• Because of a decline in living costs during the past 12 months (not the calendar year), federal-military-Social Security retirees who got a 5.8 percent cost-of-living adjustment last January will not get any COLA increase next January.

• Health-insurance premiums covering 9 million members of the civilian federal family are going up an average of 8.8 percent next year. Before you decide to end it all, remember the word "average" may not apply to you or yours.

On the surface the situation looks bad. A 2 percent raise for a GS-10 employee at the $50,000 level or a long-time GS-15 being paid $153,200 will overcome higher health premiums with money left to spare. But for a lower-level fed making $25,000 a year before many, many deductions, the health premium increase could hurt — if you are "average."

Whether you are high-level or in a lower grade, and whether you are getting a pay raise or not getting a COLA, the message is the same: You have to shop around during the open enrollment period that starts early next month.

Shopping for the best health plan deal is always important in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program. But this year — with a very low raise and a zero COLA — is it essential.

Here's why.

Not all health-plan premiums are going up next year. Most federal workers in the Washington area, for example, are eligible to join 10 or more fee-for-service health plans with nationwide coverage. They also can choose from among a dozen or more local health maintenance organizations, which often charge lower premiums.

Not all of those plans are raising premiums. A few are holding the line. A couple are actually reducing biweekly premiums.

One of the beauties of the federal health program is that eligibles can switch from plan to plan each year in pursuit of specific benefits and/or lower premiums. People cannot be rejected for any reason. Also, they cannot be denied coverage because of age or pre-existing condition. Workers and retirees can also change plans anytime if they get married, divorced or have or adopt a child or if they have HMO coverage and move to a different geographic area.

In the event that a fed or retiree (or survivor) approaches the catastrophic limit for his existing plan, he can simply switch to another plan where the countdown begins at zero.

Most people — including the folks who work up the averages — concentrate on the Blue Cross-Blue Shield plans, for good reason. Sixty percent of the enrollees in the FEHBP are in one of the Blue Cross options, mostly in the standard option.

Many Blue Cross enrollees are retirees who have been with the plan for years. Retiree health costs are significantly higher, as a group, than those of younger workers. That has a major impact on the size of any premium increase for any plan, but especially the Blues family.

Next year, for example, the total premium for the Blues' standard self-only plan will be $248.42 biweekly, of which the federal government (the employees agency) will pay the lion's share, or $167.61. That means the increase to a single fed or retiree in that plan will be $10.63 every two weeks.

By contrast, the high-option benefit plan offered by GEHA (Government Employees Hospital Association) is cutting premiums next year. The bottom line is that people who enroll in self-only coverage will pay $11.95 per pay period less next year than they are paying today. GEHA's family plan will cut premiums by 72 cents every two weeks. GEHAs' standard option single and family plans are going up only $2.75 and $6.24 respectively.

The upcoming open season — Nov. 9 through Dec. 14 — isn't only about shopping for health plans. During that time, the Office of Personnel Management says you can also:

• Enroll in a flexible spending account — a health care and/or dependent care account, under the FSAFEDS Program. Unlike with other programs, employeesmust re-enroll in FSAFEDS each year to participate. Enrollments do not carry over year to year.

• Enroll in, change, or cancel an existing enrollment in a dental plan under the FEDVIP Program.

• Enroll in, change, or cancel an existing enrollment in a vision plan under the FEDVIP Program.

• Enroll in, change or cancel an existing enrollment in a health plan under the FEHB Program.

Benefit changes, if any, will be announced later on but in plenty of time for the open enrollment period. Some of the plans will put more emphasis on health, wellness and preventive medicine. There is speculation that some plans may offer coverage (at a price) for children over 22.

Meantime, do the math. And try to avoid being "average."

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STRUCTURAL DESIGN

The design of the spreadsheet's structure is one of the most important mechanisms to ensure its success — both in the short term and well into the future. One of the biggest risks with spreadsheet models is the "Black Box Effect," when only the original author knows how it works, can make changes, or even run it correctly. In today's business world, job responsibilities change with the wind, and people come and go. Even if the analyst who inherits the model is an "Excel guru" and claims to have it figured out, if it was not well-structured in the first place then something has likely been overlooked. Everything seems fine, decisions are being made based upon the model's output, but no one realizes that the "Excel guru" didn't update a key data input or formula or piece of visual basic for applications code. Millions of dollars are secretly being misallocated via incorrect decisions — directly the result of modeling errors that would have otherwise been preventable by correct structural design.

