CUNY Bulletin No. CU-391

Subject
Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for CUNY Employees
Date Issued
November 20, 2009

Purpose

To explain processing of the 2009 Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for tax purposes.

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 2009 W-2 Statement.

Affected Employees

Employees represented by District Council 37 in the bargaining units listed below who reside within the following zip codes:

New York City Zip Codes
Brooklyn 112XX
Bronx 104XX
Queens 110XX, 111XX, 113XX, 114XX
Manhattan 100XX, 101XX, 102XX
Staten Island 103XX
New York State Zip Codes
Nassau County 110XX, 115XX, 116XX, 117XX, 118XX
Suffolk County 117XX (except 11719, 11764, 11778, 11786, 11789 & 11792)
Westchester County 105XX, 106XX, 107XX, 108XX
Rockland County 10901, 10911, 10913, 10920, 10923, 10927, 10931, 10952, 10954, 10956, 10960, 10962, 10964, 10965, 10968, 10970, 10974, 10976, 10977, 10980, 10982, 10983, 10984, 10986, 10989, 10993, 10994

Also affected are all employees who are represented by Teamsters, Local 237 or SEIU, Local 300 in the bargaining units listed below.  

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

Effective Date(s)

Paychecks dated December 17, 2009 (Institution)

OSC Actions

OSC will automatically apply the Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for the 2009 calendar year for employees in a status of Active or Paid Leave who received a paycheck in 2009.Listed below are the unions, bargaining units, values of the Prepaid Legal Service Benefit and the Earnings Codes:

Union Bargaining Units Value Earnings Code
District Council 37 CC, SF, SJ, T9, TG, TH, TJ, TK, TL, TM, TO,TP, TR, TU, TX, TW, U3, U6 $107.00 PL3
Teamsters, Local
237
SB, SC, SE, SL*, SM, SP,ST, SU, SV, SW, SX, SZ, TS, TT $80.95 PL1
SEIU, Local 300 S6 $78.00 PL2

*Excluding SL Hourly job code 016366

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

Earn Code NRA Income Code
XPL IC 17
YPL IC 18
ZPL IC 19

Agencies should notify affected employees.

Control-D Report

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

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice

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

Questions

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