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Learn how to update your pay information, understand your Leave and Earnings Statement, get your W-2, manage leave, and verify your employment or income.
We handle pay, tax withholding, salary direct deposit, allotments, leave balances, garnishments, and agency debt.
Secure email: KC-Payroll.Finance@gsa.gov
Fax: 816-823-5435
Mail:
General Services Administration
Payroll/External Services Branch (BEC) (BGC), 2NW
2300 Main Street
Kansas City, MO 64108-2416
Always include your name and Social Security number so we can match your request to your record.
Sending sensitive information: Follow your agency’s rules of behavior for handling personally identifiable information. If you have questions about encryption or secure email, contact your supervisor or IT help desk.
We do not give tax, financial, or legal advice. We will adjust your withholding at your request, but for tax planning, contact a tax or financial advisor or use the withholding estimator on IRS.gov.
Some questions go to HR, not us. Contact your servicing human resources office about within-grade increase dates, tour of duty changes, personnel actions, and leave approvals.
You can submit most changes four ways: in HR Links, by secure email, by fax, or by mail.
Submit IRS Form W-4 for federal withholding [PDF], the appropriate state form for state withholding, or both.
Use HR Links for state tax changes only if the change is for the state already on your payroll record. If you moved and need withholding for a different state, submit your form by email, fax, or mail instead.
Update your account in HR Links, or submit a SF 1199A - Direct Deposit Sign-Up Form.
We send your salary to the U.S. Treasury by electronic funds transfer on the Thursday after each pay period ends. Treasury forwards it to your financial institution overnight, and funds are generally available Friday morning and no later than 24 hours after receipt.
Posting times vary by institution. If your pay has not been posted when you expected it, contact your financial institution’s Automated Clearing House department for its posting schedule.
Send us your name, Social Security number, the pay period of the missing check, and either the mailing address for the replacement check or your direct deposit information.
Biweekly premium pay cap. If you are a General Schedule employee, your total pay in a pay period cannot exceed the salary of a GS-15, step 10, for your locality. When overtime or other premium pay puts you over that limit, the payroll system automatically reduces the payment. To request a waiver, work with your supervisor and HR office. The Chief Human Capital Officer must approve it.
Night shift differential during paid leave. If night shift differential is part of your normal tour of duty, paid leave is coded along with your regular hours and night shift differential.
Sunday premium pay. You earn Sunday premium pay only when Sunday work is part of your regular tour of duty, not for overtime worked on a Sunday.
Your W-2 is mailed or made available electronically no later than Jan. 31 each year. Starting with tax year 2026, you can print a duplicate W-2 from HR Links. For earlier years, please contact KC-Payroll.Finance@gsa.gov.
To claim exemption from federal income tax withholding, submit an IRS Form W-4 stating that you expect to owe no federal income tax for the year. You must submit a new W-4 every year by Feb. 15 to keep the exemption.
Your annual salary is set by the Office of Personnel Management, and your hourly rate is your annual salary divided by 2,087 hours. The wages in Box 1 of your W-2 may be lower than your annual salary because they exclude items such as Thrift Savings Plan contributions, health benefit premium conversion, and non-taxable fringe benefits like transit benefits.
Moving allowances can include both taxable and non-taxable amounts, and the taxable portion counts as income. The agency covers only the federal tax included in the Withholding Tax Allowance calculation. Medicare is withheld on all income, and Social Security (OASDI) is withheld up to the annual limit if you are covered by FERS, FERS-RAE, FERS-FRAE, or CSRS Offset. State and local taxes are also withheld where required.
OASDI stands for Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance. It is Social Security.
Combined Federal Campaign elections follow the leave year and take effect the first full pay period of the calendar year. A deduction that appears in early January may be the last deduction from the previous campaign, and it will remain in the year-to-date section of your Leave and Earnings Statement all year.
