Hello, my name is Bill Zielinski and I am the Associate Director of Retirement Services at the Office of Personnel Management. I have the privilege of leading the staff who takes care of the day to day business, questions and issues that you may have after retiring from your Federal career. We are pleased to launch our new Retirement Information Center (RIC). This site will assist us in keeping you informed of important issues that affect you as a Federal retiree.
You may have noticed a change to your annuitant federal tax withholding in your February check. We’ve been getting a lot of calls and inquiries about this, so I’d like to explain to you how this change occurred.
On December 16, 2010, Congress voted not to extend the "Making Work Pay" credit, which was part of the 2009 Stimulus Package. Because this credit ended on December 31, 2010, the amount of tax withholding increased for a lot of people. This is why you saw the tax change in your February check.
If you now want to change the amount of your withholding, let me suggest how you can do this. The change is easy to make, but keep in mind it won’t reduce your tax liability at the end of the year. Before making any changes, you may want to use our federal tax calculator to determine the appropriate amount to withhold. You may also want to consult a tax advisor for your own specific needs.
Here’s what you can do to change your tax withholding amount. You can access www.opm.gov/retire using your login information or you can call our temporary tax line at 1-800-307-8298 between 8 AM and 8 PM Eastern Standard time. Because we are receiving a large volume of calls, I would suggest you try our website first.
Also, you may want more information about taxes and the tables we use to set withholding amounts. You can get a lot of good information by going to the Internal Revenue Service website at www.irs.gov or you can go to IRS Notice 1036, TABLE 4-MONTHLY Payroll Period 
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I hope you find this information useful and we look forward to providing you more information in the future!