State Agencies Bulletin No. 290

Subject
2001 W-2 Year End Processing
Date Issued
November 23, 2001

Purpose

To provide the processing schedule and policies.

Year-End Processing Schedule

Employee copies of 2001 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, 2002.

W-2s for the 2001 calendar year will include earnings paid on checks dated:

Administration: 1/03/2001 through 12/19/2001
Institution: 1/11/2001 through 12/27/2001

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 instructed in Bulletin No. 274 dated October 10, 2001, in order for refund checks issued in 2001 to be properly reflected in the W-2 issued to each employee, AC-230s must be processed by the dates provided in Bulletin No. 274. The remaining submission dates are as follows:

12/14/2001 Checks dated before 11/30/2001
12/27/2001 (Administration) Checks dated 12/1-12/31/2001
01/02/2002 (Institution) Checks dated 12/1 - 12/31/2001

If AC-230s are not received by the deadlines outlined in Bulletin No. 274 the agency payroll unit will be responsible for replacing the original W-2s with corrected W-2 forms. W-2 correction instructions will be provided in January 2002.

2001 W-2 Form

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

Box 1 Wages, Tips and Other Compensation
  Federal 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 $80,400.00.
Box 4 Social Security Tax Withheld
  The Social Security Tax deducted, not to exceed $4,984.80.
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 Benefits
  The total dependent care deductions.
Box 12 Codes (Amounts not included in Box 1)
  E - Section 403(b) contributions

G - Section 457(b) deferred compensation plan

P - Excludable moving expense reimbursements (not included also in boxes 3, and 5)

Q - Military employee basic housing, subsistence and combat zone compensation
Box 13 Checkbox
  [ ] Retirement Plan
Box 14 Other
Amounts to be reported:
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.
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.
FRB Taxable fringe benefit - lease value of employer-provided vehicle
EDA Educational assistance payments
TXP Taxable transportation fringe benefits (parking) in excess of IRS excludable amounts.
PPL Pre-paid legal expense
IMP Imputed income - The value of the employer's contributions for employees with Domestic Partner Health Insurance.
WCX Workers' Compensation excluded amount. This is the amount awarded by NYS Workers' Compensation Board, which is excluded 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, FICA and Medicare taxes, and is not included in Boxes 1, 3, and 5. This amount must be reported for State and Local Taxes.
   
Box 15 State  Employer's State ID number
  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 17 State Income Tax
  The total State tax withheld is reported in this box.
Box 19 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.
Box 20 Name of Locality
  Name of locality if local income tax was withheld for New York City and /or City of Yonkers.

Employer's Name and Address

This information will be printed on all copies of the W-2 and includes 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) OR Industrial Exhibit Authority Federal ID # (16-1332929).

Additional Employee Information

Employees from agencies other than CUNY should retain their last check stub of 2001 for a record of the Non-Taxable Health Insurance paid in 2001. Although this amount is deducted from boxes 1, 3, and 5 to calculate the taxable salary for federal income tax and social security and medicare taxes this amount does not appear on the W-2.

For CUNY employees, deductions for Dependent Care, Flexible Spending Account and Non-taxable Health Insurance are encoded as IRC125 in Box 14.

Questions

Questions regarding the W-2 process or the AC-230 process may be directed to the Payroll Deductions mailbox.