24 December 2011

Social Security Deduction

It would seem that the University was not prepared for the extension of the Social Security tax cut just approved by Congress. As a result, January paychecks will reflect the old, higher payroll tax rate of 6.2% instead of the 4.2% that's been in place throughout 2011. The extra amount withheld will appear instead on the next paycheck, on Feb 1 for most employees.

So our Jan 1 paychecks will be 2% lower than our Dec 1 paychecks. Happy 2012 to all!

2 comments:

  1. Well, yes, the payroll office deducted what the law said they should deduct on the day they ran the payroll, rather than speculating that the house Republicans would cave in and allow the law to be changed. Next year, maybe we can divert some more money from the classroom so that we can pay administrative staff to work overtime on New Year's Eve to run the payroll at the last possible instant, to minimize the chances that a small fraction of one paycheck might be delayed a month if Congress makes any more last minute changes.

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  2. Don't be disingenuous, anonymous. Nobody is claiming that the staff should work overtime to implement the changes. It did not take a genius to see that Congress would have extended the tax cut, and a minimally competent payroll department would have been ready to flip a switch when that happened.

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