Purpose

To notify agencies that the U.S. Department of the Treasury has announced that they are eliminating the option to purchase paper savings bonds through payroll deduction.

Affected Employees

Employees who have an active deduction code 101 on  November 18, 2010

Effective Date(s)

Paychecks dated December 2, 2010 (Institution)
Paychecks dated December 8, 2010 (Administration)

Background

The U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that it is ending the sale of paper U.S. Savings Bonds through payroll deduction as part of a “go green, save green” initiative intended to increase the number of electronic transactions and save taxpayer dollars.

U.S. Department of the Treasury Actions

Affected employees should have received a letter directly from the U.S. Department of the Treasury advising them of this change and outlining the options available to continue to automatically invest in Treasury securities.

OSC Actions

OSC will automatically end employee payroll deductions for U.S. Savings Bonds. A new row will be inserted on the general deduction page, to automatically cancel the deduction. The last deduction for U.S. Savings Bonds will be the Institution checks dated November 18, 2010 and Administration checks dated November 24, 2010.

Employees may be entitled to refunds for deductions previously taken that had not yet been applied to the purchase of a bond.  Refunds will be processed through PayServ in a future check after the third party provider, National Bond and Trust, submits the refund file to OSC for review. The check dates for these refunds will be announced when the information is available.

A bulletin will be issued in the near future announcing the guidelines for employees enrolled in the Treasury Direct program who are interested in bond deduction withholding via the direct deposit process.

Agency Actions

Notify affected employees.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Deductions mailbox.