Dear Bureaupat,
How can I get onto Employee Express to change my Thrift Saving Plan (TSP) allocation?
Dear Reader,
Despite the governments best efforts to keep the information at arms length at all times, your question is answerable. I have
experience with several federal department level systems and Employee
Express is actually one of the easier systems to use once you have an
account. But let's start at the beginning.
First, you will need to get an account through your
office human resources liaison or office. Once you have an account, go to the Employee Express website: https://www.employeeexpress.gov/ and log on.
Next, go to the section labeled Payroll- Personal Actions and click the Thrift Savings Plan tag.
This
will take you to the Thrift Savings Plan Change section where you can
enter either a percentage OR enter a whole dollar amount of your basic
pay that you wish to contribute per pay period by selecting the
appropriate block on the screen. Your payroll dollar amount cannot
exceed the maximum contribution amount allowed. The maximum allowed is
based on your total salary.
Please note:
- You should not use both a paper form TSP-1 and Employee Express to make TSP elections.
- The election you make through Employee Express will only affect your future contributions, not your
past contributions.
- You can start, change or stop your contributions at any time. You may
use Employee Express to change the amount or percent of payroll
deduction for contributing to TSP.
- FERS refers to the Federal
Employees' Retirement System, the Foreign Service Pension System, and
other equivalent Government retirement plans.
- There is an
annual limit on TSP contributions established by the IRS. The current
annual limit is $15,500. If you reach the IRS limit on TSP
contributions before the end of the year, your contributions will stop
and you will lose any further agency matching contributions.
- If
you are a new or rehired employee who has never had a Thrift Savings
Plan (TSP) account, your contributions will be invested in the
Government Securities Investment (G) Fund until you request a
contribution allocation through TSP.
- If you are a rehired
employee who has previously had a Thrift Savings Plan account, your
contributions will be invested according to your last contribution
allocation on file with the TSP until you request a different
contribution allocation through TSP.
- The exact TSP deduction may not equal the percentage specified due to other mandatory payroll deductions.
If you choose a TSP Stop Action they are immediately effective at the end of the current pay period.
Below is an example to follow for deducting equal payments:
Effective Date: December 23, 2007
Number of Pay Periods in tax year: 26
Pay Period Deduction Amount: $597
(i.e. $15,500/26 = $597 rounded up)
The
26th payment will round to $575 to ensure the deduction amount does not
exceed the limit for the year. This will ensure you will reach the
annual limit on the last pay period of the tax year and continue to
receive applicable agency contributions.
For more information contact your local human resources office.
Good luck saving money. In this economy, you'll need all you can get!
The only,
- Bureaupat
