65-2. An Official Communication from the Uniformed Firefighters Association

Transcription

1 65-2 An Official Communication from the Uniformed Firefighters Association #14 of 2007 February 8 th The Bravest NYC Firefighters IAFF Local 94 AFL-CIO 204 East 23rd Street, New York, NY Tel: Fax: Stephen J. Cassidy President Engine 236 James Slevin Vice President Ladder 7 Joseph A. Miccio Recording Secretary Engine 295 Robert Straub Treasurer Engine 45 William Romaka Health & Safety Officer Sergeant-at-Arms Engine 238 John Kelly Brooklyn Chairman Board of s Engine 201 Donald Ruland Staten Island Engine 157 Stephen Humenesky Queens Engine 301 Edward Brown Bronx Ladder 48 Daniel Murphy Manhattan Engine 74 Lester Layne Fire Marshal Representative Special: LODI FICA Refunds Info Provided by NYC Office of Payroll Administration (OPA) FAQs Table of Contents Intro: Mailing Dates & Overview 1. What is LoDI? 2. What is the LoDI FICA Refund Claim? 3. What is FICA? 4. Why aren't LoDI payments received for a period of more than six months included in these refund claims? 5. What do I have to do to collect my refund? 6. How do I get a consent form? 7. When will I receive a consent form from the City? 8. When will I get my FICA refund? 9. How do I contact OPA with my questions? 10. When will the IRS send the LoDI refund monies to the City? 11. Will I receive interest with my FICA refund? 12. Is the FICA refund taxable? 13. When can I expect to receive the letter and consent form from the City? 14. I worked for another City Agency as a uniformed member and was hurt on that job too. Am I eligible? 15. I filed for a FICA refund with the IRS on my own. What do I do now? 16. I filed for a FICA refund with the IRS on my own and my case is still pending. What do I do now? 17. I am now retired, am I still eligible? 18. How do I determine if I am an eligible uniformed member of the City's Correction, Fire, Police, or Sanitation Department? 19. I received LoDI payments in more than one uniformed agency, will I get two letters? 20. Why does the City have to claim my FICA refund? 21. What are the FICA Refund Claim Unit's business hours? 22. How do I go about collecting this refund on behalf of a deceased member of a uniformed force? 23. Is the City collecting any funds from this law suit? 24. Which uniformed agencies are involved in this FICA refund claim? 25. How do I get a copy of my W-2 forms? 26. Will my pension benefits be affected? 27. I received LoDI pay when I was a member of the Housing Authority Police force or Transit Authority Police force, prior to them being made part of the NYPD. Am I eligible for a refund of the FICA taxes paid on these LoDI payments? 28. I received LoDI payments during the year 2006, will I get a refund? 29. What do I do if the letter I received is for a deceased family member? 30. What if I do not circle yes or no? 31. Does my signature need to be notarized? 32. Do I need proof if the person on the letter is now deceased? 33. Why would I circle N to any of the amounts offered to me? 34. If I deliver my signed consent form to OPA will I receive a receipt? 35. May I sign the consent form on behalf of someone else? 36. How were the amounts determined? 37. Where do I mail the signed consent form? 38. When is the deadline to sign and submit the signed consent form? 39. The address on the letter and consent form I received is incorrect, how can I change it? 40. I never received a letter and I believe I am eligible for a refund, what should I do? 41. I am not sure if I should have received a letter, who do I contact to find out if I am eligible for a refund? 42. What do I do if my name is spelled incorrectly? 43. What do I do if my Social Security Number is incorrect? 44. What if I miss the deadline date? 45. How should I complete the consent form if I disagree with the amounts? What are my options? Intro: LODI FICA Refund Letters to Mail February 5th Mailing: Per The City of New York Office of Payroll Administration (OPA), on Monday, February 5th, 2007, the OPA mailed approximately 75,000 letters to individuals (City employees and retirees, including Firefighters) who are entitled to Social Security and Medicare Refunds from the City of New York for improper payroll deductions from 1989 to To be eligible for a refund you must sign and return the consent 1 of 5

2 form by Thursday, April 5, NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED and NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE. Questions? The Office of Payroll Administration can be reached through at You can call them at You can fax inquiries, but not signed consent forms to CONSENT FORMS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BY FAX. Consent forms must be mailed or hand delivered to: Office of Payroll Administration FICA Refund Claim Unit 1 Centre Street Room 200N New York, NY Check the OPA website for additional information. 