{"data":{"id":"us/45-cfr-2506.3","jurisdiction":"us","citation":"45 CFR 2506.3","heading":"What definitions apply to the regulations in this part?","body":"As used in this part:\nAdministrative offset means withholding funds payable by the United States (including funds payable by the United States on behalf of a State government) to, or held by the United States for, a person to satisfy a debt.\nAdministrative wage garnishment means a process whereby a Federal agency may, without first obtaining a court order, order an employer to withhold up to 15 percent of your disposable pay for payment to the Federal agency to satisfy a delinquent non-tax debt.\nAgency means a department, agency, court, court administrative office, or instrumentality in the executive, judicial, or legislative branch of government, including a government corporation.\nCertification means a written statement received by a paying agency or disbursing official from a creditor agency that requests the paying agency or disbursing official to offset the salary of an employee and specifies that required procedural protections have been afforded the employee.\nChief Executive Officer means the Chief Executive Officer of the Corporation, or his or her designee.\nClaim (see definition of Debt in this section).\nCompromise means the settlement of a debt for less than the full amount owed.\nCorporation means the Corporation for National and Community Service.\nCreditor agency means the agency to which the debt is owed, including a debt collection center when acting on behalf of the creditor agency.\nCross-servicing agreement is a letter of agreement entered into between the Corporation and the Financial Management Service (FMS) of the Treasury in which the Corporation has authorized FMS to take all appropriate actions to enforce collection of debts or groups of debts referred to FMS by the Corporation. These debt collection services are provided by FMS on behalf of the Corporation in accordance with all statutory and regulatory requirements.\nDay means calendar day. To count days, include the last day of the period unless it is a Saturday, a Sunday, or a Federal legal holiday.\nDebt and claim are deemed synonymous and interchangeable. These terms mean an amount of money, funds, or property that has been determined by an agency official to be due the United States from any person, organization, or entity except another Federal agency. For the purpose of administrative offset under 31 U.S.C. 3716 and subpart E of these regulations, the terms, “debt” and “claim” also include money, funds or property owed by a person to a State (including past-due support being enforced by a State); the District of Columbia; American Samoa; Guam; the United States Virgin Islands; the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.\nDebt collection center means the Treasury or any other agency or division designated by the Secretary of the Treasury with authority to collect debts on behalf of creditor agencies.\nDebtor means a person, organization, or entity, except another Federal agency, who owes a debt. Use of the terms “I,” “you,” “me,” and similar references to the reader of the regulations in this part are meant to apply to debtors as defined in this paragraph.\nDelinquent debt means a debt that has not been paid by the date specified in the Corporation's initial written demand for payment or applicable agreement or instrument (including a post-delinquency payment agreement), unless other satisfactory payment arrangements have been made.\nDisposable pay means the part of an employee's pay that remains after deductions that are required to be withheld by law have been made.\nEmployee means a current employee of an agency, including a current member of the Armed Forces or Reserve of the Armed Forces of the United States.\nFederal Claims Collection Standards (FCCS) means the standards currently published by DOJ and the Treasury at 31 CFR parts 900-904.\nPaying agency means any agency that is making payments of any kind to a debtor. In some cases, the Corporation may be both the creditor agency and the paying agency.\nPayroll office means the office that is primarily responsible for payroll records and the coordination of pay matters with the appropriate personnel office.\nPerson includes a natural person or persons, profit or non-profit corporation, partnership, association, trust, estate, consortium, state or local government, or other entity that is capable of owing a debt to the United States; however, agencies of the United States are excluded.\nPrivate collection contractor means a private debt collector under contract with an agency to collect a non-tax debt owed to the United States.\nSalary offset means a payroll procedure to collect a debt under 5 U.S.C. 5514 and 31 U.S.C. 3716 by deduction(s) at one or more officially established pay intervals from the current pay account of an employee, without his or her consent.\nTax refund offset means the reduction of a tax refund by the amount of a past-due legally enforceable debt owed to the Corporation or any other Federal agency.\nWaiver means the cancellation, remission, forgiveness, or non-recovery of a debt.\nWithholding order means any order for withholding or garnishment of pay issued by an agency, or judicial or administrative body.","path":["Title 45—Public Welfare","Subtitle B—Regulations Relating to Public Welfare","CHAPTER XXV—CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE","PART 2506—COLLECTION OF DEBTS","Subpart A—Introduction"],"source_url":"https://www.ecfr.gov/api/versioner/v1/full/2026-08-25/title-45.xml","current_through":"2026-08-25","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T02:26:21Z","sha256":"de060f1af7696d2caf9bb4d0eadb2f5387d52e2cb6de68796a8f098006401f3f","source_id":"us-cfr","stale":true,"prev":"us/45-cfr-2506.2","next":"us/45-cfr-2506.4"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}