How does one achieve correct structural design? Interestingly enough, it starts with a simple mind-set. Instead of building spreadsheet as if building it for oneself, users should build them as if they were building it for someone else. Spreadsheets should be intuitive. If it's not clear to anyone who uses it, exactly what data inputs are needed, and where they need to be entered without missing any single input requirement, then the spreadsheet model will ultimately fail.

The key ingredient in following through on this mind-set is to design the spreadsheet with a user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI). Essentially, this is a menu page worksheet that allows the user to click on icons and buttons to navigate to where they want to go — data input sections, results sections, or model administrator sections. Instead of relying on finding the right worksheet tab to click on at the bottom of the workbook, the user can easily click on the corresponding button on the menu page. Depending on the complexity of the spreadsheet model, there can be 10, 20, 30, or more individual worksheets, and thus worksheet tabs. It can be incredibly difficult for a user to figure out which ones they need to click on to get to the right place, and then to which section within the selected worksheet. With a GUI menu page, the worksheets and data ranges can be organized and categorized intuitively so that it is clear to the user what to click on. At the same time, users will know every data input section that needs to be updated, because each input section is right in front of their eyes on the menu page. As a result, it is far less likely that something will be missed.

CALCULATION FORMULAS

One of the biggest integrity risks in spreadsheet models and reports, and one that should cause many a restless night for internal auditors, is the lack of control in the core engine of a spreadsheet — the formulas that calculate the end results. There are four primary deficiencies that the vast majority of spreadsheet model authors fall victim to.

Fixed-value Formulas A formula should never contain a fixed ("hard-coded") value. Yet, a deep look into almost every spreadsheet model or report — even those built by internal "Excel gurus" — invariably contains these types of ticking time bombs. Any built-in factor will at some point change, and when it does, the spreadsheet model will produce incorrect results, leading to bad decisions. Even seemingly "permanently" fixed components, such as time, can change within the context of business operations. For example, multiplying a daily production number cell reference by a fixed five days within a formula to calculate the week's production is flawed and incorporates unnecessary risk. What if the business expands and the work week is extended to a seven-day production schedule? Then the calculated results are incorrect.

Preventing these types of mistakes is simple: Separate the input components from the formulas. When all components are placed into a separate data input section, the spreadsheet model analyst can easily see what inputs and assumptions need to be entered or updated, and then can do so easily.

The bottom line is that things change and formulas need to be flexible to isolate the components of potential change. It cannot be assumed that the spreadsheet analyst will remember to go back and change all of the impacted formulas if a fixed value formula's data component changes. Even if the analyst does remember, he or she may miss a formula or a block of formulas. This cumbersome review would take an enormous amount of time, even if it were done without any mistakes.

Lack of Columnar or Row Consistency Spreadsheet model authors often take shortcuts by creating formulas that are different across similar types of columns. For example, in a spreadsheet with months across the top of the sheet in columns the author might reference a different input for each year. As soon as a change is made or years are added at a later time, the analyst might forget that each year's formulas are different, and as a result make a change in the first column's formula and mistakenly copy the modified formula across all columns to the right, making all of the years reference the year-one input. If the model owner changes, the likelihood of this mistake happening increases exponentially. To prevent this, all the columns should contain the exact same formula. The formula itself should contain the internal logic to look up the corresponding year's input and apply it accordingly.

No Protection One of the most dangerous risks to a spreadsheet model or a report's integrity — and perhaps the easiest to address — is worksheet protection. As a default, Excel locks all cells in a spreadsheet. However, to make this take effect, the worksheet itself must be protected. Data input cells should be unlocked so that a user can enter and change data input assumptions. All other cells — especially formula cells — must be kept locked. When the model or report is completed and in use (i.e., development is finished), each worksheet within the workbook should be password protected so that formulas cannot be accidentally deleted or modified, and rows and columns cannot be inserted, which in effect could destroy the integrity of the spreadsheet model.

