cerned or his designee is conclusive on all other agencies of the United States. This section does not entitle a dependent to pay, allowances, or other compensation to which he is not otherwise entitled. (Pub. L. 89-554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 492.)

§ 5566. Agency determinations

(a) The head of the agency concerned or his designee may make any determination necessary to administer this subchapter, and when so made it is conclusive as to

(1) death or finding of death;

(2) the fact of dependency under this subchapter;

(3) any other status covered by this subchapter;

(4) an essential date, including one on which evidence or information is received by the head of the agency concerned; and

(5) whether information received concerning an employee is to be construed and acted on as an official report of death.

(b) When the head of the agency concerned receives information that he considers to conclusively establish the death of an employee, he shall take action thereon as an official report of death, notwithstanding an earlier action relating to death or other status of the employee. After the end of 12 months in a missing status prescribed by section 5565 of this title, the head of the agency concerned or his designee shall make a finding of death when he considers that the information received, or a lapse of time without information, establishes a reasonable presumption that an employee in a missing status is dead.

(c) The head of the agency concerned or his designee may determine the entitlement of an employee to pay and allowances under this subchapter, including credits and charges in his account, and that determination is conclusive. An account may not be charged or debited with an amount that an employee captured, beleaguered, or besieged by a hostile force may receive or be entitled to receive from, or have placed to his credit by, the hostile force as pay, allowances, or other compensation.

(d) When circumstances warrant the reconsideration of a determination made under this subchapter, the head of the agency concerned or his designee may change or modify it.

(e) When the account of an employee has been charged or debited with an allotment paid under this subchapter, the amount so charged or debited shall be recredited to the account of the employee if the head of the agency concerned or his designee determines that the payment was induced by fraud or misrepresentation to which the employee was not a party.

(f) Except an allotment for an unearned insurance premium, an allotment paid from the pay and allowances of an employee for the period he is in a missing status may not be collected from the allottee as an overpayment when payment was caused by delay in receiving evidence of death. An allotment paid for a period after the end, under this subchapter or otherwise, of entitlement to pay and allowances may not be collected from the allottee or charged against the pay of a deceased employee when payment was caused by delay in receiving

evidence of death.

(g) The head of the agency concerned or his designee may waive the recovery of an erroneous payment or overpayment of an allotment to a dependent if he considers recovery is against equity and good conscience.

(h) For the purpose of determining status under this section, a dependent of an employee in active service is deemed an employee. A determination under this section made by the head of the agency concerned or his designee is conclusive on all other agencies of the United States. This section does not entitle a dependent to pay, allowances, or other compensation to which he is not otherwise entitled. (Pub. L. 89-554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 493.)

§ 5567. Settlement of accounts

(a) The head of the agency concerned or his designee may settle the accounts of

(1) an employee for whose account payment has been made under sections 5562, 5563, and 5565 of this title; and

(2) a survivor of a casualty to a ship, station, or military installation which results in the loss or destruction of disbursing records.

That settlement is conclusive on the accounting officials of the United States in settling the accounts of disbursing officials.

(b) Payment or settlement of an account made pursuant to a report, determination, or finding of death may not be recovered or reopened because of a later report or determination which fixes a date of death. However, an account shall be reopened and settled on the basis of a date of death so fixed which is later than that used as a basis for earlier settlement.

(c) In settling the accounts of a disbursing official, he is entitled to credit for an erroneous payment or overpayment made by him in carrying out this subchapter, except section 5568, if there is no fraud or criminality by him. Recovery may not be made from an individual who authorizes a payment under this subchapter, except section 5568, if there is no fraud or criminality by him. (Pub. L. 89-554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 494.)

§ 5568. Income tax deferment

Notwithstanding other statutes, any Federal income tax return of, or the payment of any Federal income tax by, an employee who, at the time the return or payment would otherwise become due, is in a missing status does not become due until the earlier of the following dates:

(1) the fifteenth day of the third month in which he ceased (except because of death or incompetency) being in a missing status, unless before the end of that fifteenth day he is again in a missing status; or

(2) the fifteenth day of the third month after the month in which an executor, administrator, or conservator of the estate of the taxpayer is appointed.

That due date is prescribed subject to the power of the Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate to extend the time for filing the return or paying the tax, as in other cases, and to assess and collect the tax as

provided by sections 6851, 6861, and 6871 of title 26 in cases in which the assessment or collection is jeopardized and in cases of bankruptcy or receivership. (Pub. L. 89-554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 494.)

