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The state will be transitioning the statewide travel agent contract from FCM to Journey House effective March 1, 2020. An online booking tool through Concur will be available through Journey House on March 1 and will look identical to what you already use through the current statewide contract.
If you use the current online booking tool to book travel after March 1, you will not have travel agent support from FCM. Any travel that is to occur on or after March 1, 2020, should be booked via Journey House at 405-463-5800.
The cost of the booking will be $25 until the new online tool is available. As of March 1, the cost of using the online booking tool offered by Journey House will be $9 per airline booking.
Journey House is obtaining traveler profiles from Concur but may not have that information during the transition should you need to call them to book travel. Please be patient during this brief transition period.
Journey House is looking forward to once again serving agencies statewide. A short meet and greet for travel arrangers and Journey House is currently being planned.
AGENCY NEWS
OFMA is an organization for all state and higher education ntities that provides an educational and networking forum for agency leadership as well as finance, accounting and payroll managers and their staff.
This organization was established many years ago by finance officers throughout Oklahoma state government. The officers consist of individuals from multiple state agencies.
The organization charges a membership fee of $50 per agency. Invoices are not sent every year because the goal is to only collect enough to cover the costs of the meetings. Because of the infrequent nature of the invoice and employee turnovers, many agencies were not aware of this organization or the purpose of the invoice.
Membership is not mandatory, but it does provide continued professional education and there is a lot of valuable information relayed to state agencies through this forum.
If you are interested in becoming more involved in the leadership of OFMA, please contact Steve Funck at [email protected] or 405-521-3231.
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PAYROLL
The PeopleSoft HCM system has been updated to include the changes to the IRS 2020 Form W-4. Every employee had their federal tax data updated to the new format, which includes a radio button showing the newest W-4 and related elements.
The correct effective date on the Federal Tax Data page must be used to have the elements display for the required form. The effective date on the Federal Tax Data page is not used to calculate federal income taxes. The tax calculation is based on the check date, the radio button selected and the tax rates in effect.
New employees whose first paycheck was dated in 2019 should have completed the 2019 W-4 and the “2019 or earlier” radio button should have been selected and the appropriate elements completed based on the form submitted. The effective date of the page must be in 2019.
New employees, regardless of hire date and whose first paycheck is dated in 2020, should have completed the 2020 W-4 and the “2020 or later” radio button should have been selected. To select the “2020 or later” radio button, the effective date of the page must be Jan. 1, 2020, or later.
When existing employees complete a 2020 W-4 and the new row is added, the effective date will be Jan. 1, 2020, or greater, and the federal form W-4 version must be changed from 2019 or earlier to 2020 or later. This will allow the correct elements to be displayed for data entry based on the completed form.
When employees are submitting only a state Form OK-W-4, and the new row is added, there will be no changes on the Federal Tax Data page. You will only make changes to the State Tax Data page based on the completed form.
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The Internal Revenue Service and state tax agencies have once again renewed their warning about email scams requesting employee Form W-2 from company payroll or human resources departments.
Agencies are urged to double check any executive-level or unusual requests for lists of Form W-2 or Social Security numbers. Cybercriminals are tricking payroll and human resource officials by disguising emails to make it appear as if it is from an organization executive.
An email is sent to an employee in the payroll or human resources departments, requesting a list of all employees and their Form W-2. The thieves then attempt to file fraudulent tax returns for tax refunds and/or post the information for sale on the darknet.
Personnel should pay close attention to the email address of the sender and always confirm requests for any sensitive data verbally, using previously known telephone numbers or in-person.
As part of a Security Summit effort, the Don’t Take the Bait education series continues to focus on raising awareness of the critical need for increased computer security and caution when reviewing email inboxes – specifically email scams that identify themselves as a friend, customer or company. The series can be viewed on the IRS website.
The IRS is investigating phishing emails. If an agency receives an email of this type, immediately contact Lisa Raihl at 405-521-3258 or Jean Hayes at 405-522-6300.
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Bank deposit slips should not be used to get the bank routing/transit number for employee direct deposit information. A voided check from the employee is the most reliable method.
If the employee does not have a voided check or wants to deposit into another type of account, have the employee call the bank directly to get the routing/transit number.
A bank routing/transit number never starts with the numeral 5. This indicates a branch of the bank and will cause the direct deposit to fail. A direct deposit that fails will not leave OST to be paid and additional processing by the agency will be required to pay the employee.
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Agencies may, on occasion, receive a report generated from the Office of the State Treasurer’s current ACH application. OST’s current ACH application automatically updates bank routing numbers based on the latest table of Federal Reserve Bank routing numbers. This update allows the items to continue processing for payment.
When an update is made, the Participant Old/New Routing Number report is generated listing the employee, the incorrect bank routing number and the correct bank routing number. This report is distributed to agencies to update employee banking information.