No Intrinsic Error Checks Even with thoughtful and careful calculation formula writing and subsequent quality control testing, there will be times when errors occur that only manifest themselves in certain situations. An error in one particular formula may be triggered only in certain circumstances, yet cause the model to produce incorrect results. In such a case, the dormant error occurs at some point after the quality control checks have already been completed, and as a result, the model produces incorrect results that may never be discovered.

To control for this type of error and prevent its occurrence, a spreadsheet model or report should contain intrinsic error checks within the model itself as a way for the model to, in effect, internally audit itself. Essentially, these error checks are formulas that are written and placed at various key points throughout the spreadsheet to check that various results match the intended result. They can automatically check if numbers that are supposed to add up to 100 percent do not, if the sum of the parts does not equal the whole, if a result is a negative number, or if a result exceeds a certain unreasonable predefined threshold. If any of these errors occur, a flag is triggered. A related process consolidates the status of these error checks and one quick glance in a very visible part of the spreadsheet model tells the user if there is a problem.

These types of continuous and self-auditing devices can be — and depending on the model complexity and value to the organization, should be — expanded upon far beyond the preceding simplistic examples. Automated pop-up or e-mail alerts can be used to prevent the user from accessing the results until errors are corrected and can alert a systems administrator so that the error occurrences are immediately transparent throughout the organization.

DATA INPUTS

The old adage, "Garbage in, garbage out," applies to data inputs. A model is only as good as the data that feeds it. Even if all other aspects of a spreadsheet model are robustly controlled, an end user still can make a typo and enter the data input incorrectly. Similarly, users can misunderstand the type or format of the data that is desired, thereby making an incorrect entry for which the model depends.

Even though these types of end-user errors can occur, there are specific mechanisms that can be incorporated into a spreadsheet model to greatly reduce the likelihood of their occurrence. The three primary categories of these types of end-user error control mechanisms include:

Data Validation Checks Each data input cell in a spreadsheet can be set such that only certain types of data or ranges of data are allowed to be entered. Otherwise a customizable warning message appears, and the user is alerted to the problem so that he or she may retry under the pre-established constraints. For example, a data input cell can be limited to only allow positive numbers, whole numbers (integers), dates, times, percentages, or inputs within a specified range.
Data Entry Controls There are many types of data inputs that lend themselves to using data entry control objects such as option buttons, check boxes, list boxes, and drop-down combo list boxes. These types of tools are an excellent way to improve ease-of-use, and more importantly, to further prevent end-user data entry error. For example, the option button allows for specific answers such as "yes" or "no" without risk of typos that will lead to error messages. Also, slider controls allow entries within a specified range while forcing the user to visually focus on the relative position — thus 40 percent won't be confused with four percent, even when both answers would pass the data validation check.
Explanatory Features Some data input labels are very clear about what specific information is required, such as "Sales Units (thousands)." However, many types of data inputs are less intuitive to a potential user. An example might be "Marginal Income Tax Rate (%)." The model author might have intended for the user to enter a consolidated rate of federal, state, and local taxes, but the user might have only assumed federal. The result is a data input error that might result in a bad investment decision.
There are several ways to avoid this type of user confusion. All operate under the same premise, which is to give the user plenty of explanation and information as to exactly what data is called for. An inserted comment or data validation can be used to add an explanatory note. In cases where an in-depth or overt explanation is required, it is better to add a help button next to the data input cell. A custom-created help button is an effective way to provide valuable information to the user, demonstrate examples, and direct the user to additional resources if further help is needed. It also makes the option of getting helpful information much more apparent, because the help button is prominently displayed.

All in all, these types of explanatory features are vital to correct spreadsheet model usage. If users clearly understand what data is needed, then there is a far greater chance that the correct data will be entered, and the model will produce the correct results.

