§231m Assignability; exemption from levy

Summary

Annuities and supplemental annuities are protected. You cannot transfer them to someone else. Creditors or courts generally cannot take them, garnish them, attach them, or force early payment. They also are not taxable except as the rules below and the federal income tax code say. Some exceptions apply. Supplemental annuities can be taxed under the federal income tax. Parts of an annuity (the portions not figured under 231b(a), 231c(a), or 231c(f)) and any part of a supplemental annuity can be treated as community property or split by a divorce or other court-approved settlement, and the Board must pay them that way. If the employee is not otherwise eligible for an annuity, those payments can still be made but cannot start until the employee has either 10 years of railroad service (or 5 years all after December 31, 1995), and both the spouse/former spouse and the employee are age 62 (or the employee would have been). Those payments end when the spouse or former spouse dies unless the court order says an earlier end; however, any part figured under 231b(f)(2) stops when the employee dies. If the employee is not eligible, payments are figured as if the employee were eligible.