received. For example, if…
Q. I am planning to retire either at he end of 2011 or early 2012. Which is the best time to retire, should it be the end of December or early January? How would it affect my annuity if I set the retirement date for Jan. 3, 2012? A. If your main concerns are to 1) get credit for all the annual and sick leave you earned by completing a pay period, and 2) maximize the size of your lump-sum payment for unused annual leave, and 3) walk off the employment roll and onto the annuity roll without the break…
Q. I retired from Federal Civilian Service on June 3. I received my final pay check which included my lump-sum payment for annual leave on Friday June 10. I was paid my regular earnings at my pay grade, GS-12, but my lump-sum payment for unused annual leave was paid at the pay rate for a GS-09. Thinking it was a mistake I called the activity payroll office and to my surprise I was told this was because my promotion to GS-12 was temporary and when I retired I was reverted back to my permanent grade GS-09 in order to pay…
Q. I’m a FERS DoD employee, planning to retire on Dec 31, 2011 to maximize my annual leave lump-sum payment. Dec 31 is the end of a pay period, and the end of the leave year. It’s also the end of my 104 week waiting period for my step increase from step 5 to step 6, which is due on Jan. 1, 2012. I understand that annual leave lump-sum payments are calculated based on what I would have earned had I stayed in federal service. Am I considered to have fulfilled my waiting period, since the step increase would become…
Q: I am an employee under the Civil Service Retirement System, 6C, facing mandatory retirement the second week of January 2012. I anticipate finishing 2011 with 448 hours of annual leave on the books. Jan. 1, 2 and 3 would be the ideal retirement dates. In 2011, Pay Period 26 ends on the last day of the year. I’m now looking at Dec. 31, a Saturday, as the retirement date on the paperwork in order to receive the full annual leave 448-hour lump-sum payment. Do you see any problem with that date given the information provided? Additionally, I would imagine…
Q: How is an annual leave buyout calculated? Is it “accumulated hours x current hourly wage”? Is this considered unearned income? I have also heard they take 40 percent in taxes for this. A: Lump sum annual leave payments are calculated using the hourly rate of basic pay you would have received had you remained on the agency’s rolls. Therefore, if you were to retire before the annual pay adjustment becomes effective, any hours before that will be computed at the old rate and those after on the new rate. Any step increase that would have occurred after you retired…
Q: I am at an activity that was to be realigned and relocated from California to Virginia. The realignment was completed, and the relocation is in process. I will be relocating to Virginia in the first week of January, prior to the end of the leave year. Will my use-or-lose annual leave hours, as of my relocation date, be restored under 5 U.S.C. 6304(d)(3)? A: If you accompany your organization to its new duty location. you will receive a lump-sum payment for hours in excess of the 240 at the time of your move and will no longer be eligible…
Q: There are several of us around the office who are close to retirement (i.e., the next three or four years), and we’ve heard rumors that lump-sum settlements will change starting in 2013 and that the calculation will result in reduced lump-sum payment amounts. Are there any changes coming in 2012 and beyond that will affect our lump-sum payments? When I go to my Fidelity website and look at my projected lump-sum payments in 2012, 2013 and 2014, I don’t see any reductions. I’m wondering whether it has something to do with taxes changing on the lump-sum amounts starting in…