IMPLEMENTING BEST PRACTICES

Spreadsheets provide unparalleled flexibility and power in analyzing, reporting, enhancing, and optimizing performance and decision-making processes throughout an organization. Their potential value is near limitless. However, if not designed and constructed correctly, spreadsheets can pose tremendous risks by generating incorrect information and leading to poor decisions. Fortunately, these risks can be virtually eliminated by following appropriate design and development practices.

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The AGA
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Too often, a flurry of legislative activity can overwhelm taxpayers and their advisers with new provisions. Typically, the taxing authorities need time to develop summaries and guidelines for newly enacted laws. As a result, taxpayers who could benefit from the deductions and credits might not be aware of them, in some cases missing out on substantial savings. Here are five recent federal provisions expanded or extended by the EESA and the ARRA that should be of interest to builders, architects and anyone in the market for a new building or thinking about retrofitting one for energy savings. These are by no means all the tax incentives for energy-efficient building or remodeling even in these two acts. The EESA extended a number of provisions of the landmark Energy Policy Act of 2005. Among the ESA’s provisions were those providing for 50% bonus depreciation on equipment and more funding for the low-income home energy assistance program. HATA requires states to consider energy efficiency in low-income housing when allocating available tax credits to those projects.

ENERGY-EFFICIENT COMMERCIAL BUILDING DEDUCTION

For commercial buildings, IRC § 179D provides a deduction of up to $1.80 per square foot for energy-efficient features of the building’s construction or retrofit. The taxpayer must secure an analysis by a qualified person (defined as a professional engineer or contractor licensed in the jurisdiction where the real estate is located) who must use software prescribed by the IRS. This deduction is effectively an acceleration of depreciation deductions that would have otherwise been spread over a 39-year recovery life, and reduces tax basis accordingly.

This incentive was originally enacted as part of the Energy Tax Policy Act of 2005 (PL 109-58), but was largely overlooked by tax advisers because of its original expiration date of Dec. 31, 2007, for buildings placed in service after Dec. 31, 2005. It was extended an additional year by the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006 (PL 109-432) and then until the end of 2013 by the EESA. Qualifying commercial buildings can include multifamily residential structures so long as they have more than three stories above grade.

Three primary building components are analyzed to determine the qualifying credit, with each available for a deduction of 60 cents per square foot:

Interior lighting systems
HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems
Building envelope (defined as the outer shell used to protect the indoor environment as well as to facilitate its climate control)

In each case, the analysis considers the extent to which the construction of the building provides energy consumption reductions from the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) 90.1-2001 baseline (as in effect April 2, 2003), which is a widely used industry standard. Since the majority of states’ standard building codes are based on the subsequently developed ASHRAE 90.1-2004 or later iterations, virtually all buildings in these states will qualify for some or all of the deduction, even if built to only the minimum standards. Engineers use a modeling guideline promulgated by the U.S. Department of Energy. The study, which must include a signed certification, is not attached to the taxpayer’s return but is instead maintained in the taxpayer’s file for future documentation in case of an IRS inquiry or examination.

An interesting application of this benefit occurs when the building is owned by a government, school or municipality. Since Congress’ intent was to encourage energy-conscious construction, and many energy-efficient buildings across the country are owned by government agencies (which of course do not pay taxes), there was concern that the impact of the incentive would be dramatically reduced since it was not useful for these properties. To address this concern, Congress made the unusual decision to allow the building designer (typically the architect) to take the deduction, even though the designer has no ownership interest in the property. In this case, the deduction is particularly valuable, since no basis reduction is required. The building owner must approve the choice of the designer in writing.

The IRS has released further guidance in notices 2006-52 and 2008-40. The ARRA increased the carryback of net operating losses to up to five years for certain small businesses, so this deduction could provide an immediate cash benefit even if the current economic downturn has reduced or eliminated profitability in the current tax year.

NEW ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOME CREDIT

Although this incentive is scheduled to sunset at the end of this year, IRC § 45L has since August 2005 allowed eligible contractors that construct new energy-efficient homes to claim a federal tax credit of $2,000 for each new home they sell. A qualified energy-efficient home is one that is certified to consume at least 50% less energy for heating and cooling than that of a comparable home constructed in accordance with the standards of section 404 of the 2004 Supplement to the 2003 International Energy Conservation Code (2004 Supplement), and to have building envelope component improvements that provide for a level of heating and cooling energy consumption that is at least 10% below that of a comparable home. In addition to meeting these requirements, manufactured homes must also meet the Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards (24 CFR part 3280). A reduced credit of $1,000 is also available for manufactured homes that meet certain lower standards.

