(1) An active member who has
completed a minimum of five years of creditable service in the
teachers' retirement system may, upon written application to the
department, make a one-time purchase of up to seven years of
service credit for public education experience outside the
Washington state retirement system, subject to the following
limitations:
(a) The public education experience being claimed must have
been performed as a teacher in a public school in another state
or with the federal government; and
(b) The public education experience being claimed must have
been covered by a retirement or pension plan provided by a state
or political subdivision of a state, or by the federal
government; and
(c) The member is not currently receiving a benefit or
currently eligible to receive an unreduced retirement benefit
from a retirement or pension plan of a state or political
subdivision of a state or the federal government that includes
the service credit to be purchased.
(2) The service credit purchased shall be membership
service, and may be used to qualify the member for retirement.
(3) The member shall pay the actuarial value of the
resulting increase in the member's benefit calculated in a manner
consistent with the department's method for calculating payments
for reestablishing service credit under RCW 41.50.165.
(4) The member may pay all or part of the cost of the
service credit to be purchased with a lump sum payment, eligible
rollover, direct rollover, or trustee-to-trustee transfer from an
eligible retirement plan. The department shall adopt rules to
ensure that all lump sum payments, rollovers, and transfers
comply with the requirements of the internal revenue code and
regulations adopted by the internal revenue service. The rules
adopted by the department may condition the acceptance of a
rollover or transfer from another plan on the receipt of
information necessary to enable the department to determine the
eligibility of any transferred funds for tax-free rollover
treatment or other treatment under federal income tax law.
(5) The employer also may pay all or a portion of the
member's cost of the service credit purchased under this section.
[2006 c 257 § 1.]
NOTES:
Effective date -- 2006 c 257: "This act takes effect January 1, 2007." [2006 c 257 § 4.]