2012 COLA Announced: The Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) for 2012 is 3.6%. The 3.6% COLA will be effective Dec 1 and will be reflected in January retired pay, SBP, Social Security, and VA disability compensation checks.
Retiree Pay Date Changes Could Impact 2011 Taxes: The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS) announced that retirees will see changes to two upcoming monthly retiree checks that will make it easier to keep their monthly bill payments straight…but could potentially affect their tax liability.
Normally, military retired pay is processed on the first day of the month, but when that fell on a weekend or holiday, the previous law delayed retired pay checks until the day after the weekend/holiday. The recent law change now requires DFAS to process retiree pay on the preceding business day when the first day of the month falls on a weekend or national holiday. This affects retired pay checks previously scheduled for Oct 3, 2011 and Jan 3, 2012, but which now will be issued on Sep 30, 2011 and Dec 30, 2011 respectively. The good news is that retirees will now have access to their monthly retired pay in order to transfer funds or pay bills that come due on the first of the month.
• Requires improvements to the Yellow Ribbon Guard/Reserve reintegration prog