The intent is to encourage builders to invest more in these efficiencies by allowing them to offset some or all of the cost through the credit. Since the credit is per qualifying home, this can add up to a sizable tax benefit. In addition, of course, homeowners will realize monthly savings on energy bills, and probably higher home values, as a result of these enhancements to the property.

As with the section 179D deduction, the certification is made by a licensed professional engineer or a contractor who is unrelated to the homebuilder or manufacturer. Many homebuilders who build in accordance with Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards will qualify for this credit, and others who might not qualify could do so with relatively minor construction changes. LEED was developed by the U.S. Green Building Council for rating a building’s site design, water and energy conservation, use of environmentally friendly materials and other criteria. The certification must come from an individual certified by the Residential Energy Services Network (or an equivalent rating network) to conduct these studies, using software approved by the IRS for this purpose. As with the section 179D deduction outlined above, this certification is not attached to the tax return but is maintained in the taxpayer’s files in case the IRS conducts an inquiry or examination.

These provisions are outlined in IRC § 45L, and further guidance is provided in IRS Notice 2006-27. The credit coordinates with the other components of the general business tax credit under section 38 and reduces the taxpayer’s basis in the building. Unused current-year credits may be carried back one year or forward up to 20 years. Although this credit is set to sunset at the end of this year, others were extended through 2010 and in some cases expanded by the ARRA. Among these is the section 25C residential building improvement credit available to homeowners.

SECTION 25C RESIDENTIAL HOME IMPROVEMENT CREDIT

For 2009 and 2010, this credit is expanded from 10% to 30% of qualifying improvements, with a lifetime cap per taxpayer of $1,500. Prior credits claimed under similar rules in effect before 2009 do not reduce this credit.

Qualifying improvements include installing insulation materials, exterior windows (including skylights), exterior doors, central air conditioners, natural gas, propane or oil water heaters or furnaces, hot water boilers, electric heat pump water heaters, certain metal roofs and stoves, and advanced main air circulating fans. These improvements qualify only if made to existing homes. The improvements must meet certain efficiency guidelines published by the IRS (see especially an interim guidance update, Notice 2009-53, issued June 1, 2009), and the vendor will typically be able to determine if an item qualifies.

SECTION 25D RESIDENTIAL CREDIT FOR CERTAIN ENERGY-EFFICIENT ITEMS

Another ARRA amendment allows increased credits for installing state-of-the-art energy- efficient systems in new or existing homes through 2016. A 30% tax credit is available for geothermal heat pumps, solar panels, solar water heaters, small wind energy systems and fuel cells (IRC § 25D). The credit applies to the cost of labor and installation as well as the cost of the equipment. Except for fuel cell credits, which qualify only if made to an existing principal residence, these credits are also available for improvements to rental properties and second homes. There is no cap on the amount of credit that can be claimed. IRS Form 5695, Residential Energy Efficient Property Credit, has been developed to assist taxpayers with claiming this credit. See also interim guidance in Notice 2009-41, issued April 22, 2009.

ACCELERATED DEPRECIATION FOR "SMART" ELECTRICAL SYSTEMS

The EESA amended the IRC § 168 MACRS (modified accelerated cost recovery system) provisions to assign a 10-year recovery period to qualified “smart” electric meters and grid systems (section 168(e)(3)(D)(iii) and (iv)). Otherwise, electrical transmission and distribution equipment and related land improvements generally are 20-year property. The property must have been placed in service after Oct. 3, 2008. The taxpayer realizing the enhanced depreciation, of course, is generally an electrical utility. But smart meters can benefit electric customers as well (see sidebar, “Smarter Electric Power,” below).