1. What is LoDI? LoDI is the acronym for Line of Duty Injury. Line of Duty Injury payments are authorized payments made, pursuant to statute, to eligible uniformed members of the City's Correction, Fire, Police and Sanitation departments who were out of work as a result of an injury which occurred in the line of duty. 2. What is the LoDI FICA Refund Claim? The City has filed refund claims for both the employer's and employees' share of the FICA taxes paid on LoDI payments received by eligible uniformed members of the City's Correction, Fire, Police and Sanitation departments for a period of six months or less for the years 1989 through What is FICA? taxes. FICA is the acronym for the Federal Insurance Contributions Act. FICA consists of both Social Security and Medicare 4. Why aren't LoDI payments received for a period of more than six months included in these refund claims? LoDI Payments received for more than six months had previously been deemed to be exempt from FICA tax withholding by the IRS under a separate statutory provision. Only LoDI payments made to an employee for a period of six months or less were subject to FICA taxes. Consequently, we are only claiming a refund of those FICA taxes paid on LoDI payments received for six months or less. 5. What do I have to do to collect my refund? Every employee entitled to a refund must submit a consent form to the City permitting the City to collect the refund on that employee's behalf. The IRS will not refund an employee's share unless a consent form has been signed and timely returned. The City will mail on Monday, February 5, 2007 to each eligible employee a letter explaining the steps they will need to take in order to obtain their refund and a consent form for them to sign and return to the City. The employee will have until Thursday, April 5, 2007, 60 days from the date of the letter to return the consent form to the City. Thus in order to collect a refund your consent form must be postmarked by the United States Post Office, on or before Thursday, April 5, How do I get a consent form? The City will be mailing a consent form and a letter explaining the process to every employee who is eligible to receive a refund on Monday, February 5, The City's Office of Payroll Administration (OPA) gathered from each individual agency the information needed to send out these letters. Employees must sign and return the consent form by Thursday, April 5, 2007, 60 days from the date of the letter to receive a refund. NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED and NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE. Failure to timely return your consent form will prohibit you from collecting your refund under this settlement. 7. When will I receive a consent form from the City? OPA expects to mail the consent forms and explanatory letters by the end of the year. We will put a notice on this website when the forms are mailed so please check back. 8. When will I get my FICA refund? Those individuals who timely return the signed consent form to the FICA Refund Claim Unit by Thursday, April 5, 2007 will receive their refund from the City once the IRS refunds the money to the City. Because the IRS will have to review the claims prior to paying out the refund, we cannot provide an estimate of when these payments will be received by the City. We believe that it will take at least six months from the time the City remits the signed employee consents to the IRS before the IRS begins to refund the money to the City. We also anticipate that the IRS will refund the money by individual year, not in one lump, so the City will then require time to generate payments and forward the refund to each individual employee. 9. How do I contact OPA with my questions? The Office of Payroll Administration can be reached through at Lodi_FICARefund@payroll.nyc.gov. You can call us at You can fax inquiries, but not signed consent forms to CONSENT FORMS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED BY FAX. Consent forms must be mailed or hand delivered to: Office of Payroll Administration FICA Refund Claim Unit 1 Centre Street Room 200N New York, NY When will the IRS send the LoDI refund monies to the City? We anticipate that it will take at least six months from the time the City submits the employee consents form to the IRS until the IRS begins to pay the refunds to the City. We also anticipate that these payments will be made by individual year, not in one lump sum. 2 of 5

3 11. Will I receive interest with my FICA refund? Yes. Your refund checks will include the amount of FICA taxes withheld from your paycheck that are attributable to LoDI pay received for a period of six months or less AND statutory interest from the date of payment. The interest received is taxable and you will receive a 1099-int form. 12. Is the FICA refund taxable? Only the interest received with your FICA refund is taxable. You will receive a 1099-int form. The City of New York will report the interest amount to the IRS. This interest is taxable in the year received. No amended income tax returns for past years are required. 13. When can I expect to receive the letter and consent form from the City? On Monday, February 5, 2007, OPA will mail out consent forms and letters to all eligible uniformed employees explaining the refund process and the years for which they may be entitled to a FICA refund. Please note that in order to receive a refund you MUST return this consent form to the address provided in the letter postmarked by the United States Post Office on or before April 5, I worked for another City Agency as a uniformed member and was hurt on that job too. Am I eligible? Yes. You are eligible to receive a refund of the FICA taxes paid in connection with that authorized LoDI leave. In order to obtain your refund, you must complete the consent form by circling Y for Yes or N for No for each year that you were out on LoDI leave. Failure to return the signed consent form to the City by the Thursday, April 5, 2007, will prevent you from being able to obtain your FICA refund pursuant to this settlement. 