Document AR 600-8-10, Leave and Pass Administrative Absences, governs leave. Transition leave is ordinary leave chargeable to the Soldiers accrued leave account and granted together with transition from the service, to include retirement.
At retirement, the leave you have accrued through your retirement date may be sold (limit of 60 days per career), used as transition leave, or split between these two options. You must decide what is best for you. Because it is difficult to cancel an approved retirement, it is best to decide your course of action before submitting your retirement request. The following factors may affect your decision:
- After 20 years of service, each additional month you serve on Active duty provides an additional retired pay multiplier of 1/12th of 2-1/2 percent for those under the Final Basic Pay or High-3 formulas, or 1/12th of 3.5 percent, for those under CSB/REDUX.
- You must retire on the 1st day of a month unless you retire for disability.
- Each day of leave can be sold back for basic pay only.
- Accrued leave paid in a lump sum is automatically taxed at the 25 percent rate.
- Service Members are not permitted to begin employment while in permissive TDY status.
- Service Members MAY work while on transition leave, even for the federal government.
- Soldiers retiring for disability may have their retirement dates moved back to allow using any transition leave they are unable to sell back due to the 60-day limit.
The purpose of transition PTDY is to allow Soldiers to participate in pre-separation job search and house hunting activities that facilitate relocation or transition of the Soldier to civilian life.
Soldier must have a need to relocate or conduct job search activities during the requested transition PTDY. If neither of these activities are necessary (for example, the Soldier already has secured a job, and the Soldier will continue to reside in the same residence with no prospect of moving) then transition PTDY is not appropriate.
With your commander's approval, you may receive 20 or 30 days of permissive TDY (based on your geographical location (CONUS/OCONUS)) to conduct job search and house hunting activities. Permissive TDY is a non-chargeable leave granted in addition to any authorized ordinary leave. Transition PTDY may be used in increments (not to exceed days authorized); may be taken in a series of trips in conjunction with transition leave (must have a duty day between transition leave and PTDY); or maybe taken in its entirety in conjunction with transition leave (e.g. Soldier elects to take transition PTDY, with full 20/30 days as one trip; starting transition leave on the next day).
Annual Leave: Except during the period 1 OCT 08 thru 30 SEP 13, Service Members may not carry forward more than 60 days of leave into the next Fiscal Year (FY). From 1 OCT 08 thru 30 SEP 13, Service Members may carry forward up to 75 days of leave. Any leave accumulated in excess of 75 days is lost at the end of the FY unless it was accumulated when entitled to Special Leave Accrual (SLA).
Under Special Leave Accrual authority, Service Members may accumulate, during the period 1 OCT 08 thru 30 SEP 13, a maximum of 120 days of leave (75 days ordinary leave plus 45 days SLA). Any leave accumulated in excess of 120 days is lost at the end of the Fiscal Year. Outside of 1 OCT 08 thru 30 SEP 13, a maximum of 90 days of leave (60 days ordinary leave plus 30 days SLA) can be carried forward. For practical purposes, only leave accumulated before deployment plus leave earned during deployment (not to exceed 120 days total) is protected by SLA. Leave earned after deployment is not protected. SLA protection ends when the accumulated leave balance drops to 75 days or less. The actual leave balance carried forward into succeeding fiscal years is the lowest monthly leave balance after completion of SLA duty. Leave and Earnings Statements (LESs) show SLA days in the Remarks section. Except under Sell Back provisions, SLA days cannot be sold. Soldiers must plan accordingly to avoid losing leave before separation from the service.
SLA Sell Back is an additional one-time sell back of accrued leave authorized for Enlisted Soldiers only (does not apply to Officers). Under this provision, an Enlisted Soldier may elect a one-time leave sell back of up to 30 days leave accrued in excess of the 120 day SLA limitation. SLA Sell Back counts against the 60-day leave sell back limitation during a Soldier's military career.