Leave accrues according to your leave category and the hours in your established tour of duty:
| Leave category | Annual leave earned | Accrual rate |
|---|---|---|
| 4-hour | 104 hours per year | 1 hour per 20 hours worked |
| 6-hour | 160 hours per year | 1 hour per 13 hours worked |
| 8-hour | 208 hours per year | 1 hour per 10 hours worked |
All employees earn one hour of sick leave for every 20 hours worked.
Part-time employees earn annual and sick leave based on the hours in their established tour of duty, so they earn less than full-time employees. This is one reason a change from full-time to part-time requires a personnel action.
Donated leave program participants earn leave in two accounts. The regular account accrues based on hours worked and leave used, following the rates above. The set-aside account is also based on your leave category and is capped at 40 hours each of annual and sick leave.
Most employees may carry over 240 hours or 30 days of annual leave from one leave year to the next. Employees stationed outside the United States, its territories or possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico may carry over 360 hours or 45 days.
To estimate your “use or lose” leave, add the annual leave you will earn during the year to your carryover balance. Anything above your ceiling is use or lose.
Leave above your ceiling is forfeited at the start of the new leave year and appears as ”cutback” on your Leave and Earnings Statement.
Senior Executive Service employees have a 720-hour ceiling from the date they enter the SES. If you enter the SES with more than 720 hours, that higher balance becomes your ceiling until your year-end balance drops below it, and the lower balance becomes the new ceiling. When you leave the SES, your ceiling becomes your current annual leave balance if it is above 240 hours, or 240 hours if it is not.
If an urgent work situation stopped you from using annual leave you had already scheduled, that leave may be restored. The most common reason is an urgent need for you to be at work. Review the Time and Leave Administration Policy for other qualifying situations.
Approval. An authorized official must approve your request — usually the Head of a Service or Staff Office, the Regional Administrator, or a designee.
What to submit. A memorandum with supporting documentation showing when the official approved your leave, the dates and amount of leave you scheduled, why you couldn’t use or reschedule it, the start and end dates of the exigency, and your original leave request (OPM Form 71 or equivalent).
When to submit. Wait until the leave year closes.
Where to submit. GSA employees use the HR & Payroll Connect portal. Client agency and commission employees email: KC-Payroll.Finance@gsa.gov or mail GSA Payroll Services Division, 2300 Main Street 2NW, Kansas City, MO 64108.
Processing time. Two pay periods after we receive your request.
Questions. Email KC-Payroll.Finance@gsa.gov or call 844-303-6515.
Advanced annual leave. Your immediate supervisor may approve advanced annual leave up to the number of hours in your biweekly tour of duty. Full-time employees may be advanced up to the amount they will earn during the rest of the leave year. Your supervisor must have reasonable assurance that you will return to duty long enough to repay the advance with leave you earn later.
Advanced sick leave. If you are a permanent full-time employee and have used all your sick leave, you may be granted advanced sick leave. See the Time and Leave Administration Policy and talk with your supervisor.
Family Friendly Leave Act sick leave lets you use up to 104 hours of sick leave each leave year for family care, adoption, or bereavement. If you work part time or have an uncommon tour of duty, your limit is the amount of sick leave you normally accrue in a leave year.
Use these codes:
Family and Medical Leave Act leave gives you up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave in a 12-month period for the birth, adoption, or foster placement of a child; to care for a spouse, son, daughter, or parent with a serious health condition; or for your own serious health condition. The 12-month period begins the first day you use the leave.
You may substitute paid leave for any part of the 12 weeks, including annual leave, restored annual leave, sick leave, award leave, compensatory time off, travel compensatory time off, credit hours, donated leave, or advanced leave.
If a holiday falls between leave without pay days, you are not paid for the holiday. To be paid, you must work either at the end of the workday before the holiday or at the beginning of the workday after it — one or the other, not both.
If you have a disabling on-the-job injury, you may be entitled to continuation of pay for up to 45 calendar days without charge to your leave. Because the 45 days are calendar days, weekends count if you are on continuation of pay at the end of the day Friday and the beginning of the day Monday.
Home leave is available only to employees stationed outside the United States.
