5 U.S.C. § 8440 — Tax treatment of the Thrift Savings Fund

(a) For purposes of the Internal Revenue Code: (1) the Fund is treated as a trust described in tax-code section 401(a) that's exempt from tax under section 501(a); (2) contributions to, or distributions from, the Fund are treated the same way as contributions to or distributions from that kind of trust; and (3) subject to tax-code sections 401(k)(4)(B) and any dollar limit under 402(a)(8), an employee's or Member's contributions to the Fund don't count as "distributed" or "made available" to them, and don't count as a contribution made by them, just because they had the choice between putting the money in the Fund or taking it as cash. (b) Nondiscrimination requirements. Despite any other law, the Fund doesn't have to follow the nondiscrimination rules that normally apply to 401(k)-type arrangements or to matching contributions under tax-code section 401(m), as long as it meets the requirements of this section. (c) This section doesn't mean that basic pay contributed to the Fund stops counting as "wages" for Social Security purposes (section 209 of the Social Security Act) or for tax-code section 3121(a) purposes.