The basic Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) annuity cannot exceed 80
percent of your high-3 average
salary, excluding your unused sick leave. Generally, you reach the 80
percent limitation when you have 41 years and 11 months of service, not
including accumulated sick leave. Fewer years of service may result in a
computation that produces the maximum benefit under special computation formulas
such as for law enforcement personnel.
Your service beyond the years which provides the maximum benefit will not be
used to compute your annuity. Instead, we will automatically refund the
retirement contributions you made during those years. Interest is paid on this
refund payment at the rate of three percent per year, compounded annually. You
can use the refund to purchase additional annuity, as if the contributions and
interest are voluntary
contributions.
However, if you have federal civilian employment periods when you did not
contribute to either the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or the Federal
Employees Retirement System (FERS), we automatically apply excess contributions
toward any deposit due for these
employment periods.