On behalf of their clients, particularly those in construction trades, CPAs can review these federal provisions as well as state and local ones in their jurisdiction. Often, the local or state taxing authority will be helpful for gaining a full understanding of additional tax incentives, in addition to providing information regarding any loan or grant incentives that might be available.

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All branches of the military services can provision servers through RACE for their production-ready applications. The applications that are best served by that environment are lighter ones that could run easily in a standard Microsoft Windows or Linux environment. Convoy control systems, satellite controls or even smaller command-and-control systems would work well. "It would almost be the same sort of applications that you would [deploy] within a commercial hosting company," Sienkiewicz said.

One advantage that DISA offers over commercial hosting companies is its familiarity with meeting defense security standards. In the new environment, accreditation for production systems takes only about 40 days, or about half the time it normally takes to get a new system audited and accredited for military use, Sienkiewicz said.

The agency has assembled a package for users called Pathway to Production, which includes integration with the Defense Department's Vulnerability Management System, the Enterprise Mission Assurance Support Service (eMASS) and associated documentation. DISA has also prepared the virtual environment to conform as closely as possible to the DOD Information Assurance Certification and Accreditation Process and the DISA Security Technical Implementation Guides.

DISA officials hope to cut more time from the accreditation process by further integrating RACE with eMASS and other accreditation processes. Users can also save time by developing applications right in the RACE testing environment.

"Applications developed in the RACE testing environment inherit all the information assurance controls in the production environment, and that streamlines a great deal of human intervention," which shortens accreditation time, Sienkiewicz said.

The service offers Windows Server and standard Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP stacks. The basic service runs $1,200 per month per server. Users can provision up to 1T of storage. The provisioned servers will be accessible via the Unclassified but Sensitive IP Router Network and, beginning in the second quarter of fiscal 2010, the Secret IP Router Network.

Although DISA is using virtualization to maximize server use, end users do not need expertise in virtualization management. To them, the service appears as "a preloaded, preconfigured server," Sienkiewicz said.

Once commissioned, virtual servers can be operational within 72 hours, and agency officials hope to shorten that time to less than 24 hours. The agency has maintained an uptime of 99.999 percent with its hosted offerings and plans to offer that level of service to RACE users, Sienkiewicz said.

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Here's what else you should know:

You can apply as early as 62.
You can apply at your full retirement age, somewhere between 65 and 67.
You can apply for delayed credits as late as age 70.
Or, you can apply anywhere in between.

You can receive only one benefit at a time, but it is possible that more than one person can receive benefits based on your work record. Whether people can receive a benefit from you depends on:

If you have a former spouse, the number of years you were married.
Whether you are currently married.
Whether you have any dependent children.

Terms and Conditions

Before we look at some specific examples of how the Social Security benefits process plays out, here are a few important pieces of terminology to understand.

Full Retirement Age. It can be from 65 to 67. Here's how to figure out yours.
Primary Insurance Amount. This is the benefit a person would receive at full retirement age, without reductions for early retirement or increases for delayed retirement. Social Security has more complete definition and offers a fact sheet on how benefits are calculated.
Reductions. You can apply for Social Security retirement any time between 62 and your full retirement age. But if you start receiving benefits early, they will be reduced by a fraction of a percent for each month before your full retirement age. This also applies to the benefit you might be applying for on your spouse's work record. People born in 1960 or later will have a greater reduction than those born earlier. Here's a chart showing the reduction.
Delayed Credits. Social Security benefits are increased by a certain percentage if you delay your retirement beyond your full retirement age. Here's something that's a little quirky: This delayed credit does not apply to a spouse's benefit, but it can be included in a widow's amount. Here's more information. Because of the increase in the full retirement age from 65 to 67, the delayed credits provide a bigger increase to those born in 1937 than they do for people born in 1960 or later. Here's a chart explaining how it works.

Now let's look at a few scenarios to get you thinking about your options.

