Auto Enrollment Contributions and Refunds Policy

If you need money and want to raid your federal savings plan accounts, a TSP withdrawal (or TSP loan) is not the only option. Under certain conditions, new federal employees may also be able to request a refund of your auto-enrollment contributions.

This is available only for employee contributions made in the first 90 days of the automatic enrollment period. You need to fill in Form TSP-25 (Automatic Enrollment Refund Request) before this 90-day period runs out.

You cannot do this if you make an election to change the contributions in any way. If you do this, it is no longer an automatic enrollment, and you won’t be able to ask for a refund of the contributions.

Impact of TSP Auto Enrollment Contributions Refunds

If you are eligible to seek this refund, TSP will process it and refund you the contributions that were deducted during the automatic enrollment period, along with whatever earnings (or losses) that may have accrued during this period.

Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) employees may lose their matching federal contributions when seeking a refund, but the 1% Agency automatic contributions would still be there.

Those who separate from federal service within the first 90 days after the automatic enrollment, and have an account balance of $200 or more, can also request a refund of the contributions, or opt for a TSP withdrawal.

Separated FERS participants seeking a refund of automatic enrollment contributions will receive their own contributions and Agency Matching Contributions, after factoring in the earnings and losses. They may also be subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty. For separated CSRS participants, there is no early withdrawal tax penalty.

Note that requesting a refund of automatic enrollment contributions doesn’t mean that your agency will stop deducting contributions in future pay periods. If you want to do that, you would have to make a contribution election.

Note that requesting a refund of automatic enrollment contributions doesn’t mean that your agency will stop deducting contributions in future pay periods. If you want to do that, you will have to make a contribution election.