CUNY Bulletin No. CU-212

Subject
Processing of Payroll Deductions for the New CUNY Transit Benefit Transportation Spending Account Program
Date Issued
November 12, 2004

Purpose

To notify agencies of new Deduction Codes to be used to process deductions for employees participating in the CUNY Transit Benefit Transportation Spending Account Program.

Background

Pursuant to the Mayor’s Executive Order No. 49, the Citywide Agreement and provisions of Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 132, The City University of New York (CUNY) is offering a Qualified Transportation Fringe Benefit Program.

Through this program, all full-time and part-time employees will have the opportunity to use pre-tax earnings to cover certain public transportation costs. However, Transportation Deductions over the monthly $100.00 limit allowed by IRC Section 132 will be taken as a post-tax deduction.

Affected Employees

All CUNY employees

Effective Date(s)

Paychecks dated December 9, 2004

New Deduction Codes

Four new Deduction Codes have been established for this program as follows:

438 CUNY Pre-Tax Transit Benefit: This code is to be used to process biweekly pre-tax deductions.
439 CUNY Post-Tax Transit Benefit: This code is to be used to process biweekly post tax deductions.
440 CUNY Admin. Fee Transit Benefit: This code is to be used to process biweekly CUNY Administrative Fee deductions.
441 CUNY Replacement Card Fee: This code is to be used to process a one-time fee for replacement of lost/stolen cards.

Note: Enrollment for this program is based upon two (2) deductions each month. In order to accommodate this process, new functionality is used in the Payroll System to allow for the automatic processing of these Deduction Codes (438, 439 and 440) for the first two paychecks of each month. There will be no deductions taken in the third paycheck of months where three paychecks are issued.

Agency Actions

On-Line Data Entry of Deduction Codes

Agencies must access the General Deduction CD (Agency) page and enter Deduction Codes 438, 439, 440, 441 with the applicable effective date and flat amount based upon the plan option or fee amount.

Salary Refund Exchange Processing (AC230s)

All deductions taken for the CUNY Transit Benefit Transportation program are “unrecoverable.” Please refer to Payroll Bulletin No.165 for specific instructions on this process.

Questions

Questions regarding this bulletin may be directed to the University Manager of Payroll Systems and Operations at CUNY Central Office.