Jughead
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Posts posted by Jughead
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Source?
I would suggest that everyone go to PRDA and open your promotion board selection folder. It shows all documents that are meeting or have met the board, including your PRF. It does include every TR and OPR. Length of course does not matter. Go see for yourself.
My "source" is my own experience meeting multiple boards. Unless its changed since my O-5 board (2007)--always possible--
the PRDA records show ALL your records; you have to request your records (either a review prior to the board, or an "as met" after the board) to see what is actually going / went before the board. I'd suggest checking with the promotions folks at AFPC rather than my (or Herk Driver's) understanding of how it works if it's important to you.Doesn't the OPSB list all the reports going to the board? I think that's what made me wonder "where's my TR?" and investigate for myself.... Sounds like you're saying the OPSB is on PRDA now, which is itself a change from my day (Christ, I hate saying that!)....
EDIT: Apparently outdated info.
The report isn't "gone" or invalidated--it's still a legit, official source document (for PRFs or whatever). It just doesn't meet the board (in my experience and subject to the caveats above).If this is the case then how can people use information from the short courses in their PRFs which does happen? Or is this a new change?
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Were the training reports from SOS masked too? If not then the board can see if you went in residence or not correct?
TRs for short courses (i.e., those that do not replace an OPR; I don't recall the cutoff course length) don't meet the board. Your UPT TR is part of your board package; in-res IDE and/or SDE (PCS / year-long courses) are as well. Your SOS TR is not.EDIT: Apparently outdated info.
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What's an NDB?
"Not Da Best"
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So Sikh hair is legal, cornrows are legal, and buzzcuts on women are now legal as well. Could somebody please explain to me why my sideburns can't go below the bottom of the opening of my ear?
To save you from yourself for looking like a douche...?
I keed, I keed...!!
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Lots of difference between DG at an FTU and DG at SOS. One shows you have skills in your primary duty. The other one shows.......
Take this line of thought to its logical conclusion, and you will have answered your own question. For better or worse, the AF believes its PME is a critical piece of crafting it's senior officers (enlisted, too, but we're talking about SOS). You can argue for or against that all day, and possibly even have a case against it, but that's clearly the state of affairs as it exists today. Another "clearly the state of affairs" is that every officer is to be groomed as a potential general. Put those two together, and the "primary duty" you cite becomes being an officer, and a PME DG (to the institutional eyes of the AF) is therefore more important than DG from an FTU.
A better question altogether is why DG (from any source) is assumed to be such an indisputable indicator of quality. It's a snapshot--no more, no less.
I don't have an answer to the problem. As an ORF, I also don't sweat it any longer....
ETA: Herk Driver beat me to the "snapshot" comment....
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If you're retiring and are not getting calls from the majors, I would check out the regionals. Once you finish training, go in and check 121 experience and I would bet you get called quickly. It's crap pay but I wouldn't expect to do it long...call it an investment in the future. The guy in my interview group that went the regionals had less than 25 hours with the company when was hired. I'm not a retired guy but I went to the regionals as well and had ~100 hours when I got called. Something to consider.
That describes my experience exactly. Are you currently flying? For reasons I don't fully understand or agree with, the airlines place an enormous premium on currency. The guys I've seen hired directly off active duty are those who get their apps in in time to interview while still actively flying. In my case, I waited and did not get the call from the Legacy carrier I'd targeted, or any of the other "destination" airlines I'd applied to. I did get offered a job at two Regionals; fortunately, I also got offered a job at a Major (non-Legacy) in time to wave off my Regional class date. I kept my app updated--and, within two weeks of updating with ~100 hours of 121 time, my phone rang for the interview I'd wanted all along.
No guarantees, and YMMV--but, if you get to the end of your military career and are not flying, I know (and know of) several guys in the same boat as me, where a little 121 time (in addition, of course, to a solid mil resume) went a long way. Good luck.
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Am I alone...?
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Improved by gizoogle.net; suggest using it for your next point paper, and think how much better OPRs could be!
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But I have a 4D cell Mag Light, think it'll fit?
You'll need the BQZip's Mom version for that....
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No, that changed circa 2000.
I think it started with FY 2000.
When it started is spelled out in Note 1 (1 Oct 99, with some caveats re commissioning dates)--so, yes, FY00. I still say that this policy (no add'l ADSC) is tied up with the change to the 10-year commitment, and (going from memory) the original release of the change to the reg corresponded to implementing the 10-year commitment. Why one year prior to taking effect being the cutoff date? Dunno, but I suspect it's got something to do with the FY in which the change was released, and they had to apply a cutoff somewhere--the start of the (then current) FYI seems logical enough....
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I don't know the history behind choosing that particular line in the sand, but applying the post-30 Sep 1997
I believe that's when the 10-year UPT commitment kicked in (as a direct result of the longer ADSC--a trade-off of sorts).
