The Foreign Service Journal, October 2003

OCTOBER 2003 • AFSA NEWS 9 of growingup inan internationallymobile family. First-place winners were Alexandra Pomeroy, 17, andStuart Symington, Jr., 16. Alexandra worked with and taught Sudanese refugees for two years while liv- ing in Egypt. In addition, following her return to the U.S., she organized a writing project for teens to describe their overseas experiences. The essays will be posted on the futureStateDepartmentWebsite for youth. Stuart co-founded the Social Action Club at his school in Niamey, Niger, and spearheaded fundraisers and other efforts to assist a local orphanage. The Highly Commendable awards went to Heather Alford, 17, and Kyle Tadken, 18, for their work on behalf of children inMoscow, Russia. Honorable Mentions went to Stefan Kazacos, Caitlin O’Grady, Erin O’Grady and Corie Pope. Certificates of Appreciationwent to Iain Addleton, Garrett Bernsten, Bethanie Brooks, Daniel Gettinger, Theodore FranklinGreenly III, SaharHerbol,Rebecca Hoffman,SarahHohlfeld,ChristianHyland, Tatiana Suda, Melissa Taylor, Kelly Lynn Waterman, Andrew Wilson and Kelsey Wohlman. Spacedoes not permit us to list all the activities of these 22 young people, but suffice it to say thededicationandcon- tributions to local communitieswere truly outstanding. The Kid Vid Awards — sponsored by the FSYFand theOverseasBriefingCenter — were presented by former Director GeneralRuthA.Davis,whopraisedthechil- drenwhoproduce the videos of life at post, noting that the videos become part of the permanent library intheOBCandwill assist families preparing to move to new posts. The first-place winners were Philip (P.J.) NiceandMicahKagler,bothage18,fortheir video of Montevideo, Uruguay. Second place went to 11-year-old Britta Coley for her video of Frankfurt, Germany. Third place: Iain Addleton, Cameron Addleton and Parker Wilhelm on Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia;MostTechnicallySophisticated: Ramon Taylor on Dakar, Senegal; Most Creative: Olivia Underwood and Owen Underwood on Seoul, Korea. ▫ Personnel Issues BY JAMES YORKE Q: What is a Flexible Spending Account? A: Technicallyknownas theFederal Flexible Benefits Plan (“Fed- Flex”), FSAs enable eligible employees to pay for certain benefits with pre-tax dol- lars. The first phase, implemented in October 2000, was the Health Benefits PremiumConversion, underwhichall fed- eral employees, unless they optedout, pay their healthpremiumswithpre-taxdollars. The second phase includes FSAs for two other purposes: •AHealthCareFSA(HCFSA), through which employees may use pre-tax allot- ments to pay for certain health care expenses that are not reimbursed by FEHB or any other source and not claimed on the participant’s income tax return. Themaximumamount anemploy- ee may set aside in any tax year is $3,000 and the minimum is $250. • A Dependent Care FSA (DCFSA), throughwhich employeesmayuse pre-tax allotments topay for eligibledependent care expenses. The maximum amount an employee may set aside in any tax year is $5,000 ($2,500 if the employee is married and filinga separate income tax return) and the minimum amount is $250. Q: What is the basis for the FSA? A: Section 125 of the Internal Revenue Code allows employ- ees topay for certainhealth anddependent care expenses with pre-tax dollars. You may choose tomake a voluntary allotment from your salary to your FSAFEDS account(s); youwill not pay employment or income taxes on your allotments and your employing agency also avoids pay- ing employment taxes. Participation is vol- untary and you will identify an annual amount of salary tobe contributed to your FSA. The payroll office will deduct your annual electedamounts fromyour pay and remit them for deposit into your FSA account(s). You candrawupon your FSA account(s) for reimbursement as you incur eligible expenses. Q: When can I enroll? A: An early season occurred this year ending in June, soyournext chance to enroll for the first full Plan Year (2004) will take place concurrent with the FEHB open season in November/ December of 2003 (starting Nov. 10). All futureFSAPlanYearswill be Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 andemployeesmust re-enroll each year to be eligible. Q: What if I allocated more than I spent in a year? A: The “use-it-or-lose-it” rule means you should plan careful- ly when estimating how much you want to allocate to an FSA. Under current IRS regulations, you must forfeit any funds remaining inyour account(s) at the endof the planyear. Youwill have 120days from the end of the plan year to submit claims for your expenses. Forfeited funds, andany interest accrued, will be set aside to help reduce fees in future plan years. There is auseful guideon theWeb that canhelpyou to estimate how much you should put aside. Go to www.fsafeds.com, an d scroll down to the “FSAFEDS Calculator,” whichwill help you plan your FSA alloca- tions and provide an estimate of your tax savings. ▫ Q & A Essay • Continued from page 8 AFSA State VP Louis Crane with the winners. Marc Goldberg