CAR Newsletter August 2021

Volume 32, Number 2 | Fiscal Year 2022 | Aug. 11, 2021

• Oklahoma Child Support: Medical Support Orders
• Employees Teleworking – Primary Location Outside of Oklahoma
• Employee Overpayments and OMES Form 94P Submission
• Employee Name and Social Security Number Entries in HCM
• Social Security Number Changes
• Compensation to Current and Former Employees, Including Settlements
• Transparency Reporting: Reminders
• Transfers for FY22 General Revenue Fund Collections
• Late Payment to Vendors – New Interest Rate – FY 2022
• POs Created for FY 22 with TBD
• American Payroll Association Monthly Lunch & Learn – OKC Chapter Meeting
• AGA Webinars
• Oklahoma Statewide Payroll Conference
• Statewide Financial Policy Training
• Payroll Law
• Form W-4 and Other Payroll Updates

Please thoroughly review any medical support orders received on employees and respond accordingly. Child Support Services is required to send a National Medical Support Notice (NMSN) and an Income Withholding Order within two business days after the date CSS is notified of an employee who is an obligor in a child support case. Additionally, you may receive an NMSN for an employee who is the custodian of a child if the child support order requires that person to provide health insurance for that child.

Employers and insurers must comply with the NMSN. An NMSN consists of four documents, and the total amount withheld for child support, health insurance premiums and cash medical support cannot exceed the Consumer Credit Protection Act withholding limits. The Oklahoma Department of Human Services Child Support Employer Services Employer Handbook provides guidance for employers when an NMSN is received. Once an agency receives the NMSN, please follow the instructions and process the notice promptly. Any delays in processing the notice could result in a follow-up from CSS and potentially put the agency at risk of sanctions for failing to comply with the notice.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many state employees are working remotely. If employees are working remotely outside of Oklahoma, this requires the state, as the employer, to withhold income taxes for that state, as applicable. Several states have issued guidance or passed temporary laws relaxing this requirement but not all have taken this approach. If an agency has employees working outside of Oklahoma, please contact OMES Central Accounting and Reporting at payrollreporting@omes.ok.gov so that we can determine the required withholding and reporting for those employees.

State agencies are encouraged to review and handle employee overpayments as soon as possible so the adjustment can be recorded in the quarter in which the overpayment occurred. Overpayments not reported to the retirement systems in a timely manner may result in less than a full recovery of funds for the agency and may cause employee retirement calculations to be incorrect. Overpayments may be due to incorrect hours paid, wage amounts or benefit allowance payments.

When submitting Form 94P, please do not provide copies of personal checks. The form allows the agency to enter the amount recovered. Additional backup data is not required. Please submit the form using the employee ID and do not use the employee's Social Security number.

If an agency has questions, needs assistance or would like the form reviewed prior to requesting the overpayment from the employee, please email payrollreporting@omes.ok.gov. The final form should be submitted once the agency has recovered the overpaid amount.

When entering a new employee’s name and SSN or updating a current employee’s name, please verify the information is entered exactly as it appears on the employee’s Social Security card. This is critical in reporting not only the W-2 wages at year-end, but also the required Affordable Care Act health offer/coverage information.

If the name and SSN do not match the Social Security Administration records, the employee’s wages may not be credited to their Social Security account. Additionally, if the name and SSN do not match, the employee may not be reported correctly for ACA purposes which could result in an IRS letter to the employee for lack of health coverage or an IRS letter to the agency for not offering coverage.

Beginning Sept. 8, 2007, the SSA updated the Social Security card. The cardholder’s name will always be printed on two lines, with the last name printed directly below the first and middle names. If you receive a prior version from an employee and are unsure, please ask the employee to verify their first, middle and last names.

Additionally, compound names do not need to be hyphenated. If an employee provides a name with an apparent compound or multiple last names, ask the employee which name is the beginning of the last name and which (if any) is the middle name.

Please update the employee’s name in the HCM system as instructed in the COR301 Part II manual beginning on Page 42 (Navigation: Workforce Administration > Personal Information > Modify a Person). You may enter the name the employee currently uses on their paycheck so their paycheck will continue to reflect the same name as in the past, but the employee record and W-2 information should match the Social Security card.

If an incorrect SSN has been entered into the HCM system, please contact the OMES Service Desk to have the number corrected. DO NOT create another employee in the system; this will only compound the issue. Employees with multiple employee IDs must have data combined onto the one correct record, which requires many corrections and changes in the HCM system.

All compensation to employees and former employees, no matter what form, constitutes wages unless specifically excluded by the Internal Revenue Code. This includes stipends, allowances, employee lawsuits and settlements, gifts, prizes, awards and fringe benefits, to name a few. Before compensation is given to current or former employees, agencies must determine the correct method of payment (payroll vs. accounts payable) and reporting required (W-2, 1099 or none). In an audit, the IRS will focus on the reason for the payment.

