TSP Installment payment withholding error - HELP!

[James48843]

Just a side note regarding the DATE a monthly distribution is made.

Under the old system, it was shortly after the processing of the form.

Under the new system, they say they will be paying monthly distributions only one day per month- on the 15th of the month.

So if you submit your form on the 16th, they aren’t going to pay out until the 15th of the following month.
That is a big change for some folks. Just keep that in mind.


Sent from my iPhone using TSP Talk Forums

 

[PessOptimist]

FWIW. I finally accepted the default with holding, printed the forms, had them notarized and the credit union faxed them. Then after I saw the transaction at TSP.gov and a few days later when it showed up in the account, I submitted a TSP-99 on line to change the with holding. It required no notary. This was in later 2019.

PO

 

[Rcf3]

One other heads up your withdrawal won't show up on the same day every month. TSP takes it out when they want and your bank will deposit it in your account when they want. A little irritating but it will eventually get there. Good luck!

Got it. My first installment payment processed three days before the deposit hit the bank. That’s fine. At least one thing worked out. It seems my deposits will take place during the end of the month so they will combine nicely with my pension, my wife’s pension, and her 401k withdrawals. It’s good to have these things occur during the same week since that is easier to account for. TSP should really allow one to pick the processing date like most private companies do.

 

[Scout333]

One other heads up your withdrawal won't show up on the same day every month. TSP takes it out when they want and your bank will deposit it in your account when they want. A little irritating but it will eventually get there. Good luck!

 

[Rcf3]

Thanks for sharing your experiences RC. You may help others from the same problems. TSP site has always been a crap shoot from the beginning.:smile:

You are welcome. I will say this for them, once they finally accept the TSP-99 they process it very quickly. From the time they accepted the form (third attempt) to the time payments were scheduled took only four days.

One final (maybe) pet peeve, TSP does not allow you to schedule a date to begin installment payments. It would have been great to schedule them for the first business day of the month to coincide with the OPM annuity. However, TSP schedules your payments based on when they receive and process your form. In short, they decide when you get it and you can only submit the form close to the time you would like the payments to start and hope all goes well.

 

[Scout333]

Thanks for sharing your experiences RC. You may help others from the same problems. TSP site has always been a crap shoot from the beginning.:smile:

 

[Rcf3]

Crazy! Thanks for the follow up.

I think the issues are caused by the ridiculous rule that married people must have their spouse sign the form and have it notarized. Few private companies require this despite the existence of beneficiaries. There is a point in the online request where TSP will not allow direct online submission for those who fit these circumstances. The form must be printed, notarized, and then submitted via upload, fax, or mail. That’s where the fun’s begins!

You guys should do a sticky thread with information about dealing with different TSP issues after separation. Whoever said that getting accurate information when you call TSP is a roll of the dice couldn’t have been more correct. Additionally, the website is glitchy as can be. I wish I would have known the following when first attempting to submit the TSP-99 form:

1. Create the form online
2. If it doesn’t allow you to elect your desired withholding status select no withholding and adjust it after the form is processed, or better yet increase the withholding of your OPM annuity to compensate for no withholding by the TSP.
3. Print the form.
4. DO NOT go back into the the page of the website where you create the form because you can easily cancel it inadvertently and the paper version will be rejected by the TSP.
5. Have the form notarized.
6. Forget uploading the form, as of this writing the site will reject it 99% of the time.
7. Fax the form to the TSP. If you don’t own a fax machine you can easily scan the form with your cellphone and download a fax app to get the job done.
8. Definitely follow up with a phone call the next day to make sure your form was accepted.

 

[tsptalk]

Crazy! Thanks for the follow up.

 

[Rcf3]

I guess they want you to keep your money where it is. :notrust:

Right? By the way, one more for the books. When I spoke to the rep yesterday I mentioned that is was my understanding that once the TSP-99 was finally received I would be getting a text confirming that fact, at least so I had been told by another rep. She told me I had been misinformed because the confirmation would appear on the website message center. This morning… you guessed it… I received a text. There are no messages in the message center. Calling the TSP is like asking two lawyers a question… you will get four opinions!

in any case, it looks like my request has finally been accepted and it is being processed. It only took three attempts, five phone calls, several hours on the website, and two different notarizations. My wife has her 401(k) with a private company and dealing with them is a pleasure. Smooth as can be. Sheesh!

