Purpose

To ensure compliance with New York City tax withholding requirements, OSC is using county information to determine taxability. This bulletin provides instructions to determine and record the county of residence of employees.

Background

Since many facets of taxation rely on county information, the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC) has begun populating employees’ county of residence in PayServ. OSC is using the postal code to confirm the county of residence. This initiative is currently limited to the counties of New York City (New York, Richmond, Kings, Queens and Bronx) and the counties of Nassau and Westchester where postal codes overlap New York City.

Affected Employees

All employees who have a Home address in PayServ of New York City or the surrounding area

Effective Date

Immediately

OSC Actions

OSC has populated the county value for employees who reside in postal codes that fall entirely within the jurisdiction of New York City. OSC has also identified employees who reside in the surrounding areas of New York City where the specific county of residence is unclear.

Two Control-D reports have been issued: NPAY708 “New York City County Field Mismatch” and NPAY709 “NYC Reportable Wage Zip Code Identification”. All employees listed in these reports have a PayServ record that is inconsistent or incomplete and must be updated by the agency.

Control-D Reports

The NPAY708, “New York City County Field Mismatch” report, identifies employees whose record needs correction due to a postal code and county value mismatch. The postal code indicates a New York City residence, but the county value is not in New York City.

The NPAY709, “NYC Reportable Wage Zip Code Identification,” is a four-part report. It identifies employees who live in a postal code that can be in either of two counties. In all cases, agencies must determine if the employee lives within the taxable jurisdiction of New York City (defined as residence within the counties of New York, Richmond, Kings, Queens and Bronx) or one of the adjoining counties (Nassau or Westchester).

The four messages on the report are:

1. Incorrect County Value - This message identifies employees who live in a postal code that does not match the county value. While the postal code may be valid for New York City, the county is not valid for the postal code. Either the county field or the postal code needs correction.
2. Enter county value and confirm tax locality information - This message identifies employees with P0001 in the Locality field of the Employee Tax Data page, and a blank county value. The county value must be entered. If the correct county for the employee is Nassau or Westchester, the Tax Data page also must be corrected, as this employee is not subject to NYC tax.
3. Enter county value to indicate why locality is not necessary - This message identifies employees who do not have P0001 in the Locality field of the Employee Tax Data page and a blank county value, but the postal code indicates that the county could be either NYC or a surrounding county. The county value must be entered. If the correct county is a NYC county, the Tax Data page also must be corrected as this employee is subject to NYC tax.
4. Update Employee Tax Data - This message identifies employees with a county value of Queens or Bronx who do not have P0001 in the Locality field of the Employee Tax Data page. The Tax Data page must be updated.

These two reports will be issued on a weekly basis and will be retained in Control-D for a period of 35 days.

Agency Actions

For each scenario identified in the reports, a specific action needs to be performed by the agency as described below:

NPAY708 Report

For each employee who appears on the report, the agency must review the Address tab on the Personal Data page in PayServ. The agency must correct either the postal code or the county value.

NPAY709 Report

Incorrect County Value

For employees who appear under the first message, the agency must review the Address tab on the Personal Data page in PayServ. The agency must correct either the postal code or the county value.

Enter county value and confirm tax locality information and Enter county value to indicate why locality is not necessary

For employees who appear under the second and third messages, the agency must determine the county value for the employee and populate the county value in the Address tab on the Personal Data page. The agency also must verify that P0001 is entered on the Employee Tax Data page for employees who reside in counties within the taxable jurisdiction of New York City.

Update Employee Tax Data

For employees who appear under the fourth message, the agency must verify that the county value that is displayed in the Address tab on the Personal Data page is correct for the employee and insert P0001 in the Employee Tax Data page.

Instructions to perform these actions are as follows:

• If the county field must be populated, the agency should contact the employee to obtain the information.  If that is not possible, the following tools are available to determine the correct county:
  • Sales Tax Jurisdiction and Rate Lookup website found at http://www.tax.state.ny.us/nyshome/online.htm may help determine if the address lies within New York City.
  • The United States Postal Service website found at https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action may help in determining an error in postal code.
  • Instructions to populate the county field:
    1. Navigate to the employee’s Personal Data page:
       Home > Administer Workforce > Administer Workforce (GBL) > Use > Personal Data
    2. Under the Address History tab, insert a row with an effective date of the day after the employee began residency in that county. (For example, if the employee moved to Queens on June 12, insert a row with the effective date of June 13.) If the employee has been in the county for longer than 2009, make sure there is a row with a county entered effective dated at least as far back as January 1, 2009.
    3. Populate the county in which the employee resides. Use the entire name of the county. Do not use abbreviations. Accurate county spelling is necessary.
    4. Save the page.
• If the employee needs a historical entry (any row behind the current row, but still in effect in 2009) updated or corrected, please send an email to the Tax and Compliance mailbox. Include the employee’s name, the last four digits of the EmplID and a brief outline of the corrective action that is necessary.
• If an update to the Tax Locality information is required,
  1. Navigate to the employee’s Tax Data page: Home > Compensate Employees > Maintain Payroll Data (US) > Use > Employee Tax Data
  2. Insert a row using an effective date of the first day of the pay period being processed.
  3. Click on the Local Tax Data tab and populate the locality value with P0001 (three zeros) and make sure the resident box is checked.
  4. Save the page.

Please be aware that employees may appear more than once on these reports. Agencies must take specific action based on each message on the report and more than one entry may need to be updated.

Please notify OSC of corrections and/or updates by sending an email to the Tax and Compliance mailbox by September 18, 2009.

Note: Agencies must populate the county field for all future hires and updates to addresses. This will eliminate the appearance of these employees on subsequent Control-D reports.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.