Unified Court System Bulletin No. UCS-140

Subject
Prepaid Legal Service Benefit for Unified Court System (USC) Employees
Date Issued
October 2, 2008

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, 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 his/her W-2 Statement.

Affected Employees

Employees represented by District Council 37 in Bargaining Unit SK who reside within the Zip Codes listed below and receive a paycheck or direct deposit advice statement dated October 1, 2008:

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 109XX

Effective Date

Paychecks dated October 15, 2008

OSC Actions

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

Union Bargaining Unit Value Earnings Code
DC 37, Local 1070 SK $107.00 PL3

Note: This benefit also will be processed in paychecks dated December 10, 2008 for employees who receive a paycheck or direct deposit advice statement dated November 26, 2008, and for whom the benefit was not applied in October.

Agency Actions

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 statement.

Questions

Questions regarding this Bulletin may be directed to the Payroll Deductions mailbox.