These updates must be made so transactions will continue to process without interruption. This report is sent out by OMES to the contact listed for the Updated Banking Information report.
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OMES will have W-2 and 1099 forms and 1095 CDs ready for release at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, through 3 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020.
Agencies will pick up the forms at 5005 N Lincoln Blvd., Suite 100, Oklahoma City, OK 73105. You may park in front of the building in the visitor parking, which faces Lincoln Boulevard.
You must sign in at the Central Purchasing reception area when you first enter the building. Once signed in, a team member will direct you to the room where the forms will be distributed.
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The following are terms frequently used for different types of W-2s based on when the form is completed.
Original W-2: Form W-2 that was originally issued to an employee by Jan. 31.
Reissued W-2: Original Form W-2 reissued to an employee when an original form is lost, misplaced, not received, etc. Write “REISSUED STATEMENT” and the reissued date (MM/DD/YYYY) on the employee’s new copies.
A reissued W-2 can be produced at any time because the data is not being changed.
Corrected W-2: A Form W-2 used to correct the original W-2 when an error has been discovered, before OMES submits the file to the Social Security Administration. “CORRECTED” must be written on the employee’s new copies along with a corrected date (MM/DD/YYYY).
NOTE: Corrected W-2 forms must be delivered to OMES by Jan. 27, 2020. Please send the original W-2, a copy of the corrected form and a memo explaining why the correction is needed. Do not send copies of checks or other items.
W-2C: The form used to adjust the original W-2 (or corrected W-2) information when an error has been discovered after OMES has submitted the file to the SSA.
NOTE: W-2Cs must be submitted to OMES as soon as completed and will be filed with the SSA.
Please send a copy of the original W-2, Copy A of the W-2C and a memo explaining why the correction is needed.
Do not send copies of checks or other items. The employee should receive a copy and the agency should keep Copy D for their records.
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Corrected W-2 forms must be delivered to OMES by Jan. 27, 2020, for the corrections to be in the submission file. The IRS has accelerated the requirements for reporting W-2 information.
The due date for submission of Form W-2 information to the Social Security Administration is Jan. 31, 2020.
Please send the original W-2, a copy of the corrected form and a memo explaining why the correction is needed.
If the correction is due to a statutory canceled warrant that is not to be replaced, include a letter asking that the warrant not be replaced.
Note: When a warrant has been canceled by statute, there is no reason for a W-2 correction unless the payment was made in error.
If it was a valid payroll payment, the employee is still entitled to a replacement warrant; therefore, the W-2 reporting is proper.
Any correction needed after this date must be sent to OMES as a W-2C for us to notify the SSA. This will ensure reporting is as accurate and complete as possible.
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Employee payroll tax withholdings are not authorized to be refunded to an employee once withheld. Refunds will not be given for those employees who did not submit a W-4 in time for payroll processing.
All agencies should have a deadline for employees to submit W-4 changes. Per IRS regulations, the effective date of the new W-4 will be the beginning of the next pay cycle for the employee.
The system should not be back-dated in an attempt to refund taxes to the employee; this is not authorized by the IRS.
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Repayments from employees made in the current year (2020) that are for overpayments of wages in a prior year (2019 or earlier) must be repaid at the gross overpayment amount in accordance with Internal Revenue Service regulations.
A Corrected W-2 or a W-2C, as applicable, must be completed and sent to OMES. Only Social Security and Medicare wages and taxes are corrected on the forms.
Do not correct federal or state taxable wages or income taxes. The employee received and had use of the funds during the year of overpayment and as such, the amounts are taxable for federal and state purposes.
The employee may be able to take into account such repayments on his or her current year (2020) income tax return. Please advise the employee to speak to a tax accountant.
Additional instructions for Corrected Form W-2 and Form W2-C are available on the IRS website. For assistance, contact Lisa Raihl at 405-521-3258, [email protected] or Jean Hayes at 405- 522-6300, [email protected].
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Agencies are reminded to review and ensure employees have a valid OTC Form OW-9-MSE, Annual Withholding Tax Exemption Certification for Military Spouses, on file for 2020. The form must be completed annually to continue the exemption.
If a new exemption form has not been submitted for 2020, the employee’s withholding status must go back to the last valid Form W-4 on file.
When an employee submits the Form OW-9-MSE, they must also submit a completed Form OK-W-4. If you receive an exempt Form OK-W-4 with Form OW-9-MSE after processing a payroll, do not process a tax refund to the employee or submit one to OMES for processing. The new exemption form will take effect on the next pay cycle; it is not retroactive to the beginning of the year.
As a reminder, a nonresident spouse of a nonresident service member may be exempt from Oklahoma income tax on income from services performed in Oklahoma. OTC Form OW-9-MSE must be completed and returned to the employer with the required documentation, along with Form OK-W-4.