 

[evilanne]

LOL:lmao:

Brings back memories...I think one of my forms. was rejected because of the date and an extraneous mark from the pen (be careful of what type of pen you use on the form) not being readable on the notarized form...but back then we didn't have upload option. They don't call you when they reject. it either, they send you a letter. You have to keep calling them daily to make sure it gets processed.

Tom may be right about them intentionally making it difficult to withdraw anything from TSP

Make sure your withholding amount is enough to cover you for a while or plan on using another method to pay taxes so you don't have to go through this again any time soon!

Not looking forward to calling them about the change in life expectancy table. Wish me luck.

 

[tsptalk]

I guess they want you to keep your money where it is. :notrust:

 

[Rcf3]

ANY time you 'upload' a form (PDF, Word, Spreadsheet, whatever) to an 'automated' system implies the process is an analog one in a digital world.

They have some stupid OCR garbage 'reading' your form and dumping what it thinks it is reading into a database field. You DO NOT want to have that done. Have you had to do that with your bank, with Amazon, or even your favorite 'adult' site. Nope. Just bozo gubmint sites.

My suggestion is to just muck with the withholding numbers till you get what you want. If you actually type a value into a screen field it will be saved as that value into the database. Nothing/Nobody is attempting to read a number off a picture - which is really what your form is.

The saga continues in my plight to submit my TSP-99. If you will recall, this thing began with the TSP site not allowing me to select an additional amount of federal tax withholding and furthermore rejecting the upload of my form despite the fact it met all the requirements. I was told by two TSP representatives that they had been having trouble with the uploads so I put the form in the regular mail. Two days later I decided to call the TSP to find out about the process going forward. It was at that point that I was told the form that I had created online had been canceled and therefore the form in the mail would be rejected. I was told that I must have inadvertently canceled the form. I didn’t, but whatever! I was now advised I needed to create a second form online, have it notarized again, and this time it was suggested that I fax the form due to the ongoing upload issues. I did just that and the next day I called to determine if the fax had been received. I was told that only two of the three relevant pages had been received so the form had been rejected. I would have to fax the form again. This time the TSP representative I spoke to seemed completely surprised to learn that the upload capability had been glitchy of late. This despite the fact two of her predecessors had told me it was a well-known problem. I have now faxed the form again. This makes the third time in a week that I have attempted to submit the TSP-99. I have my fingers crossed but I’m not getting my hopes up! If this latest fax goes wrong I may fly to Birmingham and hand them the form myself!

 

[Rcf3]

I dunno... In my "deep dig" I never saw a specified dpi, so maybe I am looking at something different, but I was on TSP site and had to upload document about 3 weeks ago. I was about to give up but figured that unreadable might mean quality if scan was not high enough for them. Somehow it worked! :dunno:

It’s there. I was also told personally by their rep that it had to be at least 300dpi. Famous last words, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. Lol.

 

[DreamboatAnnie]

So the TSP upload instructions state they want 300dpi, won’t accept my 600dpi, and ultimately accepts your 1200dpi. Like I said, typical government operation ��

I dunno... In my "deep dig" I never saw a specified dpi, so maybe I am looking at something different, but I was on TSP site and had to upload document about 3 weeks ago. I was about to give up but figured that unreadable might mean quality if scan was not high enough for them. Somehow it worked! :dunno:

 

[Boghie]

ANY time you 'upload' a form (PDF, Word, Spreadsheet, whatever) to an 'automated' system implies the process is an analog one in a digital world.

They have some stupid OCR garbage 'reading' your form and dumping what it thinks it is reading into a database field. You DO NOT want to have that done. Have you had to do that with your bank, with Amazon, or even your favorite 'adult' site. Nope. Just bozo gubmint sites.

My suggestion is to just muck with the withholding numbers till you get what you want. If you actually type a value into a screen field it will be saved as that value into the database. Nothing/Nobody is attempting to read a number off a picture - which is really what your form is.