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AFPC's number crunchers are doing a piss poor job
In other news, rain is wet....
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Words fail me.
Why do I think they will end up being used for other than the intended purpose?
http://www.iflscience.com/technology/automatic-sperm-extractor-introduced-chinese-hospital
I had a problem with the link--I couldn't find the order form....
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In that case, your job just got easier. Show the total cost of 2x 1-way car plus local car < full round-trip car. The difference in taxi fare is gravy. (Still include everything; point is, the more direct a comparison you can make, the less hassle IME.)
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B.
Go the "constructed cost" route--show everything that you "could have" claimed via a taxi (fare + tip at a minimum); ideally have something formal to show that taxi fare, such as an advertised flat rate or Finance's own list of typical fares. Then demonstrate that your method and total claimed amount was "advantageous to the government" (i.e., got you there on time, with no additional duty time lost, for less money). Put it in a formal-looking MFR to accompany your voucher.
You may have an uphill climb if there's an approved solution that costs less. You can't be the first guy to have to get to the airport--is there a shuttle, say, that you could've ridden...? How is everyone else doing it?
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But simply deciding by popular opinion "we dont like this so we are out" isnt a protected right.
...and, for those arguing otherwise (and unless I missed something): Are you in the same crowd who refer to that little dust-up in the 1860s as the "War of Northern Aggression"...?? I mean, Holy Non-Starter, Batman!!, you must be arguing to hear the sound of your own voice!
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likely to produce death or grievous bodily harm
Did it do either? I would think this story would have a different slant if it had....
Case of a drunk asshole, or an asshole who happened to be drunk? 17D_guy, you seem to know some details...?
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Hence the reason the $52,000 Traditional TSP limit increase would be helpful in a bonus year, but I don't see how that is possible currently. It looks like AD uniformed servicemembers are limited to $17,500 combined Roth and Traditional TSP.
Not at all true. That's not how it works. I exceeded the elective deferral limit every single year in which I had any CZTE entitlement since inception; one year, I managed to make the limit. Bonus had nothing to do with it.
You cannot "choose" to make an elective deferral ("normal") contribution with tax-exempt money; any such income will go in as tax-exempt and is NOT part of the $17.5K limit. If you contribute more than the difference ($34.5K, i.e., $52K - $17.5K), then your ability to make elective deferral contributions will be reduced, dollar-for-dollar, by the same amount--a VERY bad thing, since you'll have a higher current-year taxable income for the exact same amount put in the TSP. This only matters if you're able to contribute enough to approach these amounts.
Another, possibly easier(?) way to look at it: the $52K limit is an overall limit--the most that can be put in from any source. The $17.5K limit is a subset of that $52K. Any money put toward the $17.5K limit--i.e., elective deferral/"normal" contributions--counts as part of the $52K. Any contributions from any other source (CZTE-generated tax-exempt, in the case of military) does NOT count toward the $17.5K, but could effectively limit or eliminate the elective deferrals if the total will exceed $52K.
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I disagree slightly. Yes, CZTE benefits are enabled by the qualifying month, but the original question was about trying to get the 50% up front bonus payment "tax free" and whether or not that would apply to when the contract was signed or when you received the money. First, its when you get paid the money. Second, you don't pay your taxes based upon month to month, you pay them in a calendar year. So in that case, length of deployment IS important as well as calendar year of the deployment.
But the tax-exempt entitlement IS applied month-to-month. Pick the month that the bonus payment is made. If that month is a CZTE month, then the officer's total (of ordinarily taxable) military income is exempt up to the monthly limit; the rest is taxable. In the case of the major in your example, about $600 bucks (i.e., the difference between the limit & his non-bonus income) of the bonus lump sum would be exempt*, and the balance is taxable--doesn't matter if the month was CZTE for 5 minutes in the airspace or the middle of a continuous 12-month deployment. Your taxable income will include all income from any CZTE month(s) in excess of the officer limit for each month; the taxable income from each month is totaled and reported on your W-2. The bonus (nor any other income) is not "averaged" or otherwise spread across the whole year for determining taxable status wrt CZTE.
Length of deployment, in terms of how many months are CZTE, certainly DOES matter from the point of view of reducing overall taxable income (each month adds to the total exempted), but the lump-sum payment, by definition, happens in a single month.
*You're obviously correct about how total taxable income works on an annual basis. Strictly speaking, "an additional ~$600 of tax exemption would be realized" is a more accurate way of phrasing this; but the question was about "exempting the bonus," so I figured that'd be the clearest way of addressing it....
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It depends.(I recommend deployers up their contributions while deployed since you could theoretically double your annual contribution if you're gone for 6 months)
Me, I'm a fan of getting every penny I can into tax-advantaged retirement accounts, and I did exactly that every single month I deployed from the day they opened up the TSP to the uniformed services--personally, I agree with you.