Two Income Couple; Both Covered by Social Security

At their full retirement age, Pat and Joe each will qualify for $1,800 per month in Social Security retirement benefits. Pat retired at 62 and decided to file early, so her benefit will be reduced by 25 percent to $1,350. Joe is 66 and has decided to apply for spousal benefits via Pat instead of on his own. He will receive $900 per month -- 50 percent of his wife's primary insurance amount. He then will apply for his own Social Security benefit at 70 to take advantage of delayed retirement credits. That will boost his monthly benefit to $2,376 -- a 32 percent increase during the four years between 66 and 70. He must be clear when he applies for Social Security at 66 that he is applying only for the spousal benefit.

One Income Couple Covered by Social Security

Jeff's wife, Annemarie, is 62 and doesn't work outside the home. He is at his full retirement age for Social Security -- 66 -- but wants to continue working. Jeff can apply for his own benefit, but also can request that it be suspended until he reapplies later to receive the delayed credits. Once Jeff applies for his benefit, Annemarie can apply for a spousal benefit. Since she is only 62, she will be entitled to 32.5 percent of Jeff's primary insurance amount. He is entitled to $2,000 per month, so she will receive $650 a month. At 70, Jeff can begin receiving his benefit with delayed retirement credits, and it will go up to $2,640.

Former Spouse

Suppose in the above example Jeff has a former spouse to whom he was married for more than 10 years. Lucy, the former spouse, has never remarried. She is the same age as Jeff and can file for benefits on his work record even before he files for his own. Since Lucy worked at lower wages, her own benefit at her full retirement age is only $500 per month. She can file for 50 percent of Jeff's $2,000. If she applies early, her benefit will be reduced whether she applies for her own or the one her ex-husband earned for her. If she has a more substantial benefit on her own, she also could use the strategy outlined in the two-income couple mentioned above. The fact that Lucy is eligible for benefits on Jeff's work record does not affect the right of his current spouse to collect her spousal benefit.

Widow

Widows can apply for benefits as early as 60 (50 if they are disabled). Starting at 62, they can choose between the widow's benefit or the benefit based on their own work record. If a widow applies earlier than full retirement age, the benefit received will be between 71.5 percent and 99 percent of the full benefit of the deceased spouse's. Widows at the full retirement age or older are entitled to 100 percent of the deceased spouse's benefit -- even if they applied for their own benefit early. This rule also applies to former spouses who were married for at least 10 years to a worker who is now deceased.

CSRS Wife Married to FERS Husband

Georgia has earned only 12 credits of Social Security coverage. She has been a federal employee since she was 19 and has been exempt from the FICA tax during her career. When she retired from government at 58, she worked part time for awhile, but does not have enough credits to qualify for her own Social Security retirement benefit. Her husband, Andy, 66, is retired and receiving his Social Security benefit. Georgia also is now 66 and would like to apply for spousal benefits based on Andy's work record. Ordinarily, she would be entitled to 50 percent of his $2,000 benefit. But she will be affected by the Government Pension Offset because she is receiving $3,000 per month in CSRS retirement benefits. In fact, her entitlement to the $1,000 per month Social Security spousal benefit will be offset by $2,000 (two-thirds of $3,000), so she won't be able to receive any spousal benefits. If Andy dies before her and she becomes entitled to the full $2,000 widow's amount, she still will be subject to the two-thirds offset, meaning she won't receive any widow's benefit.

The Big Do-Over

Bryan has been collecting his Social Security benefit since he was 62. Now, at 70, he receives $13,250 a year. He has decided to withdraw his original application so he can reapply for the delayed credits. He will have to pay back $94,556 that he has already received, but his new annual benefit will now be $20,693 a year. With the $7,443 increase, he will recover the redeposit amount and break even at about 83. When Social Security computes the amount of the payback, it doesn't include interest due. Bryan also can recover the taxes paid on the previously received benefits by filing with the Internal Revenue Service for a tax credit or deduction. The delayed credits also can boost the amount payable to a widow, even though they don't help the spouse of someone who is still living. In other words, if Bryan happens to die at 78, his widow could continue receiving the $20,693 benefit if it is higher than the benefit she is receiving on her own record and she is at least her full retirement age.

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Programs:

• Location of October Luncheon (5 Year Anniversary) - on-site or off-site. - suggestion for having luncheon off-site, however due to logistics of protocol involving the speaker, Mr. Gustafson, consensus that on-site would be better.
• Date for November luncheon, Nov.12 is Accounting for Kids - Nov 12th date for luncheon changing due to scheduling conflict, Jessica Carse will check Conference Center room availability for Nov 5th (1st Thurs. of month).
  

