Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association. Employer Contribution Rate. Currently 7.50% 7.50% 7/1/ % 7.50% 7/1/ % 7.

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1 UPDATE Minnesota Teachers Retirement Association Keeping our employers connected April 2018 Issue 77 In this issue Legislative Update Last day of employment form Secure Communication Legislative update The current proposal to the Minnesota Legislature calls for employer contribution rates to increase.21% each year starting 7/1/2018 through 7/1/2023. The bill has passed in the Senate, but has yet to be heard in key House committees and must bass in the full House. Gov. Mark Dayton s signature or veto would likely come in early June. E-Payment security change Website Alerts Social Security numbers and tax ID number GASB 68 allocation work in progress Annual base salary reports due June 30 Date effective Employer Contribution Rate Employee Deduction Rate Currently 7.50% 7.50% 7/1/ % 7.50% 7/1/ % 7.50% 7/1/ % 7.50% 7/1/ % 7.50% 7/1/ % 7.50% 7/1/2023 and after 8.75% 7.75% If the bill becomes law, all payroll checks dated after June 30, 2018, must reflect the new rates. The bill (SF2620/HF3053) provides state funding for the higher employer contribution through a pension adjustment in the school aid formula. Contact TRA 60 Empire Drive Suite 400 Saint Paul, MN Telephone FAX Website MinnesotaTRA.org employerquestions@ MinnesotaTRA.org TRA will keep you informed on the progress of this bill. Last day of employment When a TRA member applies for monthly TRA benefits, they must provide the Employer Verification of TRA Member s Last Date of Employment form. The form must be signed by both the TRA member and their employer. For help with determining the appropriate last day of employment, refer to the Last Day of Employment Fact Sheet on our website. When submitting final earnings information to TRA, the pay period end dates cannot exceed the member s last day of employment date. For example, if the member terminates on June 5 and the normal pay period end date is June 10, change the pay period end date to June 5. Page 1

2 Secure Communication TRA will not send private data (SSN, TRA numbers, etc.) through . Instead, we use our Secure Communication feature, which enables TRA and you -- the employer -- to exchange private data securely. You will also receive an notifying you when you have a secure communication waiting on your employer portal. To ensure you receive these s: Tell your IT staff to allow s from minnesotatra@org through your spam filter. Inform TRA of staff or address changes. Our s are sent to the contact we have on file. Contact TRA for a list of current contacts. Submit changes to TRA on the Organization Contact Change form available on our website. A video and user guide for the Secure Communication feature is now available on the website (Lesson 9). Effective April 9, a third To choice will be added to ensure your leave data, etc., is routed to the correct TRA employees. E-Payment security change U.S. Bank is upgrading security for its E-Payment Service. Please share the following information with your IT staff to ensure your web browser is compliant with US Bank s new security requirements. Web browsers used to access the E-Payment Service must support TLS 1.2 starting on April 21. To maintain the highest level of security of E-Payment Service and comply with PCI requirements, US Bank is limiting the TLS protocols that this service supports. (Transport Layer Security (TLS) provides communications security over a computer network.) TLS protocol is driven by the web browser that is used to access E-Payment Service. Beginning Sunday, April 21, we will disable support for TLS 1.0 and 1.1 and require use of web browsers that support TLS 1.2. TRA will send a separate blast to all users of TRA s E-Payment feature, to provide additional guidance for testing to ensure your web browser is compliant. Look for this blast the week of April 2. Website alert! When TRA experiences a system problem or wants to communicate, we will post a message on your MyEmployer Welcome page. Past copies of UPDATE can be found on the TRA website: Once the issue is resolved, the message will be updated. Page 2

3 Social Security numbers and tax ID numbers Your new hires are assigned a TRA number when we receive their demographic information for the first time. To ensure all payroll and pension contributions are accurately credited to your employees, hold off reporting any payroll until a Social Security number is available. (Non-resident aliens are typically issued a tax ID number.) If we receive a payroll detail record with an employee s SSN different from the SSN we have on file, we will contact you for documentation verifying the correct number (copy of SSN, I-9, etc.). GASB 68 allocation work in progress TRA expects to upload your customized GASB 68 financial reporting results in PDF form to your employer reporting portal in June. These results will assist you and your external auditor with the accounting entries and note disclosures necessary for your fiscal year 2018 CAFR. The Net Pension Liability for TRA on June 30, 2017, was $19.96 billion. Each TRA employer unit will be assigned a portion of that liability to report on their government-wide financial statements. Each employer s share is calculated as a percentage of their employer contributions divided by the total TRA employer contributions statewide. TRA has again engaged the Office of the State Auditor to provide an audit opinion on the allocation results. They have also performed sample selected audit testing to determine if TRA data matches source documentation maintained by the employer. Annual base salary due June 30 Note: This task does not apply to Minnesota State. Each year, employers are required to report annual base salary to TRA. This data is used to help determine service credit for TRA members and, in turn, for benefit calculations. Annual base salary is defined as the lowest starting full-time salary for a TRA-covered position. And, it is further defined as the lowest starting full-time base salary paid to a new employee or what would have been paid to a TRA-eligible employee hired during a fiscal year. In May, an Outstanding Task will be viewable by Report and Payroll staff to Enter Annual Base Salary. This clickable link will then take the staff member to the Annual Base Salary pages to enter such information as contract settlement, salary, and supporting documents. Example Documentation Examples of the required annual base salary reporting documentation can be found on the website under Employer Forms - Publications. Deadline June 30 Annual base salary must be reported by June 30 each year. If a contract is not settled by that time, you must still access the MyEmployer portal and submit the annual base salary within 14 days of the date the contract is settled. Training Three interactive tutorials on the annual base salary reporting workflow are available on the website under Employer General Information: In addition, a PDF user guide is available for each tutorial. Please take the time to refresh your memory on using the TRA Employer portal to report annual base salaries. Additional information Watch for details in the next issue of UPDATE. Page 3

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