Navigating the Intel severance package: your guide and action plan

Between August 2024 and the end of 2025 Intel ran two restructuring plans, offered buyouts and enhanced retirement, and filed layoff notices in Oregon, Arizona, California and other states. If you have a separation notice, a few decisions carry deadlines and the rest can wait. This guide sets out what the packages reportedly contained, labelled as such, then takes each decision in deadline order; it pairs with our Intel benefits guide, which explains the programs the package unwinds.

What Intel's 2024 to 2025 packages reportedly included

Intel does not publish its rank-and-file severance formula. What is verifiable comes from SEC filings and WARN notices; the rest comes from press reports, mainly The Oregonian, which covers Intel's largest US site.

From Intel's filings and notices

• On August 1, 2024, the then-CEO told employees Intel would cut "roughly 15,000 roles, or 15% of our workforce," and would offer "a companywide enhanced retirement offering for eligible employees" plus a voluntary departure program (memo). A September 16 follow-up said those offerings had taken Intel "more than halfway" to the target.
• Intel's October 2024 8-K put the reduction at 16,500 employees with $2.2 billion of severance and exit charges, "substantially all of which will entail future cash expenditures."
• The July 2025 earnings release announced a plan to "reduce our core Intel workforce by 15% by the end of fiscal 2025," with $1.4 billion of severance charges that quarter; the fiscal 2025 10-K reports severance and benefit charges of $1.79 billion in 2025 and $2.48 billion in 2024.
• Intel's July 2025 Oregon WARN notice, as described by local coverage, gave employees at least 60 days' notice or about four weeks' notice plus "nine weeks of pay and benefits in lieu of further notice." Pay in lieu of notice is the WARN minimum, separate from severance paid for a release.

Reported terms

• 2024 buyouts. The Oregonian reported offers of "at least 13 weeks of pay, plus 1.5 additional weeks for each year they had been with the company," with prorated bonuses and extended health benefits (via The Astorian, January 2025).
• 2025 layoffs. Coverage citing The Oregonian described 13 weeks of base pay plus 1.5 weeks per year of service and a year of health coverage (Notebookcheck, July 2025).

Treat every reported figure as a starting point for reading your own agreement; under the reported 2025 formula a 10-year employee would see 28 weeks of base pay and a 20-year employee 43 weeks, and your letter states the actual number.

The separation agreement and release

Severance beyond WARN pay is paid in exchange for a signed release of claims; Intel's 2024 executive separation agreement shows the pattern, with payment conditioned on signing, not revoking, and the agreement taking effect within 60 days. For employees 40 and older, federal age-discrimination law (29 U.S.C. 626(f)) requires at least 21 days to consider a release, 45 days in a group program, and seven days to revoke after signing. Use the time to read for the exact pay amount and whether it is a lump sum or salary continuation; bonus treatment; how long health coverage continues; equity; and non-compete, non-solicit and non-disparagement clauses. An hour with an employment lawyer is cheap relative to the amounts involved.

How severance is taxed and withheld

Severance is ordinary wages: subject to income tax, Social Security and Medicare, and reported on your W-2. For withholding it is "supplemental wages": IRS Publication 15 (2026) lists "severance pay" among supplemental wages and lets employers withhold a flat 22% federal income tax, with 37% on amounts above $1 million in the year. For most Intel engineers 22% is below the actual marginal rate, especially in a year with final RSU vests and a bonus; a single filer's 32% bracket starts at $201,775 of taxable income in 2026 and the 35% bracket at $256,225 (IRS inflation adjustments). Set the gap aside the day the payment lands.

Two timing points: a lump sum paid in December rather than January lands in a different tax year, so if your agreement allows and next year's income will be lower, later is better; and final paychecks can carry extra 401(k) deferrals up to the $24,500 limit if you have not reached it and the plan treats the pay as eligible compensation.

COBRA versus the marketplace

If your package pays health premiums for a period, that period runs on Intel's plan through COBRA. After it ends you have two routes. COBRA keeps the same plan, usually for up to 18 months after termination, at up to 102% of the plan's full cost; you have 60 days from the later of losing coverage or receiving the election notice to enroll, retroactively. A marketplace plan through HealthCare.gov is the alternative: losing job-based coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and premium tax credits depend on the year's household income, often lower after a layoff. Stay on COBRA through any Intel-paid period and any deductible already met, then compare the full COBRA premium against the marketplace. HSA contributions can continue only while your coverage stays HSA-eligible; the 2026 limits are $4,400 self-only and $8,750 family.

Your 401(k): roll over, stay or withdraw

Your deferrals and Intel's match are fully vested. Pre-2020 discretionary Intel contributions vest over six years and the unvested portion is forfeited at termination, so check your percentage before your last day if you are near a milestone. Then choose among three options.