Administrative leave is not earned leave. It is a category used to record excused absences and administrative dismissals allowed under agencywide policy. Because each situation must fit the intent of the Time and Leave Administration Policy, review your circumstances with your supervisor to confirm you qualify.
Transferring to GSA from another agency. Your former agency sends your Record of Leave Data, form SF 1150, to us along with your Official Personnel Folder. It shows your balances as of your last pay period there, and we update your record once it arrives — which can take up to six months. To speed this up, send a secure copy of your final Earnings and Leave Statement, or ELS, from your former agency to KC-Payroll.Finance@gsa.gov as a substitute.
Transferring to another federal agency. Your annual and sick leave transfer with you.
Leaving federal service. Once we receive your resignation or retirement package, your accrued annual leave is usually paid as a lump sum in the following pay period. Unused sick leave is not paid out, but if you are retiring, the OPM Retirement Office credits it toward your annuity calculation. If you need your final ELS, submit a request to KC-Payroll.Finance@gsa.gov.
Review your leave record for the full year with your supervisor first, since most discrepancies come from time and attendance entries. If the balance is still wrong, email us at KC-Payroll.Finance@gsa.gov.
A health benefits insurance debt is created automatically when you go into leave without pay, because your premiums continue while your pay stops. We mail you a letter explaining your health insurance options during leave without pay. Use the contact information in that letter to arrange repayment.
For involuntary collection, we take 15% of your net disposable pay each biweekly pay period. Net disposable pay is your gross pay minus current-year federal, state, and local taxes, retirement, OASDI/Medicare, health benefit premiums, basic life insurance premiums, Thrift Savings Plan contributions, and any IRS levy or child support.
If you are an active employee, you may instead pay the debt in full by personal check, cashier’s check, or money order. Write the claim number in the memo line and mail it to us.
We calculate your aggregate disposable earnings by subtracting federal, state, and local taxes, retirement, OASDI/Medicare, health benefit premiums, basic life insurance premiums, Thrift Savings Plan contributions, and any IRS levy from your gross pay.
The most that can be garnished in a pay period is 25% of your aggregate disposable earnings. Child support is not part of the calculation itself; instead, IRS levies and child support are subtracted from the 25% to determine what is available for garnishment.
Your garnishment amount can change from one pay period to the next because it is a percentage of your pay. Pay raises, within-grade increases, promotions, or changes to any deduction listed above will change it, and the garnisher may also add interest to the unpaid balance.
We use The Work Number® from Equifax to provide automated income and employment verifications. The service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through The Work Number website or by phone.
Give approved parties — such as mortgage lenders, property managers, car dealers, or caseworkers — our employer code and one of the contact options below.
If you work for one of our client agencies, find your agency’s code in the TWN Employer Codes [XLSX - 12 KB] spreadsheet. For more help, see the GSA Guide to The Work Number [PDF - 925 KB], the TWN Employee FAQ [DOCX - 37 KB], or the website login instructions.
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Rates for Alaska, Hawaii, and U.S. territories and possessions are set by the Department of Defense.
Rates for foreign countries are set by the Department of State.
Rates are available between 10/1/2024 and 09/30/2027.
The End Date of your trip can not occur before the Start Date.
Traveler reimbursement is based on the location of the work activities and not the accommodations, unless lodging is not available at the work activity, then the agency may authorize the rate where lodging is obtained.
Unless otherwise specified, the per diem locality is defined as "all locations within, or entirely surrounded by, the corporate limits of the key city, including independent entities located within those boundaries."
Per diem localities with county definitions shall include"all locations within, or entirely surrounded by, the corporate limits of the key city as well as the boundaries of the listed counties, including independent entities located within the boundaries of the key city and the listed counties (unless otherwise listed separately)."
When a military installation or Government - related facility(whether or not specifically named) is located partially within more than one city or county boundary, the applicable per diem rate for the entire installation or facility is the higher of the rates which apply to the cities and / or counties, even though part(s) of such activities may be located outside the defined per diem locality.
U.S. General Services Administration