Phased retirement.  On July 6, 2012, the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (also known as MAP-21) was signed into law. Once regulations for the new phased retirement program are effective, the program will allow eligible employees to begin receiving annuity payments while working part-time. For more information, go to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website at www.opm.gov.

Roth Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) balance. You may be able to contribute to a designated Roth account through the TSP known as the Roth TSP. Roth TSP contributions are after-tax contributions, subject to the same contribution limits as the traditional TSP. Qualified distributions from a Roth TSP are not included in your income. See Thrift Savings Plan in Part II for more information.

Future developments. For the latest information about developments related to Publication 721, such as legislation enacted after it was published, go to www.IRS.gov/pub721.

Disaster related tax relief.  Special rules apply to the use of retirement funds by qualified individuals who suffered an economic loss as a result of the severe storms in the Midwestern disaster areas during 2008. See Publication 575, for information on these special rules.

Rollovers. You can roll over certain amounts from the CSRS, FERS, or TSP, to a tax-sheltered annuity plan (403(b) plan) or a state or local government section 457 deferred compensation plan. See Rollover Rules in Part II.

Rollovers by surviving spouse. You may be able to roll over a distribution you receive as the surviving spouse of a deceased employee or retiree into a qualified retirement plan or an IRA. See Rollover Rules in Part II.

Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) beneficiary participant accounts. If you are the spouse beneficiary of a decedent's TSP account, you have the option of leaving the death benefit payment in a TSP account in your own name (a beneficiary participant account). The amounts in the beneficiary participant account are neither taxable or reportable until you choose to make a withdrawal, or otherwise receive a distribution from the account.

Benefits for public safety officer's survivors. A survivor annuity received by the spouse, former spouse, or child of a public safety officer killed in the line of duty generally will be excluded from the recipient's income. For more information, see Dependents of public safety officers in Part IV.

Uniformed services Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) accounts. If you have a uniformed services TSP account, it may include contributions from combat zone pay. This pay is tax-exempt and contributions attributable to that pay are tax-exempt when they are distributed from the uniformed services TSP account. However, any earnings on those contributions are subject to tax when they are distributed. The statement you receive from the TSP will separately state the total amount of your distribution and the amount of your taxable distribution for the year. If you have both a civilian and a uniformed services TSP account, you should apply the rules discussed in this publication separately to each account. You can get more information from the TSP website, www.tsp.gov, or the TSP Service Office.

Photographs of missing children. The Internal Revenue Service is a proud partner with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Photographs of missing children selected by the Center may appear in this publication on pages that would otherwise be blank. You can help bring these children home by looking at the photographs and calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) if you recognize a child.

This publication explains how the federal income tax rules apply to civil service retirement benefits received by retired federal employees (including those disabled) or their survivors. These benefits are paid primarily under the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS).