What items aren't Federally taxed in a gov't. employee paycheck.

[liltommy]

My wife is the government employee. I just take care of her TSP and do most of the financial planning.
She's 51 now and I'm trying to figure out final numbers if she was to start making TSP make up contributions.
She has been contributing close to the max for the past 10 years or so.
I currently don't contribute to an IRA and my job doesn't offer a 401k.
We could take a lump sum and drop into my IRA but according to the software tax program, that did very little for out taxes.
I was thinking of just having her start making make up contributions instead of dropping the money in my IRA.

I'm trying to figure out how additional money put into the TSP would affect her take home pay.
Problem is, I'm not exactly sure how much of her paycheck has Federal taxes taken out.
I know the tsp contributions aren't taxed, but after deducting that from her gross the Federal tax isn't working out.

Are there other items on her pay stub that don't get taxed?
She has deductions for FEGLI, OPT FEBLI, FEHBA, and dental plan that I'm not sure about.
Pretty sure I know everything else is taxed though.

Can anybody help?
Thanks.
Tommy

 

[PessOptimist]

TSP contributions are tax deferred wages. Medical premiums such as FEHP, dental insurance or vision insurance are non taxable wages.

PO

 

[exnavyew]

Greetings :smile:,

First I would suggest your wife contact her payroll department for specific answers to federal pay/tax issues. They really should be able to give her exact info and numbers for HER situation.

Here's a federal resource that should be helpful as you march toward retirement.
https://www.fedweek.com/

Best of luck!

 

[liltommy]

TSP contributions are tax deferred wages. Medical premiums such as FEHP, dental insurance or vision insurance are non taxable wages.

PO

Thanks PO. Subtracted those and it now works out. Now I can run my "what if scenarios" correctly.
Doing our taxes I also couldn't figure why wages, and medicare wages differed so much. I see now why.

 

[Jackbnimble]

This is a good post and in my opinion everyone should reconcile their W-2 back to their last L&E statement for the year. Not to catch any errors, which it would, but to understand what makes up the numbers on the boxes of your W-2.

It is also a good practice to run your own "what ifs" throughout the year to make sure you don't under or over withhold.

One more point, any medical or dependent care FSA contributions are not taxed federally. The OP must not have an FSA since his reconciled.