Actively employed TSP participants who are age 50 and older (even if first turning that age during the year) annually can make investments called “catch-up contributions” in addition to the elective deferral limit amount described above. Catch-ups can be made under either the traditional TSP design or under its Roth design or both, so long as the total amount invested is within the applicable catch-up limit (note: to be eligible to make these investments a participant must be in paid status—that is, not on leave without pay, retired or otherwise separated).
Through 2024, the same limit applied to all eligible persons regardless of age but effective in 2025, those age 60, 61, 62, or 63 in a given year have a higher limit of 150 percent of the standard limit. In 2025, the standard limit is $7,500 and the higher limit is $11,250.
No election is necessary; for those eligible to make catch-up contributions, any investments beyond the standard limit “spill over”—they are automatically designated as catch-up contributions, up to the appropriate limit.
Note: Effective in 2026, catch-up contributions will have to be made in Roth status if the account holder’s pay in the prior year was above a threshold. When this change passed in 2022 with an intended effective start in 2024, the threshold was set at $145,000 for 2023 pay. However, in 2023 the effective date was pushed back by two years; the threshold of 2025 pay for the scheduled start in 2026 is to be determined.