Leave and Earnings Statement

Last updated
Example of an LES Leave And Earnings Statement.jpg
Example of an LES

A Leave and Earnings Statement, generally referred to as an LES, is a document given on a monthly basis to members of the United States military which documents their pay and leave status on a monthly basis.

Contents

Employees in the civil service receive a similar document each pay period, called a Civilian Leave and Earnings Statement, a link to which the Defense Finance and Accounting Service emails two days prior to the scheduled pay day.

Delivery

While paper LES documents were originally mailed or handed out in person, it is now almost always retrieved by the member from an online system called MyPay from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. For United States Coast Guard personnel LES can be retrieved by the member from an online system called Direct Access that is controlled by U.S. Coast Guard Personnel Services Command.

Sections

There are multiple sections to an LES.

LES Sections.png

Pay

The first section lists the monetary entitlements that month. For all members it consists of Basic Pay, and for many members it also includes Basic Allowance for Housing and Basic Allowance for Subsistence. Other kinds of pay including Cost of Living Allowance, Overseas Housing Allowance, incentive pay, bonus pay, or hazardous duty pay may be included.

Per diem and TDY money are usually not included in the LES.

Deductions

The second section describes the money that has been deducted. Common deductions include:

Allotments

Common allotments include:

End of Month Pay

After all the pay is added, all deductions & allotments are subtracted, and loose ends from previous months are accounted for, what is left is the end of month pay, which is indicated on the far right.

Leave

Military members accumulate 2.5 days of leave per month or 30 days per year. The maximum amount of leave that can accrue is 60 days (this can be more if a member was deployed within the year). The fiscal year ends on September 30, unless Congress decides to change it temporarily.

TSP

TSP information is listed near the bottom, along with the YTD (calendar year) total tax withholdings.

See also

Related Research Articles

Depreciation Decrease in asset values, or the allocation of cost thereof

In accountancy, depreciation refers to two aspects of the same concept: first, the actual decrease of fair value of an asset, such as the decrease in value of factory equipment each year as it is used and wear, and second, the allocation in accounting statements of the original cost of the assets to periods in which the assets are used.

Tax deduction is a reduction of income that is able to be taxed and is commonly a result of expenses, particularly those incurred to produce additional income. Tax deductions are a form of tax incentives, along with exemptions and credits. The difference between deductions, exemptions and credits is that deductions and exemptions both reduce taxable income, while credits reduce tax.

Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a compulsory governmental insurance system, not taxes on individual citizens. Depending on the jurisdiction and the status of the person, those sums may be small, covering only basic needs, or may compensate the lost time proportionally to the previous earned salary.

Accounts receivable Claims for payment held by a business

Accounts receivable, abbreviated as AR or A/R, are legally enforceable claims for payment held by a business for goods supplied or services rendered that customers have ordered but not paid for. These are generally in the form of invoices raised by a business and delivered to the customer for payment within an agreed time frame. Accounts receivable is shown in a balance sheet as an asset. It is one of a series of accounting transactions dealing with the billing of a customer for goods and services that the customer has ordered. These may be distinguished from notes receivable, which are debts created through formal legal instruments called promissory notes.

Payroll Record of money paid or due to employees

A payroll is the list of employees of some company that is entitled to receive payments as well as other work benefits and the amounts that each should receive. Along with the amounts that each employee should receive for time worked or tasks performed, payroll can also refer to a company's records of payments that were previously made to employees, including salaries and wages, bonuses, and withheld taxes, or the company's department that deals with compensation. A company may handle all aspects of the payroll process in-house or can outsource aspects to a payroll processing company.

Accrual (accumulation) of something is, in finance, the adding together of interest or different investments over a period of time. It holds specific meanings in accounting, where it can refer to accounts on a balance sheet that represent liabilities and non-cash-based assets used in accrual-based accounting. These types of accounts include, among others, accounts payable, accounts receivable, goodwill, deferred tax liability and future interest expense.

Bad debt occasionally called Uncollectible accounts expense is a monetary amount owed to a creditor that is unlikely to be paid and for which the creditor is not willing to take action to collect for various reasons, often due to the debtor not having the money to pay, for example due to a company going into liquidation or insolvency. There are various technical definitions of what constitutes a bad debt, depending on accounting conventions, regulatory treatment and the institution provisioning. In the USA, bank loans with more than ninety days' arrears become "problem loans". Accounting sources advise that the full amount of a bad debt be written off to the profit and loss account or a provision for bad debts as soon as it is foreseen.

