Compensation and Staffing News |
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UUA Office of Church Staff Finances Mission
Guided by the values of our faith,
we equip congregations for excellence as employers
and their staff for financial competence and well-being.
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December 2020
You may need to click on continuation dots to view all articles and/or to see each one in its entirety.
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W-2 forms must be give to employees and sent to the Social Security Administration by February 1. See our box-by-box W-2 instructions for the 2020 tax year. New for 2021, to protect employees from identity theft, truncated social security numbers are now allowed on the employee copies of W-2s. SSNs can be masked by replacing the first five digits of the nine-digit number with asterisks or XXXs, e.g., ***-**-1234 or XXX-XX-1234. Truncating the SSN is allowed but not mandatory.
Be sure to check for any potential change in minimum wage in your state or locality.
For the UUA Health Plan, there is no base rate change on January 1. However, since premiums are based on age, some participants will experience a small age adjustment so be prepared for changes to your invoice. (As explained in our November issue, our Dental, Life, and Long-Term Disability rates will remain at 2020 levels for 2021; we are leaving open the possibility of a mid-2021 adjustment to Health Plan premiums.)
The ministerial housing allowance must be formally designated by the congregation's leadership before any expenses can be applied to it. Designating a 2021 Housing Allowance by the end of 2020 ensures that your minister(s) can take full advantage of it in the new calendar year. (Ministers, see our housing allowance calculation form.)
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Providing bonuses is one way of showing appreciation to your staff. Sometimes congregations give bonuses at the holidays as a gift. In other cases, a one-time bonus may supplement wages when a raise is not deemed possible.
Whatever the timing and the purpose, keep in mind that that bonuses are taxable income and must be included in compensation for Retirement Plan contribution purposes. A one-time bonus does not get figured into the calculation for Life and Long-Term Disability premiums, however.
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Insurance Plans and Taxes |
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We get quite a few questions relating to the tax implications of our insurance plans, so we've consolidated relevant information from multiple UUA sources into this Insurance Plans and Taxes LeaderLab article. While UUA plans are referenced, the information applies to insurance offered by other providers, as well.
This article contains a section on reimbursement for other health insurance – when and how it can be done on a tax-free basis.
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UUA Retirement Plan: Gather Your Staff |
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We recommend gathering your staff (18 and older) each December to talk about the UUA Retirement Plan. This is a time to:
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Invite employees to start, stop, or change their Elective Contribution authorization. (As you know, every employee, age 18 and up, can make elective contributions, regardless of hours or length of service.)
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Explain the Plan's criteria for determining each employee's date of eligibility to begin receiving Employer Contributions. (Need a refresher? Review the lead article in our May 2018 newsletter.)
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For staff not currently receiving employer contributions and who have had 12 consecutive months of employment in 2020, assure them that you are monitoring their hours of service and will begin Employer Contributions in January if they complete 1,000 hours of service in this calendar year.
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Let employees know of contribution limits in the new year, as outlined in our November newsletter).
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UUA Offices are closing at end of day on Friday, December 18, and will reopen on Monday, January 4, 2021. The Church Staff Finances team is arranging coverage so that we can respond to time-sensitive matters.
As we turn the page on an unusually complicated year, our team thanks each of you for helping ensure that your congregation is a faithful employer – faithful to the law and to our values. We're here to help and grateful that you take the time to read Compensation and Staffing News each month. (Links to previously published issues, with annotations, are available on our Publications page.)
Blessings from all of us:
Richard, Jim, William, Tamika, Linda, Charissa, and Jan
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UUA Office of Church Staff Finances
24 Farnsworth Street | Boston, MA 02210
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