SUBCHAPTER VIII-SETTLEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

§ 5581. Definitions

For the purpose of this subchapter

(1) "employee" means

(A) an employee as defined by section 2105 of this title; and

(B) an individual employed by the government of the District of Columbia;

but does not include an employee of―

(i) a Federal land bank;

(ii) a Federal intermediate credit bank;
(iii) a regional bank for cooperatives; or

(iv) the Senate within the purview of section 36a of title 2; (2) "money due" means the pay and allowances due on account of the services of a deceased employee for the Government of the United States or the government of the District of Columbia. It includes, but is not limited to

(A) per diem instead of subsistence, mileage, and amounts due in reimbursement of travel expenses, including incidental and miscellaneous expenses in connection therewith for which reimbursement is due;

(B) allowances on change of official station;

(C) quarters and cost-of-living allowances and overtime or

premium pay;

(D) amounts due for payment of cash awards for employees' suggestions;

(E) amounts due as refund of pay deductions for United States Savings bonds;

(F) payment for accumulated and current accrued annual or vacation leave equal to the pay the deceased employee would have received had he lived and remained in the service until the end of the period of annual or vacation leave;

(G) amounts of checks drawn for pay and allowances which were not delivered by the Government to the employee during his lifetime;

(H) amounts of unnegotiated checks returned to the Government because of the death of the employee; and

(I) retroactive pay under section 5344 (a) (2) of this title. It does not include benefits, refunds, or interest payable under subchapter III of chapter 83 of this title applicable to the service of the deceased employee, or amounts the disposition of which is otherwise expressly prescribed by Federal statute.

(Pub. L. 89-554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 495.)

§ 5582. Designation of beneficiary; order of precedence

(a) The employing agency shall notify each employee of his right to designate a beneficiary or beneficiaries to receive money due, and of the disposition of money due if a beneficiary is not designated. An employee may change or revoke a designation at any time under such regulations as the Comptroller General of the United States may prescribe.

(b) In order to facilitate the settlement of the accounts of deceased employees, money due an employee at the time of his death shall be paid to the person or persons surviving at the date of death, in the following order of precedence, and the payment bars recovery by another person of amounts so paid:

First, to the beneficiary or beneficiaries designated by the employee in a writing received in the employing agency before his death.

Second, if there is no designated beneficiary, to the widow or widower of the employee.

Third, if none of the above, to the child or children of the employee and descendants of deceased children by representation. Fourth, if none of the above, to the parents of the employee or the survivor of them.

Fifth, if none of the above, to the duly appointed legal representative of the estate of the employee.

Sixth, if none of the above, to the person or persons entitled under the laws of the domicile of the employee at the time of his death.

(Pub. L. 89-554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 495.)

§ 5583. Payment of money due; settlement of accounts

(a) Under such regulations as the Comptroller General of the United States may prescribe, the employing agency shall pay money due a deceased employee to the beneficiary designated by the employee under section 5582(b) of this title, or, if none, to the widow or widower of the employee.

(b) Except as the Comptroller General may by regulation otherwise authorize or direct, accounts not payable under subsection (a) of this section are payable on settlement of the General Accounting Office. However—

(1) accounts of employees of the government of the District of Columbia shall be paid by the District of Columbia;

(2) accounts of employees of the Canal Zone Government on the Isthmus of Panama shall be paid by the Canal Zone Government; and

(3) accounts of employees of Government corporations or mixed ownership Government corporations may be paid by the corporations.

(Pub. L. 89-554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 496.)

§ 5584. Claims for overpayment of pay

(a) A claim of the United States against a person arising out of an erroneous payment of pay, on or after July 1, 1960, to an employee of an executive agency, the collection of which would be against equity and good conscience and not in the best interests of the United States, may be waived in whole or in part by

(1) the Comptroller General of the United States; or

(2) the head of the executive agency when

(A) the claim is in an amount aggregating not more than $500;

(B) the claim is not the subject of an exception made by the Comptroller General in the account of any accountable official; and

(C) the waiver is made in accordance with standards which the Comptroller General shall prescribe.

(b) The Comptroller General or the head of the executive agency, as the case may be, may not exercise his authority under this section to waive any claim

(1) if, in his opinion, there exists, in connection with the claim, an indication of fraud, misrepresentation, fault, or lack of good faith on the part of the employee or any other person having an interest in obtaining a waiver of the claim; or

(2) after the expiration of three years immediately following the date on which the erroneous payment of pay was discovered or three years immediately following the effective date of this section, whichever it later.

(c) A person who has repaid to the United States all or part of the amount of a claim, with respect to which a waiver is granted under this section, is entitled, to the extent of the waiver, to refund, by the employing agency at the time of the erroneous payment, of the amount repaid to the United States, if he applies to that employing agency for that refund within two years following the effective date of the waiver. The employing agency shall pay that refund in accordance with this section.

(d) In the audit and settlement of the accounts of any accountable official, full credit shall be given for any amounts with respect to which collection by the United States is waived under this section. (e) An erroneous payment, the collection of which is waived under this section, is deemed a valid payment for all purposes.

(f) This section does not affect any authority under any other statute to litigate, settle, compromise, or waive any claim of the United States. (Added Pub. L. 90-616, § 1(a), Oct. 21, 1968, 82 Stat. 1212.)

SUBCHAPTER IX-SEVERANCE PAY AND BACK PAY

§§ 5591-5594. Repealed. Pub. L. 90–83, § 1(34)(B), Sept. 11, 1967, 81 Stat. 201

§ 5595. Severance pay

(a) For the purpose of this section

(1) "agency" means—

(A) an Executive agency;