payroll: The PayNews Monthly - October 2020 Edition

Wed Oct 21 15:41:33 PDT 2020

The PayNews Monthly - October 2020 Edition
Updates

  *   Duckweb Two Factor Authentication Change -   Information Services has added additional functionality to the two-factor authentication within Duckweb.  Employees and students using Duckweb to set up direct deposit are now prompted for birth date instead of last 4 of SSN if they don't have an SSN in Banner.
  *   Classified/Temp Payroll -  Mindy Schmidling is out on parental leave so please contact Ben Kane, Payroll Operations Manager, bkane at uoregon.edu<mailto:bkane at uoregon.edu>, with any Classified/Temp payroll questions or concerns.
  *   Form I-9 Temporary Provision Extension - On March 20, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced flexibility in complying with requirements related to Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, due to COVID-19.  This temporary guidance was set to expire September 19. Because of ongoing precautions related to COVID-19, DHS has extended this policy again for an additional 60 days.  The new expiration date for these accommodations is November 19, 2020.
  *   New Employee Class Chart on Payroll Website - The Payroll Office has published a new Employee Class chart<https://ba.uoregon.edu/payroll/employee-classes> that includes additional information about benefit and leave eligibility.  Please direct questions about this chart to Shelby Cooper, shelbyc at uoregon.edu<mailto:shelbyc at uoregon.edu>.

Reminders

  *   HR Benefits
     *   Open Enrollment - For this year only, Open Enrollment is not mandatory. If employees are happy with their current coverages and insurance plans, including their participation status in the Health Engagement Model (HEM), they do not need to take action. Current plans will rollover to 2021, except flexible spending accounts. If employees want to contribute to a Healthcare or Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA) in 2021, they must take action to enroll by October 31,2020.  Visit the Open Enrollment<https://hr.uoregon.edu/benefits/benefits-annual-open-enrollment> webpage for additional information, view plan comparisons, open enrollment guide, plan changes and more.
     *   Virtual Benefits Fair - Like so many other events this year, the Annual Benefits Fair has gone virtual. Visit the Benefits Fair<https://hr.uoregon.edu/benefits/open-enrollment/virtual-benefits-fair-2020> webpage to tour virtual booths from various vendors, watch videos, download information and resources about your benefit options. Information will be available throughout October.

  *   October Time Entry for Students
     *   We appreciate your patience while we work to enter the heavy fall rush of student hires in Banner throughout the time entry window. We will contact departments regarding issues and incomplete documents as soon as possible.
     *   During time entry (10/21 - 10/23) - please check Banner for time entry records in PHAHOUR as job records will be added often.
     *   After noon on the last day of time entry (10/23) - if you have students that are not showing in PHAHOUR, please send Manual Check Requests to the Payroll Office by forms.uoregon<https://forms.uoregon.edu/form/launch/ba-manual-check-request-upload-mcr> upload for pay day processing. Do not wait for the record to be visible in PWIVERI. We will continue to work to get everyone paid.

  *   Paperless Form W-2  - Please help us get the word out about paperless W-2's.  Instructions are available on the Payroll website<https://ba.uoregon.edu/content/w-2>.   Questions about paperless W-2's can be directed to Jay Butler, jbutler at uoregon.edu<mailto:jbutler at uoregon.edu>.

  *   Fall Rosters - Check your October rosters to verify that any additions or changes are properly reflected.  Please direct any questions to the proper payroll specialist.

  *   Eugene Community Safety Payroll Tax (Effective January 1, 2021) - The Eugene City Council passed the Community Safety Tax Ordinance in July 2019 to provide long term funding for community safety services.  The city will fund this through a new payroll tax that takes effect January 1, 2021.  The tax rate for the employee payroll tax is determined by the hourly rate of the employee.  See below.

     *   For employees who earn more than $15 per hour, the tax is calculated at a rate of 0.0044 (or .44 percent) of total taxable wages.
     *   For employees who earn between $12.01 and $15.00 per hour, the tax is calculated at a rate of 0.0030 (or .30 percent) of total taxable wages.
     *   Employees who earn $12 per hour (or the minimum wage rate) are exempt from the employee payroll tax.
Only employees who are working within the Eugene city limits will be required to pay this tax.  The City of Eugene has created a helpful website<https://www.eugene-or.gov/4281/Community-Safety-Payroll-Tax> that includes a community safety payroll tax estimator and a tool that helps determine if an address is considered within city limits.  Since this tax is directly tied to the employees work location, it is critical that the job location codes are correct in Banner.  Please review your roster and notify payroll of any location changes.

  *   Portland Metro City Tax (Effective January 1, 2021) - In May 2020 voters in Portland approved a measure to raise money for supportive housing services for people experiencing homelessness or at risk of experiencing homelessness. The program is funded by a 1% tax on taxable income of more than $125,000 for individuals and $200,000 for couples filing jointly.  This tax is only applicable to employees working within the Portland Metro City limits.  To determine if an employees work location is within the Metro area and therefore subject to the Metro City tax, you can enter the address into this "Find Your Councilor"<https://www.oregonmetro.gov/about-metro/metro-council/find-your-councilor> search engine.

Helpful Hints

  *   Payroll Roster Reports - Banner page PWIPAYR has four different versions of the employee roster that are available to units.  Each roster contains a slightly different set of data elements.  Units can run their roster for all of their employees, only classified/temp, only students, or only faculty/OA/GE employees.  Each roster can be viewed as a PDF (default) or exported into Excel.  The exported version of the roster includes more data elements than the PDF version.  Additional data may include employees labor distribution(s), supervisor name and position, next merit date, and rank.

Upcoming Events

  *   Important Dates
     *   October Payday                                                                      October 30
     *   November Document Deadline                                            November 6
     *   November Time Entry Window                                            November 17-19
     *   November Payday                                                                  November 30

  *   Monthly Training through MS Teams (Sign up through MyTrack)

     *   HRIS Overview                                                                        November 3, 1:30 - 3:30pm
     *   HRIS Time Entry                                                                      November 4, 1:30 - 4:30pm
     *   HRIS Electronic Approval Forms (EPAF)                               November 11, 9:30 - 11:30am
     *   Form I-9 Workshop/International Hire Paperwork         November 4, 10:00 - 12:00pm
     *   HRIS Payroll Redistributions (PHAREDS)                              December 3, 10:00 - 12:00pm

Thank you,
The Payroll Office
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.uoregon.edu/pipermail/payroll/attachments/20201021/c7bee18e/attachment.html>