The instructions contain a list of requirements the employer must meet before the withholding exemption will be allowed. The forms must be completed each year the exemption is to be claimed.
This exemption will require an update to the employees' state tax data in PeopleSoft. The special tax status will be changed to Maintain Taxable Gross; SWT zero, unless specified in the Additional Withholding Below section.
This does not affect the federal tax data. Federal withholding will still be calculated based on the IRS Form W-4 in effect.
Although exempt from state income taxes, the income is still reportable on the W-2 as Oklahoma wages. Employees with questions should contact a tax accountant.
The Oklahoma Tax Commission has additional information and a section of Frequently Asked Questions on its website.
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1099 INFORMATION
Copies of the 1099 M form will be ready to pick up after 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2020, along with the W-2s and other year-end tax forms.
All forms will be available at 5005 N Lincoln Blvd., Ste 100, Oklahoma City, OK 73105. Please review the 1099s you receive and advise OMES of any changes that you determine necessary.
A few blank 1099M forms will be included for you to make any necessary corrections, and you may make more copies of the blank form if necessary. If you have several corrections please contact us and we will be able to create new 1099s with your corrections and forward them to you.
Please return as many changes as possible to OMES prior to Jan. 27, 2020.
Please note the following procedures pursuant to such changes in the 1099 documents:
- For missing addresses or address changes, send us a copy of the 1099 that includes the address you added or changed and include a notation as to the type of change as well as an updated W-9.
- For name or FEI/SSN changes, send us a copy of the original and the amended document as well as an updated W-9 or Vendor/Payee form so that we have appropriate reference to the changes.
- For all amount changes, please send us appropriate documentation explaining the nature of the transaction changes.
- Any changes that need to be made after Jan. 27, 2020, must be sent to OMES as soon as possible, and we will forward the information to the IRS.
In all instances, please make sure that your documentation includes enough information for us to understand your changes, the reasons for them and a contact person in case we have questions.
FYI:
- To ensure security on Form 1099M, we will truncate the SSN and FEI numbers so only the last four digits are shown, e.g., xxxxx1234. If you have an inquiry on any 1099M, please provide OMES with the account number in the lower left portion of the form.
- In January, before submitting our 1099 file to the IRS, we will TIN match the file with the IRS e-Services system. Any vendors that mismatch in this process must be corrected before we can submit our final file to the IRS on Jan. 31, 2020.
Questions or comments should be directed to:
Beth Brox 405-522-1099, [email protected] or Alicia Reel 405-522-9479, [email protected].
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OMES received the tax year 2018 backup withholding notice from the IRS and has sent any mismatches to agencies. This notice identifies payees with a taxpayer identification number missing or an incorrect name/TIN combination.
Agencies must obtain correct information from the payees and resolve the discrepancies. All corrections must be reported to OMES Vendor Registration. The information will be TIN matched to verify accuracy and to update the vendor file as needed.
Backup withholding may need to be implemented for these payees. When a payee’s information does not match the IRS records for two out of three years, the entity is required to apply backup withholding to future payments until the mismatch is corrected. For 2019 and 2020, the backup withholding rate is 24%.
IRS Publication 1281, Backup Withholding for Missing and Incorrect Name/TIN(s), provides the actions an entity must take when notified of a mismatch, which includes the requirement to apply backup withholding until the correct information is provided.
Backup withholding held from miscellaneous claim payments must be submitted to OMES on the same day as the vendor payment is completed.
Interagency wires for backup withholding should be payable to the State Contribution Fund (Vendor 0000000467, LOC #0001, ADDR #1). After processing a payment for backup withholding, send details of the payment to OMES at [email protected].
Once correct information is provided, verified and entered into the system for correct reporting, the agency may stop applying backup withholding.
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ACCOUNTING
Deposits are a two-step process. These two steps include taking the deposit to a bank, or OST, and entering the deposit into the State Accounting System. Deposits are not considered completed until both steps are finalized and the transaction has been recorded in the State Accounting System.
Transactions should be recorded in the State Accounting System within 24 hours of the deposit into the bank, which includes completing and budget checking the transaction in PeopleSoft Financials.
Deposits that have been budget checked by 10 a.m. will be posted to the treasurer’s statement that day. Any deposit budget checked after that time will post to the treasurer’s statement on the following day.
Statewide procedures require that each deposit entered in the State Accounting System must match on a single deposit at the bank. This one-to-one ratio is required to enable the reconciliation of external bank accounts.
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Agencies must review their deposit entries to ensure that they have posted into the system.
The posting status for regular deposit entries can be found on the query: OCP_AR_RECONCILE_DEPOSITS. If a deposit has not fully posted, it will not have a Journal ID or Journal date.