Thrift Savings Plan

The Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) is a defined contribution plan for United States civil service employees and retirees as well as for members of the uniformed services. As of December 31, 2020, TSP has approximately 6.2 million participants, and more than $735.2 billion in assets under management; it is the largest defined contribution plan in the world. The TSP is administered by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, an independent agency.

Per diem or daily allowance is a specific amount of money that an organization gives an individual, typically an employee, per day to cover living expenses when travelling on the employer's business.

Capital Cost Allowance (CCA) is the means by which Canadian businesses may claim depreciation expense for calculating taxable income under the Income Tax Act (Canada). Similar allowances are in effect for calculating taxable income for provincial purposes.

The Federal Employees' Retirement System (FERS) is the retirement system for employees within the United States civil service. FERS became effective January 1, 1987, to replace the Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and to conform federal retirement plans in line with those in the private sector.

Taxation in the Republic of Ireland Irish tax code

Taxation in the Republic of Ireland in 2017 came from Personal Income taxes, and Consumption taxes, being VAT and Excise and Customs duties. Corporation taxes represents most of the balance, but Ireland's Corporate Tax System (CT) is a central part of Ireland's economic model. Ireland summarises its taxation policy using the OECD's Hierarchy of Taxes pyramid, which emphasises high corporate tax rates as the most harmful types of taxes where economic growth is the objective. The balance of Ireland's taxes are Property taxes and Capital taxes.

United States military pay is money paid to members in the United States Armed Forces. The amount of pay may vary by the member's rank, time in the military, location duty assignment, and by some special skills the member may have.

Title 2 of the United States Code outlines the role of Congress in the United States Code.

The Empowering Patients First Act is legislation sponsored by Rep. Tom Price, first introduced as H.R. 3400 in the 111th Congress. The bill was initially intended to be a Republican alternative to the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, but has since been positioned as a potential replacement to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The bill was introduced in the 112th Congress as H.R. 3000, and in the 113th Congress as H.R. 2300. As of October 2014, the bill has 58 cosponsors. An identical version of the bill has been introduced in the Senate by Senator John McCain as S. 1851.

Taxes in Germany are levied by the federal government, the states (Länder) as well as the municipalities (Städte/Gemeinden). Many direct and indirect taxes exist in Germany; income tax and VAT are the most significant.

Taxation in South Africa Explanation of tax in South Africa with applicable tables

Taxation may involve payments to a minimum of two different levels of government: central government through SARS or to local government. Prior to 2001 the South African tax system was "source-based", wherein income is taxed in the country where it originates. Since January 2001, the tax system was changed to "residence-based" wherein taxpayers residing in South Africa are taxed on their income irrespective of its source. Non residents are only subject to domestic taxes.

Taxation in Spain Taxes in Spain

Taxes in Spain are levied by national (central), regional and local governments. Tax revenue in Spain stood at 36.3% of GDP in 2013. A wide range of taxes are levied on different sources, the most important ones being income tax, social security contributions, corporate tax, value added tax; some of them are applied at national level and others at national and regional levels. Most national and regional taxes are collected by the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria which is the bureau responsible for collecting taxes at the national level. Other minor taxes like property transfer tax (regional), real estate property tax (local), road tax (local) are collected directly by regional or local administrations. Four historical territories or foral provinces collect all national and regional taxes themselves and subsequently transfer the portion due to the central Government after two negotiations called Concierto and the Convenio. The tax year in Spain follows the calendar year. The tax collection method depends on the tax; some of them are collected by self-assessment, but others follow a system of pay-as-you-earn tax with monthly withholdings that follow a self-assessment at the end of the term.

Indian tax forms are used to document information in compliance with the Income Tax Act of 1961 and in accordance with the Income Tax Rules, which govern the process of filing income tax returns in India.

The Individual Income Tax in China is administered on a progressive tax system with tax rates from 3 percent to 45 percent. As of 2019, China taxes individuals who reside in the country for more than 183 days on worldwide earned income. The system is separate from the income tax system of Hong Kong and Macau, which are administered independently.