Confirm Your Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) Contributions

If you are contributing to the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP), it is important that you review your Leave and Earnings Statement (LES) regularly to confirm that your deductions are correct.  You can access your LES in myPay.  If you wish to change your TSP deductions, you must also use myPay

The 2020 IRS annual limit for regular TSP contributions is $19,500.  If you are covered by the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS), you could lose valuable matching Agency TSP contributions by reaching the limit before the end of the calendar year.  If you need to adjust your election amount, use the Elective Deferral Calculator on the TSP website  to determine the adjusted amount.  There are 26 pay days in 2020.  Be certain to enter the amount into myPay that you want withheld from your pay each pay period.  Please note that a regular TSP election will automatically continue from one calendar year into the next. 

In addition to regular TSP contributions, you may also make TSP Catch-up contributions, if you meet the following criteria:  1) you are age 50 or over (or will be age 50 during 2020); 2) you are in pay status; AND 3) you are contributing an amount towards your regular TSP which will cause you to reach the $19,500 IRS limit by the end of the 2020 calendar year.   The 2020 IRS limit for TSP Catch-up is $6,500.   If you have entered a TSP Catch-up election into myPay for 2020, you should confirm your election in myPay and the deductions on your LES.  Unlike regular TSP elections, a Catch-up election is only valid for one calendar year.  Therefore, if you want to make Catch-up contributions each year, you must make a new election each year. 

After an election is entered into myPay, it will be effective at the beginning of the next pay period, and it will take 1-2 pay periods before it is visible in myPay and on your LES.  You can view the 2020 payroll calendar here.  Only one regular TSP election and one TSP Catch-up election can be entered into myPay during a pay period.