15. I filed for a FICA refund with the IRS on my own. What do I do now? If you filed a FICA refund claim with the IRS seeking a refund of FICA taxes paid on LoDI payments received for a period of six months or less and received the refund, circle N for No for each year you received the refund on the consent form. You are not entitled to have this money refunded twice. If you filed for a FICA refund pertaining to LoDI with the IRS and had that claim rejected, circle Y for Yes for that year on the consent form. 16. I filed for a FICA refund with the IRS on my own and my case is still pending. What do I do now? If you filed for a FICA refund pertaining to LoDI with the IRS and you have not received the refund, circle Y for Yes for that year on the consent form. 17. I am now retired, am I still eligible? Yes. You are eligible to receive a refund. In order to obtain your refund, you must complete the consent form by circling Y for Yes or N or No for each year. Failure to return the signed consent form to the City by Thursday, April 5, 2007 will prevent you from being able to obtain your FICA refund. 18. How do I determine if I am an eligible uniformed member of the City's Correction, Fire, Police, or Sanitation Department? In order to determine whether you are an eligible member you must contact your agency and ask whether you were eligible to, and in fact did, receive LoDI pay during any period between 1989 and I received LoDI payments in more than one uniformed agency, will I get two letters? No. You will only receive one letter that covers all your LoDI payments. 20. Why does the City have to claim my FICA refund? Because FICA is paid both by the employer and the employee, and because the City remits the employees' share to the IRS on behalf of the employee, when requesting a refund, federal law requires that the employer also seek refunds on behalf of its employees. Please note, this statutory requirement does not prevent employees from seeking refunds themselves. This is why the IRS requires that consent forms be completed by all employees, swearing under penalties of perjury that they did not file their own refund claim and obtain a refund of these amounts, before the IRS will pay over that employee's share of the refund to the City. 21. What are the FICA Refund Claim Unit's business hours? Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m. 22. How do I go about collecting this refund on behalf of a deceased member of a uniformed force? You will need to send the FICA Refund Claim Unit an original death certificate along with the signed consent. 3 of 5

4 23. Is the City collecting any funds from this law suit? The City has filed refund claims for the years for the employer's share of Social Security/Medicare (FICA) taxes paid with respect to LoDI payments. 24. Which uniformed agencies are involved in this FICA refund claim? The City's Correction, Fire, Police and Sanitation Departments. 25. How do I get a copy of my W-2 forms? You can request a duplicate W-2 from your agency payroll office or from OPA. For tax year 2003, most agencies can print replacement W-2s for their employees. OPA will continue to provide duplicate W-2s for prior years. Download the W-2 Duplicate Request form below, or call OPA at (212) to have it faxed to you. You may mail or fax your request to OPA as noted on the form. A fee of $5 will be charged for each W-2 duplicate more than three years old. Payments may be made by: Credit Card Certified Check Money Order Debit Card (in person) Payroll Deduction (for active employees only) 26. Will my pension benefits be affected? No. 27. I received LoDI pay when I was a member of the Housing Authority Police force or Transit Authority Police force, prior to them being made part of the NYPD. Am I eligible for a refund of the FICA taxes paid on these LoDI payments? Yes, however, this refund is not part of the settlement. Both the Housing Authority and the Transit Authority, at the City's suggestion, filed claims seeking refunds of the FICA taxes paid on LoDI payments received for a period of six months or less. Unfortunately, prior to 1995 these police forces were not part of the City of New York and thus these payments could not be included in the City's refund claims or in the litigation that occurred. Consequently, they are not included in this settlement with the IRS. The City, however, is working closely with the Housing and Transit Police forces and the IRS to pursue these refunds on behalf of these members and expect to be sending out information during 2007 with details on how former members of the Housing and Transit Authorities will be able to collect these refunds. We will update this website with additional details as they become available. 28. I received LoDI payments during the year 2006, will I get a refund? For tax year 2006, the City as part of its W-2 processing will ensure that authorized LoDI payments are reflected properly on your W-2 form. The employees' share of the FICA taxes paid on LoDI payments will be issued by the NYC Office of Payroll Administration no later than April, What do I do if the letter I received is for a deceased family member? Write the FICA Refund Claim Unit immediately and send an original death certificate. 