Payroll Bulletin No. 143


		Date: December 23, 1999	Bulletin No. 143

Subject

1999 W-2 Year End Processing

Purpose

To provide processing schedule and policies.

Affected Employees

Employee copies of 1999 W-2 forms will be prepared by the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) and mailed to the agency payroll units for distribution before February 1, 2000.

W-2's for the 1999 calendar year will include earnings paid on checks dated:

Administration	1/06/99 through 12/22/99
Institution	1/14/99 through 12/30/99

An employee who has worked for more than one State agency during the year, in most circumstances, will receive one W-2. Workers’ Compensation supplemental payments will continue to be included in the W-2 statements.

As already instructed in Bulletin No. 129 dated November 19, 1999, in order for refunds of checks issued in 1999 to be properly reflected in the W-2 issued to each employee, the following deadlines must be adhered to:

For Administration agencies, AC-230's must be received by the Office of the State Comptroller no later than December 27,1999.
For Institution agencies, AC-230's must be received by the Office of the State Comptroller no later than January 3, 2000.

When possible, lost time should be processed in a subsequent payroll period through time entry. AC-230's should only be used for complete refunds or if no other options are available.

If AC-230's are not received by these deadlines, the agency payroll unit will be responsible for replacing the original W-2's with corrected W-2 forms.

1999 W-2 Form

The information which will appear on the W-2 is described below:

Box 1	Wages, Tips and Other Compensation Taxable wages are reported in this box.
Box 2	Federal Income Tax Withheld The total federal income tax withheld is in this box.
Box 3	Social Security Wages The wages subject to Social Security taxes, not to exceed $72,600.00
Box 4	Social Security Tax Withheld The Social Security Tax deducted, not to exceed $4,501.20
Box 5	Medicare Wages All wages subject to Medicare taxes. There is no salary cap on Medicare wages.
Box 6	Medicare Tax Withheld The Medicare tax deducted
Box 9	Advance EIC Payments The total earned income credit paid to an employee.
Box 10	Dependent Care The total dependent care deductions.
Box 12	Taxable Fringe Benefit The taxable fringe benefit amount. This amount reflects the value of personal use of a State vehicle and is included in Box 1.
Box 13	See Employee Notice If there is an amount in Box 13, there will be a letter code next to it. The codes are as follows and are also explained on the reverse of the W-2. E- Section 403(b) contributions G- Section 457 contributions P- Excludable moving expense reimbursements Q- Military employee basic quarters, subsistence and combat zone compensation
Box 14	Other If there is an amount in Box 14, there will be a code next to it. The codes are described below and are also explained on the reverse of the W-2.
NOTE	Multiple W-2's will be issued for employees with more than 4 items in Box 14. All categories listed below except 414(H) contributions, WC Excluded Amount and CUNY IRC section 125 amounts are included in Box 1. The 414(H) contributions are not included in Box 1, but must be reported for State and local taxes.
UTA	Uniform/Tool Allowance
EXP	Taxable Expense - This code is used for payments of "lieu of expenses", non overnight meal allowances, excess per diem reimbursements or personal car mileage.
EDA	Educational Assistance
414(H)	All non-taxable Tier 3 and Tier 4 contributions made to New York State or City retirement systems or to TIAA/CREF. This amount must be reported for state and local taxes. If there is a minus sign (-) with this amount, it can be disregarded for state and local taxes since the taxes have already been paid.
TXP	Taxable transportation fringe benefits (parking) in excess of IRS excludable amounts. This amount is part of the taxable fringe benefit amount in Box 12.
PPL	Pre-paid Legal expense. This amount is part of the taxable fringe benefit amount in Box 12.
IMP	Imputed Income - The value of the employers’ contributions for employees with Domestic Partner Health Insurance.
WCX	Workers’ Compensation excluded amount. This is the amount awarded by NYS Workers’ Compensation Baord, which is exlcuded from the gross pay for the current year for a work related injury.
IRC125	City University of New York (CUNY) employees only. This amount includes Dependent Care, Flexible Spending Account, and Non-Taxable Health Insurance and is excludable for Federal Income Tax only and is not included in Box 1. This amount must be reported for State and Local taxes.
Box 16	State A two-letter code from the list below indicating which State income taxes were withheld. NY- New York IL- Illinois DC- District of Columbia VA- Virginia
Box 18	State Income Tax The total State tax withheld is reported in this box.
Box 19	Name of Locality Name of locality if local income tax was withheld for New York City and/or Yonkers.
Box 20	Local Wage This box will be blank except for employees who were not residents of New York City for any part of the period January 1 - June 30, 1999, but earned wages in New York City. In such cases, wages earned during that time period will appear in Box 20. Questions regarding the New York City Non-Resident Earnings Tax should be referred to the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance at 1-800-225-5829.
Box 21	Local Income Tax The total local tax withheld. If both, New York City tax withheld is on top line and Yonkers tax withheld is directly below in the same box.
	Employer’s Name and Address This information will be printed on all copies of the W-2 and include the NYS Federal ID # (14-6013200), City University Federal ID# (13-3893536), NYS Environmental Facilities Corp Federal ID# (14-1499804), NYS Science and Technology Federal ID# (14-1491323), SUNY Construction Fund Federal ID#(14-6019701), Industrial Exhibit Authority Federal ID#(16-1332929) or Roswell Park Federal ID# (16-1552370)

Corrected and Reissued W-2's

Instructions will be provided with the W-2 statements.

Additional
Employee Information

Attachment A to this bulletin shows how Federal, State, Local and SS/Med taxable wages are calculated, in lieu of the absence of a W-2 reconciliation statement.

Employees should retain their last check stub of 1999 for a record of the NT Health Insurance paid in 1999. This information does not appear on the W-2.

Due to the mounting number of calls to OSC regarding Social Security wages for prior years, agencies are asked to have their employees carefully read the information on the back of the W-2. The "Note" reads, "Keep Copy C of Form W-2 for at least 3 years after the due date for filing your income tax return. However, to help protect your social security benefits, keep Copy C until you begin receiving social security benefits, in case there is a question about your work record and/or earnings for a particular year. SSA suggests you confirm your work record with them from time to time."

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Deductions mailbox.