CUNY Bulletin No. CU-747

Subject
Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for CUNY Employees
Date Issued
October 13, 2022

Purpose

The purpose of this bulletin is to inform agencies of the processing of the 2022 Prepaid Legal Service Benefit.

Affected Employees

The following employees are affected:

  • Employees represented by District Council 37 in Bargaining Units CC, CD, SF, SJ, T9, TG, TH, TJ, TK, TL, TM, TO, TP, TR, TU, TX, U3, U6 who also reside in one of the following zip codes
New York City Zip Codes  
Brooklyn 112XX
Bronx 104XX
Queens 110XX, 111XX, 113XX, 114XX, 116XX
Manhattan 100XX, 101XX, 102XX
Staten Island 103XX
New York State Zip Codes  
Nassau County 110XX, 115XX, 117XX, 118XX
Suffolk County 005XX, 06390, 117XX (except 11719, 11764. 11778, 11786, 11789, and 11792), 119XX
Westchester County 105XX (except 10509, 10512, 10516, 10524, 10537, 10541, 10542, and 10579), 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
  • Employees represented by Teamsters Local 237 in Bargaining Units SB, SC, SE, SL, SM, SP, ST, SU, SV, SW, SX, SZ, TS, or TT.
  • Employees represented by SEIU Local 300 in Bargaining Unit S6.

    Note:  The Zip Code criteria is only applicable to members of District Council 37.

Background

Pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 61, certain fringe benefits including employer-funded group legal service benefits are considered taxable income.  Therefore, the value of this benefit will be added to the employee’s taxable gross wages, for tax withholding purposes, and reflected on the 2022 Form W-2 (Wage and Tax Statement).

Effective Dates

Effective as of paycheck dated November 3, 2022 (Institution).

OSC Actions

OSC will automatically apply the Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for the 2022 calendar year for employees who were in a status of Active or Paid Leave and received salary from a position in one of the designated bargaining units at any time during calendar year 2022.

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, CD, SF, SJ, T9, TG, TH, TJ, TK, TL, TM, TO, TP, TR, TU, TX, U3, U6 $107.00 PL3
Teamsters Local 237 SB, SC, SE, SL, SM, SP, ST, SU, SV, SW, SX, SZ, TS, TT $133.03 PL1
SEIU Local 300 S6 $85.00 PL2

District Council 37 has determined that nonresident aliens are eligible to receive this benefit.  The Earnings Codes used to process the benefit for nonresident aliens who meet the criteria stated above are as follows:

Earnings Code NRA Income Code
XPL 18
YPL 19
ZPL 20

OSC will set up a Social Security and Medicare tax deficiency deduction for any employee who is inactive at the time the benefit is applied.  As a result, the deficiency will automatically be recovered through payroll deduction should the employee later return to the payroll.

Agency Actions

Agencies must notify affected employees.

Control-D Report

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

Tax Information

The Prepaid Legal Service Benefit is supplemental taxable income, will be added to the employee’s taxable gross wages, for tax withholding purposes, and is subject to employment and income taxes.

Federal, State, and New York City income tax withholding will be calculated using the Aggregate method.  Yonkers income tax withholding will be calculated using the Flat Rate method.  Yonkers Flat Rate withholding is 1.95975% for Yonkers residents and 0.50% for Yonkers non-residents.

Payroll Register and Employee’s Paycheck/Advice

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

Questions

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