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Remember that accurate and timely submission of Form 11 or 11a for clearing or agency special accounts is due to Central Accounting and Reporting by close of business on the 20th of the month.
Since Jan. 20 is a holiday, submissions must be made by Jan. 21 for December. Delinquent reports for months prior to December must be submitted immediately.
If you are having problems reconciling, please contact CAR as soon as possible for assistance.
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Agencies submitting cash transfer requests must include current statutory authority.
If the statutory authority refers to a House or Senate bill, be sure to include the legislative session during which the bill was passed.
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FINANCIAL REPORTING
As of Dec. 29, 2019, the State of Oklahoma’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for FY 2019 has been completed.
The Financial Reporting Unit would like to thank all state agencies for their effort and cooperation in providing timely financial information.
The CAFR is available through the OMES website at https://omes.ok.gov/sites/g/files/gmc316/f/publications/cafr2019.pdf.
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ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
Invoices should be submitted as one invoice per voucher. Combining invoices on a single voucher negates the system’s ability to edit for duplicate payments and creates issues with open records.
Multiple vouchers can be combined into one payment to a vendor by leaving Separate Payment unchecked on the Payments tab of each voucher you want to combine as long as all the vouchers are submitted on the same pay cycle.
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Transaction Processing emails have changed. Please send all 20R Replacement Warrant forms to [email protected].
The 20R form has been updated with the new email address.
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OMES keeps a rolling three month period open for accounts payable in the state accounting system.
Vouchers dated within the three months will budget check and pay. Vouchers created prior to the open three-month period will not budget check and agencies must change the budget and accounting dates on the voucher to a date within the open period.
The automated process that was developed to change the date on behalf of agencies will no longer be available effective Feb. 1.
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P-CARD
Click here to view the P-card calendar year 2020 deadline schedule.
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TRAVEL
The Internal Revenue Service has announced a decrease in the mileage reimbursement rate, effective Jan. 1, 2020, to $0.575 per mile. This is a decrease from the $0.58 IRS rate for 2019. (See Internal Revenue Notice-2020-05, released Dec. 31, 2019).
All state agencies may use the IRS rate for travel incurred on and after Jan. 1, 2020.
The Trip Optimizer law is still in place for determining the lowest cost of travel transportation. The new $0.575 rate is now used for the mileage calculation and for the OMES mileage reimbursement amount referenced in Section E and F of the law.
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The last paragraph of Section 10.12.3 in the Statewide Accounting Manual states that “Tips for drivers of transit conveyance may be reimbursed up to 15 percent of the fare. Per diem is intended to cover any additional tip or tips for other services.”
This serves as notice that the manual will be updated to increase the tip limit for cabs and ride share services to 20%.
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As finance staff and travel arrangers, it is likely that you are familiar with the state’s travel policies and limitations. However, new employees that travel are sometimes not aware of policies and limitations until they have already incurred expenses for which they cannot be reimbursed.
We recommend that travel policies be discussed with new employees in the onboarding process. At the end of this newsletter we have included a sheet that can be used to provide information to employees upon hire and before travel takes place.
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It’s important to understand the state’s many statutory and regulatory restrictions on travel before you take that trip.
The following tips provide some basics designed to help ensure that you do not incur costs that may not be reimbursed. This list is not all-inclusive but contains the most common issues of which travelers should be aware.
- Lodging charges and reimbursements are limited to the GSA rate unless lodging is designated. Lodging is designated when the event is held at the hotel or the event sponsor has obtained a room block or a rate reduction.
- Optional activities with separate registration charges that are social or recreational are not reimbursed.
- Travel status for any per diem or reimbursement may begin up to 24 hours before the event and end up to 24 hours after the event. Documentation of the event start and stop times must be provided.
- Mileage reimbursement for 2020 is limited to the IRS rate of $0.575 per mile. Mileage must be documented with addresses, odometer readings or GPS printouts.
- Rental car cost must be prorated by miles between business and personal use.
- Meals and most other incidental expenses are not reimbursed. A per diem allowance covers these costs. Per diem is based on location and available at gsa.gov. Incidental expenses covered by per diem include:
- All tips other than local transportation fares.
- Any purchases of snacks or sundries.
- The per diem rate is reduced by ¼ for any full meal provided by the event sponsor. Per diem is not reduced for a continental breakfast or hors d’ oeuvres.
- Reimbursable expenses include baggage fees, internet fees, business calls, parking and cab or other ride share services. Reimbursement for cab tips is limited to 20%. Any reimbursable expenses over $25 must be documented with a receipt. Taking a picture of your receipt is encouraged.
- The State Travel Act includes some specific exceptions from the restrictions listed above. These exceptions are very limited. If you believe your travel may fall under an exception please consult with the travel coordinator at your agency before you travel.
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