Employer News | Quarterly Newsletter | Summer 2021

• Employer On-Behalf Funding for Fiscal Year 2022
• True-Up: Review True-Up Records with Each Payroll Submission
• Annual Census Audits
• TRS 2021/2022 School Year Reporting—Remember to STAT Back Employees!
• Child Tax Credit
• Social Security Administration: Top 10 Baby Names of 2020

Employer On-Behalf Funding for Fiscal Year 2022

On-behalf funding for PERS and TRS employers for Fiscal Year 2022 (FY22) is provided by House Bill (HB) 69 (Section 73). HB 69 passed during the 2021 legislative session and was recently signed into law. The bill provides a set amount of funding to reduce the PERS Employer Effective Rate to 22 percent and the TRS Employer Effective Rate to 12.56% for FY22.

The on-behalf funding is applied with the processing of each employer payroll. Employer on-behalf funding statements will be sent via email to payroll and finance contacts. For PERS on-behalf funding questions or statement copies, please email Tamara Criddle at tamara.criddle@alaska.gov or call (907) 465-2279. For TRS on-behalf funding questions or statement copies, please email Walter Agne at walter.agne@alaska.gov or call (907) 465-5711.

For PERS and TRS employer on-behalf funding provided in HB 69, the Division of Retirement and Benefits will apply payments for complete payrolls through the pay period end date June 30, 2022. Fiscal year 2022 (July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022) complete payrolls must be received in our office by July 15, 2022, to be processed with HB 69 employer on-behalf funding.

A complete payroll is defined as a payroll that has all elements needed to process the payroll. This includes the funds necessary to process the payroll, including a correct memo if the payment is a wire or push ACH. Additionally, the payroll summary and the employer payroll detail are part of a complete payroll.

For other questions, please contact Christina Maiquis at (907) 465-1845 or christina.maiquis@alaska.gov.

True-Up: Review True-Up Records with Each Payroll Submission

What is True-Up?

True-up adjustments correct for over and/or under-reporting of the following contributions due to adjustments made to a member’s account:

• DCR Employer match (ER)
• DCR Occupational Death & Disability (ODD)
• DCR Retiree Medical Plan (RMP)
• DCR Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRA)
• Defined Benefits Unfunded Liability (DBUL)

The Process to Take True-up Adjustments

The Division calculates DCR true-up adjustments daily and provides them in eReporting. Please review the true-up report with each payroll submission. All true-up records for each year listed need to be adjusted with each payroll submission even if it is a net-zero adjustment. The true-up will allocate the contributions to the proper money type.

Annual Statutory True-Up

The annual statutory true-up occurred July 20, 2021. The statutory true-up results in any true-up balances that an employer did not take during the Fiscal Year being moved to the employer's over/short account.

Please contact your payroll contact if you have any questions regarding the true-up process or about specific true-up records in eReporting.

Annual Census Audits

The Division’s auditors, KPMG, are gearing up to start with this year’s employer GASB 68 and 75 census audits. The frequency of the census audits is based on the employer size and can occur every year, every five years, or every ten years. The Division’s external auditor chooses employers for a census audit around July of each year. Employers have received a notification that they’ve been selected and should expect to provide PERS and TRS-related data to the external auditors within a specific timeframe. For questions regarding the census data audit and additional details about the requirements, please see the sample letter from the Division as well as the AICPA whitepaper.

To aid you in preparing for this process, it is important for employers to keep detailed records of their transmissions to the Division and ensure those transmissions reconcile with the employer payroll records. If you have questions related to the transmission and records, please contact your payroll contact.

TRS 2021/2022 School Year Reporting
Remember to STAT Back Employees!

As the beginning of the school year approaches, it is time to revisit the beginning of year reporting procedures for the Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS).

Please report the following on your first payroll (pay period end (PPE) date on or after July 1, 2020) for the school year (SY) 2021:

• Return to work date (STAT record) for each teacher for the new school year.
• Part-time teachers’ service percentage level (FTE of teacher’s SY21 contract) must be reported on their STAT record that returns them to work.
• Personnel Change records, address changes, marital status changes, and birth date corrections, as needed.

Please check the Tier/Plan for a new employee prior to reporting them as a new hire. To check on a new employee, please visit Employer Access. Which can be found under Employer Services, Resources. 

Your login is the same as eReporting.

If teachers were not put on TSE at the end of the school year, a TSE event will need to be entered as the day after the last day worked for the school year or June 30, 2020. Then a STAT will need to be entered when the day they begin work again.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact your payroll contact, or e-mail us at doa.drb.activepayroll@alaska.gov.