NOTE: Attorney’s fees paid on a settlement are reportable to the plaintiff if the settlement is a reportable settlement. For attorney fees paid through accounts payable, the amount must be reported to alicia.reel@omes.ok.gov. The attorney will automatically receive a 1099-MISC reporting the amount in Box 14 if the correct account code is used on the voucher payment. The plaintiff reporting requires a manual entry and must be reported to OMES.

If the payment settles a lawsuit, the auditor will focus on the basis of the lawsuit. The IRS has a recorded webinar  that provides valuable information regarding the taxability of lawsuits and settlements. Agency payroll, finance, human resources and legal departments should obtain the knowledge needed to accurately process compensation to current or former employees. Agencies are responsible for complying with IRS requirements for withholding and reporting.

If an agency has a settlement agreement that requires the payment be processed through accounts payable instead of the payroll system to expedite processing and the payment is reportable as compensation, then applicable federal, state and FICA taxes must be remitted to OMES on the same day the settlement to the individual is processed. If taxes are not withheld on the payment, the agency must gross up the amount and pay both the employee and employer share of taxes. The employee’s record will be updated for year-end reporting. If additional guidance is needed, please email payrollreporting@omes.ok.gov.

NOTE: The IRS has determined that Oklahoma public school teachers receiving payments from a state agency are to be treated as employees of the state. As such, any payments to teachers need to be evaluated to determine if the payments should be considered wages. If so, the amounts must be paid through the payroll system, not accounts payable, to be reported on Form W-2 by the paying agency.

Transparency (OpenBooks) files are due no later than the fifth business day of the following month. Files must be sent promptly in order to comply with monthly FTE reporting as well as statutory requirements for posting the data to the website. These are specific field data reminders:

Jobcode – must be a valid OMES job code. Call OMES HCM Classification and Compensation at 405-521-2177 for assistance with job codes.

Hours – must be an employee’s accurate hours. The hours reported here will also be used for FTE reporting, along with the pay frequency entered in the file.

Warrant Number – must contain the required leading 2. This is the actual warrant number processed through the state’s financial system and paid through the treasurer’s office.

Pay Date – must be the actual warrant issue date processed through the state’s financial system and paid through the treasurer’s office.

Agencies transferring money from their clearing account to the General Revenue Fund after July 15 should be using the current year General Revenue Fund (19200). All transfers for June collections should have been processed prior to this date. Any late collections in addition to amounts earned in July should be considered FY 22 collections and must be deposited into the current GRF (19200).

The FY 2022 interest rate applicable to late payments to vendors has been set at 0.01% per annum, or $0.00003 per $100 per day, which will be in effect July 1, 2021, through June 30, 2022. This interest rate is provided by the State Treasurer based on the average interest rate for 30-day time deposits of state funds during the last calendar quarter of the last preceding fiscal year. (O.S. 62 § 34.71& 34.72 and O.S. 74 § 500.16A. and OMES Prompt Payment Rules/Regulations)

Reminder: Agencies that have purchase orders established using TBD as the account number should update them with accurate information as soon as the FY 22 budget is posted.

Topic: TBD
Date: Friday, Aug. 20, 2021.
Time: Noon to 1 p.m. via Zoom.
Visit their website for more information.

Looking for convenient and affordable training? AGA webinars make earning Continuing Professional Education hours easy.

All webinars, unless denoted with a members-only icon, are open to anyone. They feature experts speaking on emergent issues to keep you in the loop on hot topics in auditing, ethics, governmental accounting, internal controls, performance and more.  Group registration options are available to those who would like to attend together in one location. Otherwise, individuals may register and attend from their own devices.

Upcoming webinars:

September Members Only Webinar.
Free for AGA Members.
Sept. 2, 2021.
1-2:15 p.m.

Check out the website for more information. 

Payroll Get-To-Gather
20th Annual Oklahoma Payroll Conference.
Sept. 24, 2021.
Presentation information can be accessed on the website. 

This is a reminder of the Statewide Financial Policy Training session for state agency finance, budget, procurement personnel, P-card holders and agency directors. The training provides a broad overview of the state’s accounting, budgeting and procurement policies and is recommended for everyone in a management position within an agency as well as for all financial and budget staff whether they are new or a veteran state employee. This is exactly the same course that has been held for the past three years and is highly recommended for those who have not yet attended the course.

The class will provide six hours of Continuing Professional Education credits for CPAs, CPOs or CGFM.

Registration is now closed.

Tuesday, Sept. 28, 2021.
9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Concourse Theater
State Capitol Complex
2400 N. Lincoln Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73105

Live online seminars presented by Fred Pryor Seminars.

For more information, please visit their website. 

Live online webinar presented by myCPE.

For more information, please visit their website.