Subject

Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for Unified Court System Employees

Purpose

To explain processing of the Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for tax purposes for the 2008 calendar year.

Background

In accordance with the Internal Revenue Code, Section 61, it is required that the value of employer-funded group legal service benefits be considered as reportable income for each covered employee.  Therefore, the value of this benefit will be added to the employee’s earnings and reflected on the 2008 W-2 Statement.

Affected Employees

Employees represented by District Council 37, Local 1070, in Bargaining Unit SK, who reside within the following zip codes, receive a paycheck or direct deposit advice statement dated November 26, 2008, and did not receive the benefit payment in October 2008.

Also affected are all employees who are represented by CWA, Local 1180, in Bargaining Unit SD, who receive a paycheck or direct deposit advice statement dated November 26, 2008, and did not receive the benefit in October 2008.

Note: Zip code criteria only apply to members of District Council 37.

Effective Date

Paychecks dated December 10, 2008 (Administration).

OSC will automatically apply the Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for the 2008 calendar year.  Listed below are the unions, bargaining units, value of the Prepaid Legal Service Benefit, and the Earnings Code:

DC 37 has determined that nonresident aliens are eligible to receive this benefit.  OSC has created three new Earn Codes to process the benefit for nonresident aliens who meet the criteria above: 

Notify affected employees.

Control-D report NPAY771 (Time Entry Payment Report) will list all employees for whom the Prepaid Legal Service Benefit was processed.

The applicable earnings code and the value will be displayed on the payroll register and the employee’s paycheck stub or direct deposit advice.