Child Tax Credit

Most eligible families will automatically receive monthly payments. For everyone else, here are three steps to get help.

Starting July 15, millions of American families will automatically begin receiving monthly child tax credit payments from the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service. These payments are designed to cover half of the credit families will likely qualify to receive when they file their 2021 federal income tax return.

If you qualify and you previously filed your tax return, you don't need to do anything. Payments will begin arriving automatically. If you think you qualify and haven't filed, now is the time to take action.

Who Will Automatically Get Monthly Payments?

In general, monthly payments will go to eligible families who:

• Filed either a 2019 or 2020 federal income tax return.
• Used the non-filers tool to register for an Economic Impact Payment during 2020.
• Already registered for the Advance Child Tax Credit using the new Non-Filer Sign-Up Tool on IRS.gov.

If you did one of these things, you don't need to do anything else to get the advance payment. The IRS will send you a letter telling you how much you're getting.

Who Needs to Take Action Now?

If you haven't filed or registered with the IRS, now is the time to take action. The sooner you do, the sooner you will begin receiving monthly payments. If you're not sure you qualify, the IRS has a three-step process that can help. Each step has a free online tool, available only on IRS.gov.

• Step 1: Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant
  Before filing a return or using the Non-Filer Sign-Up Tool, you may want to consider using the Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant. This tool is now available in English and Spanish. Though this step is optional, it can be particularly helpful if you are unsure whether you qualify for either the credit or the advance payments. By answering a series of questions, the tool enables you to make a preliminary determination as to whether you qualify for the credit and the payments.
  
  
• Step 2: Register using the Non-filer Sign-up Tool
  If Step 1 tells you that you qualify and you don't normally file a federal tax return, check out the Non-filer Sign-up Tool. If you don't normally file a return, you can register using this tool. If you filed a 2019 or 2020 return, you do not need to register using this tool and you can skip to step 3.
  
  Among other things, this tool asks you to supply current bank information, along with key details about yourself and your qualifying children. If you missed out on Economic Impact payments during 2020 or didn't get the full amount, the tool also enables you to claim those missing payments through the Recovery Rebate Credit. The tool then automatically fills in a very basic 2020 federal income tax return that is electronically sent to the IRS.
  
  The new tool was developed in partnership with Intuit and the Free File Alliance. For a free step-by-step guide to using this tool, check out Publication 5538.
  
  
• Step 3: Child Tax Credit Update Portal
  After you file or register, you can use another tool to monitor or manage your monthly payments. The Child Tax Credit Update Portal is a secure, password-protected tool that you can use, as long as you have internet access and a smartphone or computer. You can use it to:
  

  Verify eligibility, Check the status of your payments, Change the bank account receiving your payments, Switch from receiving your payments by check to direct deposit, or Opt out or unenroll from receiving monthly payments.

  Later this year, you will also be able to:
  

  Update your mailing address, Update your bank account information, Add a child born or adopted in 2021, Add a child that qualifies in 2021, but didn't in 2020, Remove a child that qualified in 2020, but doesn't in 2021, Report a change in marital status, or Report a change in income.

Who Should Opt-Out or Unenroll?

Instead of receiving these advance payments, you may prefer to receive the entire credit when you file your 2021 return. The Child Tax Credit Update Portal enables you to quickly and easily do that. If you make this choice, you will either receive a larger refund or have a smaller amount due when you file.

The unenroll feature can also be helpful to any family that no longer qualifies for the Child Tax Credit or believes they will not qualify when they file their 2021 return. For example:

• Your income in 2021 is too high to qualify for the credit.
• Someone else (an ex-spouse or another family member, for example) now qualifies to claim your child or children as dependents.
• You live overseas during most or all of 2021.

Child Tax Credit 2021

The IRS has created a special Advance Child Tax Credit 2021 page, designed to provide the most up-to-date information about the credit and the advance payments. 

Among other things, it provides direct links to the Child Tax Credit Eligibility Assistant, Non-Filers Sign Up Tool, the Child Tax Credit Update Portal, free user guides for each of these tools, a set of frequently asked questions, and other useful resources.

Help Spread the Word!

The IRS urges community groups, non-profits, associations, education organizations, and anyone else with connections to people with children to share this critical information about the Child Tax Credit as well as other important benefits. Among other things, the IRS is working closely with its community partners to ensure wide access to the Non-filer Sign-up Tool. The agency is also providing additional materials and information that can be easily shared by social media, email, and other methods.

Social Security Administration: Top 10 Baby Names of 2020

Social Security Administration Press Release.