The maximum that can be carried forward from 2024 into 2025 in health care accounts will be $640. Image: Panchenko Vladimir/Shutterstock.com
Key dollar figure changes of interest to federal employees for 2024 include:
The mileage reimbursement rate for calendar year 2024 for using a privately owned vehicle on federal travel if no government-owned vehicle is available is rising from 65.5 to 67 cents per mile. That increase, newly announced by the GSA, once again mirrors a rate set by the IRS for certain tax-related purposes.
The rate for using a personal vehicle when a government-owned vehicle is available will be 21 cents per mile; for using a privately owned motorcycle 65 cents per mile; and for using a privately owned airplane $1.76 per mile. Rates typically apply through a calendar year but can change during a year due to significant changes in fuel prices.
The maximum that can be carried forward from 2024 into 2025 in health care accounts will be $640, up from the $610 that can be carried from 2023 into 2024. The individual must have an account for the following year to be eligible. In dependent care accounts, there is a 10-week grace period for using unspent money carried from one year to the next.
The maximum tax-free amount allowable under the public transit subsidy program—formally, the “qualified transportation fringe benefit”—is rising from $300 to $315 a month. Policies vary among agencies and among locations within agencies, in some cases as set in labor-management contracts. Some pay a subsidy in the form of passes or vouchers purchased by the agency and others allow employees to reduce their pre-tax income by an amount equal to their transit or van pool expenses up to the maximum. The much-less-used tax-free benefit for parking at a transit lot is rising in the same way.
The interest rate charged on payments needed to capture credit for service toward federal retirement benefits in certain situations will rise in calendar year 2024 to 3.75 percent from 1.875 percent. The rate applies to deposits and redeposits into the federal employee retirement fund to get credit for service for which no retirement contributions were taken or for which refunds were received at a break in service, as for payments to capture credit toward federal retirement for military service time.
The figure also is the interest rate paid on “voluntary contribution” retirement savings program, which allows CSRS (but not FERS) employees to set aside money in tax-deferred accounts that can be withdrawn as a lump-sum or turned into additional annuity payments at retirement.
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