Membership:

• Suggestion for membership drive table in Café 21 in January.
• The chapter has 14 new members this year.
• Need to come up with method to reach new DFAS employees.
• Our chapter will have a table at the Professional Development Fair (sponsored by ASMC) on Dec.

Early Career:

• Change in Early Career Month (October to November)
  • CEC agreed to suggestion to move from Oct. to Nov.
  • Lyndsey Foell gave handout with EC events listed: membership drive, appreciation letters, breakfast with Directors, and social

Certification:

• Bob Palmieri reported that he might be on extensive TDY until Dec, but plans to have brown bag CGFM study sessions in future.
• Suggestion was made to hold another CGFM open house, survey interest, or have another article in the newsletter to "spark" interest in CGFM.
• Nancy Z. reported that our chapter has volunteered to be a pilot location for on-site testing., pending AGA Hdq. agreement.

Education:

• Regional PDC - Oct. 19-21 -
  • Registration Process, etc.
  • Number of attendees that DFAS will fund will likely remain same as last year (20-25 for Accounting Ops, 3 for SBM, etc.).
  • Need to "advertise" to members ASAP, Lori M. and Gene P. will draft email to be sent to members. Aubrey Martin volunteered to be registration POC.
• Next AGA Audio Conference, Oct. 7,
  • Topic - Internal Controls for Auditors, Management and Staff - Making Government Organizations More Effective
    

Communications:

• Newsletter submissions due to Merle and Ken by the 22nd
• Website update: Main page of the website has been updated (per Ben Novotny), rest of website update still in progress.
  • Ken George reported that he is looking at new updating technology for website that should allow CEC to update their portions of site.
• Ken will also print samples of name badges for use at luncheons, etc. CEC can select "favorite" and badges can be printed on cardstock from AGA Hdq with logo prior to Oct luncheon.
• Several CEC members are not receiving AGA chapter emails and request was made to update/validate member list that is linked to distribution.
  • Ken will be validating and will send email with instructions for self-subscribing to list.
    

Ways & Means:

• Joyce M. waiting for word from Kroger in regards to Kroger Community Awards Program.
• Need 2 more volunteers for working this week's OSU game (9/26) and 4-5 more volunteers for games on 10/31 and 11/14.

Community Service:

• Clothing Drive: Extended into October, due to delayed delivery of email message.
  • Clothing Drive is for professional clothing to be donated to Goodwill on Morse Rd (has professional clothing section), however Kortney W. volunteered to drop off other clothing as well.
• Columbus Reads Program - Charles Miller is POC for volunteers to contact. Email was sent to members.
• Accounting Day for Kids - Nov 12th, email was sent soliciting volunteers by Oct 14.
  
  

Historian:

• N/A
  

By Laws:

• N/A

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Rules/Regulations:

• For each game, you will be required to be at the stadium 3 hours before kick-off.
• The stand will be in operation throughout the entire game and about 30-40 minutes after the game.
• You will be required to be at the stand at all times; that is, other than approved downtimes/scheduled breaks. During such time, you will have the opportunity to watch some of the game.
• Please keep in mind this opportunity is not to be used as a free game day ticket.
• Family members and children (over the age of 16) are welcome and encouraged to participate in this fundraising event.
• Please keep in mind that AGA is required to provide 8-10 members per game, therefore if a no-show occurs, you forfeit the right to participate in future games.
• Sign-up is a first come first serve basis. Any volunteers that surpass the 10 person threshold, will be waitlisted.
• AGA will provide a $10.00 lunch compensation and a $10.00 parking fee reimbursement to all volunteers.

The 7 home games are listed below with their kick-off times. Please contact Joyce Maleski for the game(s) you are interested in working.

Further details will be provided to the volunteers once the work schedule has been finalized. In the meantime, please contact Joyce Maleski at joyce.maleski@dfas.mil or 693-1334 if you should have any questions or concerns.

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