However, everybody's situation is different. It's important to realize that tax-exempt contributions don't get you any additional current-year tax advantage (it's already tax-exempt), so there may be other investing or savings or even spending strategies that make more sense. It boils down to whether you believe the tax-deferred growth of putting it in the TSP will yield the best long-term results (as I do, and evidently you, too), or if you believe you're better off putting it to work elsewhere. The lack of a (further) current-year reduction in taxable income makes it far less of an imperative.
FIFY. For taxable wages on the W-2, it's all income in the current year (as you said); for CZTE treatment, it's the month (within that year) in which you get paid that matters. A CZTE month can be generated by as little as one day, so length of deployment is irrelevant.You need to get paid and be deployed in the same calendar tax
yearmonth to get CTZE benefits.It will also depend on how long you are deployed in that year.The max enlisted pay amount in 2014 is [...], which is the limit to an officer's tax exemption for that month.Due to the limit on an officer's CZTE, very little (possibly zero) of a lump-sum bonus payment would be exempted.
ETA:
Generally true (IRS rules, not USAF).Turns out there's no way to write a check to TSP, you can only contribute via allotment.
One exception that I've ops checked twice: if you deploy late enough in the month that that month's contribution doesn't get made properly (due to CZTE status not being applied in time), you can "write a check" to pay in the missing contribution. In IRS-speak, that option is allowed when a contribution is not made via the normal payroll deduction due to employer error, which is how the delay in getting CZTE started is treated for this purpose.
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NO!So if you've deployed this year, subtract whatever you contributed while deployed from $17.5K, and that'll give you the amount you can still contribute this year.
Subtract tax-exempt contributions (NOT necessarily the same as total deployed contributions for officers due to CZTE limits mentioned above) from $52K. You can make elective deferral contributions up to that amount, not to exceed $17.5K. In the case of an officer affected by the CZTE limit, the portion of contributions made from non-exempt income is an ordinary elective deferral and is part of that "not to exceed" amount.
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ALSO, whatever you contribute while deployed (tax-free) doesn't count towards your $17.5K annual limit, so if you're thinking ahead, max out your contributions while deployed, since you can't do it retroactively. Things I wish I'd known 1 year ago...And no, I have no idea why they make it that $&@!ing difficult.
Further note, tax-exempt contributions do have a limit ($52K for 2014), and that is shared with the elective deferral limit ($17.5K for 2014). In other words, the total of your tax-exempt & elective deferrals cannot exceed the $52K limit. BL, if you're truly maxing your contributions (and have a high enough tax-exempt income for this to be a factor), be careful not to make more than $34.5K of tax-exempt contributions, or you will lose the ability to make a corresponding amount of elective deferrals (thus paying more tax for the same amount of total TSP contribution).Note that this is only true for traditional contributions, not Roth.
Don't blame the AF or even DoD for it being "$&@!ing difficult"--that's tax law & IRS policy making at work. I doubt CZTE money was originally considered when these various limits were created (the upper limit was designed to limit employer contributions), but that's how they've been applied to the uniformed version of the TSP.
ETA:
Generally true (IRS rules again, not USAF). One exception that I've ops checked twice: if you deploy late enough in the month that that month's contribution doesn't get made properly (due to CZTE status not being applied in time), you can "write a check" to pay in the missing contribution. In IRS-speak, that option is allowed when a contribution is not made via the normal payroll deduction due to employer error, which is how the delay in getting CZTE started is treated for this purpose.one issue I ran into was the only way you can contribute to TSP is via allotment.
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Civil Air Patrol or any ROTC / JROTC unit would also love to have them. Pro tip: CAP is a 501© (correct term?), so you can deduct your donations thereto....
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Is $17,500 the max for the Roth and Standard TSP combined? If I max out my Roth IRA ($5,500) does that mean I need to limit my Roth TSP contributions to $12,000?
Those are two different questions.
IRAs (standard or Roth) have nothing to do with the TSP. Totally separate limits. Your contributions to a Roth IRA affect your contributions to a standard IRA (and vice-versa), since it's a single limit for ALL IRAs--so, NO to your second question.
Your Roth TSP and Standard TSP similarly share a single limit. That limit is also shared by any 401(k) (standard and/or Roth) you may contribute to (say, with your civilian employer the same year you separate)--so, YES to your first question.
Don't let the "Roth" label confuse you. You have two separate limits to worry about: IRAs, and TSP/401(k)/403(b)/etc.
Promotion and PRF Information
in General Discussion
Posted
Well, therein lies the problem--I'm an ORF with no access (let alone any give-a-shit) to AFPC's myriad sites.
I withdraw. Things have evidently changed. Apologies to anyone misled by my comments.