1. Leave it in Intel's plan. No tax event and institutional fund pricing. A reasonable default while you decide.
2. Roll it over. To an IRA or a new employer's plan, by direct rollover: the IRS requires 20% mandatory withholding on an eligible rollover distribution paid to you, and you have 60 days to redeposit the full amount including the withheld part. Keep after-tax and Roth money separate from pre-tax money.
3. Withdraw. Taxable, and generally subject to a 10% additional tax before 59 and a half, with one exception that matters here: plan distributions after separating from service in or after the year you turn 55 are exempt from the 10% tax. That applies to the 401(k), not an IRA, so if you are 55 to 59 and may need the money, do not roll the whole balance.

Repay any 401(k) loan before you leave or arrange to keep repaying; an unpaid balance becomes a taxable distribution.

Unvested RSUs and the ESPP

Under Intel's standard RSU terms, unvested units are cancelled when employment ends other than by death, disability or retirement. Two retirement definitions can save part of a grant: "Standard Retirement" at age 60 and the "Rule of 75," where age plus whole years of service reaches 75 (standard terms). The acceleration depends on your grant's version, so read your Notice of Grant on E*TRADE; if you are a few months short of a Rule of 75 date, raise it in the negotiation, since a later separation date can be worth more than extra weeks of pay. Final-month vests are withheld at 22% federal; the RSU tax calculator estimates the shortfall and the RSU tax guide covers selling shares to fund it.

For the ESPP, Intel's plan document provides that if you leave before a subscription period ends, "all amounts credited to the Participant's account shall be paid to the Participant" without interest, unless your last day falls inside a short committee-set window (at most 30 days before the purchase date), in which case the purchase completes first. Shares already bought are yours; selling them within two years of the grant date is a disqualifying disposition with the discount taxed as ordinary income, and the ESPP calculator shows the difference.

SERPLUS payouts

If you participated in Intel's deferred compensation plan, separation triggers the payout election on file for each year's deferrals: by default a lump sum soon after termination for pre-2020 amounts and a lump sum the following March for post-2020 company contributions, or five- or ten-year installments if elected; specified employees face a six-month delay. All of it is ordinary income when received, with no further deferral possible under Section 409A, and a lump sum in the same year as severance and final vests can push the stack into the 35% or 37% bracket. You cannot change the election now, but knowing the date lets you sequence everything else; the SERPLUS guide covers the rules in full.

Unemployment benefits

File with the state where you worked in the first week after your last day, even while severance is still arriving; some states delay benefits during severance, others do not, and the claim date sets your benefit year. Benefits are taxable: the IRS confirms unemployment compensation is taxable income, reported on Form 1099-G, and Form W-4V requests federal withholding. Weekly maximums vary by state.

A 90-day cash-flow plan

When	Do
Week 1	Read the agreement; calendar the sign-by, revocation, COBRA and WARN dates. File for unemployment. Download pay stubs, the RSU grant list and 401(k) and SERPLUS statements before portal access ends.
Weeks 1 to 3	Negotiate what is negotiable (separation date relative to vest or Rule of 75 dates, bonus proration, premium months). Sign only once you understand the equity and bonus terms.
Day severance lands	Move the estimated tax shortfall on severance and vests into a separate savings account. Set aside three months of fixed costs as a floor.
Month 1	Elect COBRA or a marketplace plan before day 60. Leave the 401(k) in place for now unless you have a reason to move it. Sell or hold vested shares deliberately.
Month 2	Rebuild a monthly budget on unemployment plus severance only. Pause automatic investment contributions outside the match; resume when income restarts.
Month 3	Revisit the 401(k) rollover, SERPLUS timing and the year's tax picture, ideally with a projection of total income before December.

If your package and equity run into the mid six figures, the separation year is also a planning window, since low-income years are the cheapest time to convert pre-tax retirement money to Roth; see financial planning for high earners.

Common mistakes

1. Signing on day one. The release is final; use the statutory review period to check equity, bonus and health terms.
2. Spending the severance before setting aside tax. At 22% withholding, a $90,000 package for an employee in the 32% bracket leaves a $9,000 federal shortfall before state tax.
3. Letting COBRA lapse. Sixty days passes quickly, and a coverage gap is also an HSA-eligibility gap.
4. Rolling a 401(k) to an IRA at 55 to 59. You give up penalty-free access that the plan would have allowed.
5. Forgetting the SERPLUS date. A default March lump sum can double your taxable income in the year after a layoff.
6. Ignoring the Rule of 75. Months of extra service can convert cancelled RSUs into vested shares.

Severance terms, COBRA rules and plan provisions change. Confirm the figures in your separation agreement, Intel's benefits portal and plan documents, and the current limits and withholding rates on irs.gov and dol.gov before acting.

Related guides

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• Financial advisor vs. financial consultant: what's the difference, and which is better for you?
• Apple employee benefits: a comprehensive guide
• Microsoft employee benefits, explained