 

[Rcf3]

I had recent issue with form upload not being processed, and error msg said it was not readable. I read fine print on their site (was at end of long set of instructions) and found that fir upload document must be black and white and high quality.

So to ensure "high quality" and "clear and readable", custom set your scanner to the highest dpi (I used 1200 x 1200 dpi) for documents, scanned into single document, and then confirmed overall file size met the maximum. I think it was 20M limit. If just a few pages, it should come nowhere near the per document limit. At this dpi level, it accepted my two-page, single file upload.

So the TSP upload instructions state they want 300dpi, won’t accept my 600dpi, and ultimately accepts your 1200dpi. Like I said, typical government operation

 

[DreamboatAnnie]

I had recent issue with form upload not being processed, and error msg said it was not readable. I read fine print on their site (was at end of long set of instructions) and found that fir upload document must be black and white and high quality.

So to ensure "high quality" and "clear and readable", custom set your scanner to the highest dpi (I used 1200 x 1200 dpi) for documents, scanned into single document, and then confirmed overall file size met the maximum. I think it was 20M limit. If just a few pages, it should come nowhere near the per document limit. At this dpi level, it accepted my two-page, single file upload.

 

[Rcf3]

The TSP is such a nightmare to work with, but that's a new one (having your online submittal of the form to change your installment payments rejected). I haven't had that happen (yet).

I second the prior suggestions to simply have zero taxes taken out of your TSP monthly payments, then just adjust the tax withheld from your OPM annuity as needed. That's easier to do (no silly notarized forms etc.), though my wife and I both just experienced a glitch with that too when in early December we both changed our withholding amount for our January 1st annuity payments, and the new amount shown online was correct, but then OPM got the amount wrong... the amount withheld was a few dollars less than what we'd changed it to for BOTH of our annuities. Now I see that the statement is online for the 2/1 payment, and it's going to be correct next time, I hope. It's so aggravating that these simple things get messed up. In the case of the OPM error, I tried calling...gave up after 45 minutes...sent them an email, and it's now been 4 weeks and they never replied...and also submitted a question via their online "contact us" link...a month later, no reply!

I also have a small business that I pay federal estimated taxes on, so I can make adjustments that way with the quarterly estimated payments.

RE the withholding, that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

RE the TSP site upload rejection, I was told by their rep to scan my form into PDF format in black and white at 300 dpi+. I scanned at 600 dpi and the site rejected it as not readable. Nonsense, but I’m starting to see the quirks in the system. I’ve been retired for five years and had yet to deal with the TSP, but my wife just retired and we want to withdraw some small monthly installments so we can use the money to travel. Who knew it would be so frustrating?

 

[Tsunami]

The TSP is such a nightmare to work with, but that's a new one (having your online submittal of the form to change your installment payments rejected). I haven't had that happen (yet).

I second the prior suggestions to simply have zero taxes taken out of your TSP monthly payments, then just adjust the tax withheld from your OPM annuity as needed. That's easier to do (no silly notarized forms etc.), though my wife and I both just experienced a glitch with that too when in early December we both changed our withholding amount for our January 1st annuity payments, and the new amount shown online was correct, but then OPM got the amount wrong... the amount withheld was a few dollars less than what we'd changed it to for BOTH of our annuities. Now I see that the statement is online for the 2/1 payment, and it's going to be correct next time, I hope. It's so aggravating that these simple things get messed up. In the case of the OPM error, I tried calling...gave up after 45 minutes...sent them an email, and it's now been 4 weeks and they never replied...and also submitted a question via their online "contact us" link...a month later, no reply!

I also have a small business that I pay federal estimated taxes on, so I can make adjustments that way with the quarterly estimated payments.

 

[Rcf3]

Thank you for all the replies. To say that the TSP website is a little glitchy is a huge understatement. After dozens of attempts to enter the withholding amount I want for the installment payments I finally decided to select no withholding and change the amount after processing. I printed the prefilled TSP-99 so I could have it notarized and then submit it by uploading it to the website. Despite the fact that my scanned form met all the requirements for the upload the form was rejected numerous times. I ultimately had to snail mail the form.

The TSP is definitely a government operation! Dealing with the disfunction reminded me of the IT systems back at my old job!