State Agencies Bulletin No. 1402

Subject
Change in Maintenance Rates for Employee Housing and Meals
Date Issued
April 15, 2015

Purpose

To notify agencies (with the exception of the City University of New York) of increases in maintenance rates for employee housing and meals.

Affected Employees

Employees with deductions for employee housing and/or meals using Deduction Code 401 (Taxable Maintenance) or 402 (Non-Taxable Maintenance)

Effective Date(s)

Paychecks dated April 16, 2015 (Institution)
Paychecks dated April 22, 2015 (Administration)
Paychecks dated July 15, 2015 (SUNY)

Background

In accordance with the Division of the Budget Policy and Reporting Manual, Item B-300 and Item B-300A (effective April 13, 2015), maintenance rates have been increased.

Note: Item B-300 and B-300A present information for specific unions/bargaining units.

The Determining Taxability of Maintenance Deductions attachment can be used as a guideline for determining the taxable status of maintenance deductions for State employees.

OSC Actions

OSC will create Control-D report NBEN725 (Employees with Maintenance Deductions) to identify employees who have maintenance deductions in each agency. This report is now available for all agencies except SUNY.

SUNY’s NBEN725 will be available on June 5, 2015.

Agency Actions

Agencies must report changes to maintenance deductions by inserting a new effective dated row in the General Deductions page. The effective date should be the first day of the pay period for the check date in which the deduction will be effective.

NOTE: This deduction should be immediately end dated when an employee is no longer receiving employer provided maintenance.

Questions

The Division of Budget Policy and Reporting Manual, Item B-300 and Item B-300A (effective April 13, 2015) are available from the Division of the Budget at: http://www.budget.ny.gov/guide/bprm/index.html.

Tax related questions regarding this bulletin may be e-mailed to the Tax and Compliance mailbox.

Deduction related questions regarding this bulletin may be e-mailed to the Payroll Deduction mailbox.