2. Annual, multi-year and no-year money¶
Short answer: the appropriation's wording sets how long money can be committed, and the Treasury books each period of availability to its own Treasury Account Symbol (TAS). Annual, multi-year and no-year money therefore sit in separate sub-accounts, and every report on budget execution is kept per TAS.
How the law sets the period¶
| Wording in the appropriation | Type | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| No period stated | Annual | Available for obligation for one fiscal year or less; one year is the default unless the act says otherwise (A-11 sec. 20.4(c), PDF p. 66). An appropriation in a regular annual act is available beyond the fiscal year only if it expressly says so (31 U.S.C. 1301(c)). |
| "to remain available until September 30, 2012" (in a 2011 act) | Multi-year | Two-year budget authority in A-11's example (PDF p. 67) |
| "to remain available until expended" | No-year | Obligations can be incurred indefinitely (A-11, PDF p. 67) |
The balance of a fixed-period appropriation can be used only for expenses properly incurred during its period of availability, or to complete contracts properly made within it (31 U.S.C. 1502(a)).
How the Treasury Account Symbol records it¶
A TAS has seven components (USAspending glossary; Treasury GTAS bulk-file format FY2026, PDF p. 1):
| Component | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ATA, allocation transfer agency | the agency receiving funds through an allocation transfer (blank if none) |
| AID, agency identifier | the department or agency responsible for the account |
| BPOA, beginning period of availability | the first year an annual or multi-year TAS may incur new obligations |
| EPOA, ending period of availability | the last year an annual or multi-year TAS may incur new obligations |
| Availability type code | X = no-year; F = clearing or suspense; C = default; blank for a TAS with a period of availability |
| MAIN, main account code | the type and purpose of the fund |
| SUB, sub-account code | a Treasury-defined subdivision; 000 = none |
A federal account on USAspending is the agency identifier plus the main account code; it groups all the TAS of one account across periods of availability (USAspending glossary and data dictionary). Main account numbers 8000-8399 and 8500-8999 are trust fund expenditure accounts, and 8400-8499 trust revolving funds (A-11 sec. 20.11, PDF p. 91).
A real example. Federal account 028-8704, Salaries and Expenses, Social Security Administration, reported fiscal year 2025 activity under three kinds of TAS (USAspending API, federal account 028-8704, FY2025):
| TAS | Type |
|---|---|
028-2025/2025-8704-000 |
annual (FY2025 only) |
028-2025/2026-8704-000 |
two-year (FY2025-2026) |
028-X-8704-000 |
no-year |
The trust funds are no-year accounts: the OASI fund reports under 028-X-8006-000 (also shown as 028-028-X-8006-000), DI under 028-X-8007-000, HI under 075-X-8005-000 and SMI under 075-X-8004-000. The general-fund payment into the Medicare trust funds, federal account 075-0580, Payments to Health Care Trust Funds, is by contrast annual: its fiscal year 2025 activity is in TAS such as 075-2025/2025-0580-000 (USAspending API, FY2025).
The life of a fixed-period account¶
- Unexpired: from the BPOA through the EPOA, new obligations may be made.
- Expired: for five years after the period ends, no new obligations may be made, but the account keeps its fiscal-year identity and can still record, adjust and pay obligations properly chargeable to it (31 U.S.C. 1553(a); A-11, PDF p. 68).
- Closed: on September 30 of the fifth fiscal year after the period of availability ends, the account is closed and any remaining balance, obligated or not, is canceled (31 U.S.C. 1552(a); A-11, PDF p. 68). An obligation that would have been charged to the closed account can afterwards be paid from a current appropriation available for the same purpose (1553(b)(1)), but such charges may not exceed 1 percent of the total appropriations for that current account (1553(b)(2)).
No-year money has no expired phase (A-11, PDF p. 43). A no-year account is closed, and its balance canceled, when the agency head or the President determines that its purposes have been carried out and no disbursement has been made against it for two consecutive fiscal years (31 U.S.C. 1555).
What this means for comparing spending with appropriations¶
- A year's outlays are not that year's appropriations. Outlays in a fiscal year can come from several open TAS: this year's annual money, multi-year money from earlier acts, no-year balances and expired accounts paying old obligations.
- The meaningful comparison is per TAS over its whole life: the budget authority provided, the cumulative obligations against it, the cumulative outlays, and the balance canceled when it closes.
- The SF 133 (Section 3) is filed for every expired and unexpired TAS, so this comparison can be made from published data.