30. What if I do not circle yes or no? In order to obtain your refund, you must complete the consent form by circling Y for Yes or N for No for each year. Failure to circle Yes for any year for which you are otherwise eligible for a refund will prevent you from obtaining a refund for that year. 31. Does my signature need to be notarized? No. A notarized signature on the consent form is not required. 32. Do I need proof if the person on the letter is now deceased? Yes. You will need to send the FICA Refund Claim Unit an original death certificate. 33. Why would I circle N to any of the amounts offered to me? By circling Yes, you are swearing, under penalties of perjury, that you did not (1) file an individual refund or seek a credit for these amounts or if you did that your claim was rejected by the IRS and (2) that you did not already receive a refund of these amounts. Consequently, if you filed for a FICA refund pertaining to LoDI with the IRS and received the refund, you must circle N for No on the consent form for each year that you already received your refund. 34. If I deliver my signed consent form to OPA will I receive a receipt? No. Please make and keep a copy of the signed consent form for your records. 35. May I sign the consent form on behalf of someone else? The signature on the consent form is signed under the penalties of perjury. By signing you declare that you examined these statements and to the best of your knowledge and belief they are true, correct and complete. 4 of 5

5 36. How were the amounts determined? Your agency provided records indicating the dates that you received LoDI payments during the years The LoDI Social Security and Medicare Wage amounts shown on the letter were based on these dates. 37. Where do I mail the signed consent form? Employees must sign and return the consent form by Thursday, April 5, 2007, 60 days from the date of the letter to: Office of Payroll Administration FICA Refund Claim Unit 1 Centre Street Room 200N New York, NY When is the deadline to sign and submit the signed consent form? The signed consent form must be returned by Thursday, April 5, 2007, 60 days from the date of the letter. ABSOLUTE- LY NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED AND NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE. 39. The address on the letter and consent form I received is incorrect, how can I change it? When you mail in the signed consent form, replace the printed address with the correct address by crossing out the incorrect address and providing the correct address. 40. I never received a letter and I believe I am eligible for a refund, what should I do? Contact the FICA Refund Claim Unit through at LoDI_FICArefund@payroll.nyc.gov. You can fax inquiries but not signed consent forms to (212) You can call us at (212) I am not sure if I should have received a letter, who do I contact to find out if I am eligible for a refund? Contact the FICA Refund Claim Unit through at LoDI_FICArefund@payroll.nyc.gov. You can fax inquiries but not signed consent forms to (212) You can call us at (212) What do I do if my name is spelled incorrectly? Send a signed copy of your social security card to OPA's FICA Refund Claim Unit. We will only change your name in the refund claim based on your social security card. 43. What do I do if my Social Security Number is incorrect? Send a signed copy of your social security card to OPA's FICA Refund Claim Unit. We will only change your name in the refund claim based on your social security card. 44. What if I miss the deadline date? The signed consent form must be returned by Thursday, April 5, 2007, 60 days from the date of the letter. ABSOLUTE- LY NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED AND NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE. 45. How should I complete the consent form if I disagree with the amounts? What are my options? OPA can only rely on the records provided by your agency in submitting its refund request. If you dispute the amounts listed, you must contact your agency immediately and determine the correct amount of leave. Should it be determined that your agency submitted inaccurate information, they will need to promptly forward the correct information to OPA. Please note, however, in order to obtain your refund, you MUST complete and promptly return the signed consent form by circling Y for Yes or N for No each year. NO EXTENSIONS WILL BE GRANTED JUST BECAUSE YOU DISPUTE THE AMOUNTS LISTED. Thus be sure to circle all relevant years and submit the signed consent form promptly. If the form does not list LoDI pay in a year you believe you were out on authorized LoDI leave, make sure to circle Y for that year as well. This will ensure that you are not prohibited from collecting a refund in that year if your agency records are determined to be in error. Fraternally, Joseph A. Miccio Stephen J. Cassidy Recording Secretary President Website Send 65-2 info to 652@UFANYC.org or fax # Health/Safety complaint fax (212) or Health&Safety@UFANYC.org Always call to verify your fax or was received!!! 5 of 5