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New Employer Reporting Requirements Coming in 2008 

The Railroad Retirement Board (RRB) is currently making major changes in the employer reporting forms. These changes will directly impact how you report 2007 service and compensation to the RRB in 2008. The reasons for the changes are to accommodate an increase in the Tier 1 earnings base and in the maximum daily pay rate. It is anticipated that the Tier 1 earnings base will exceed $99,999.99 and the daily rate of pay to qualify for maximum benefits will exceed $99.99 by 2008. Consequently, these field sizes need to be expanded.

Because we are already making needed changes in the annual reports to accommodate increased field sizes, we are taking advantage of this opportunity and including some enhancements to other reporting forms. These enhancements are based on feedback that we received from employers over the years but had been unable to implement due to the amount of work associated with making the necessary systems and programming changes for both the RRB and employers.

Some of the planned enhancements are: expanding the name and earning year fields; including the sick pay and miscellaneous compensation field amounts on the annual and adjustment reports; and including the employee address for new hires on the annual report. In addition, we plan to include fields from information now reported on form(s) GL-99, Employer’s Deemed Service Month Questionnaire and UI-41a, Supplemental Report of Compensation on the annual report.

All these changes will require revisions to the paper forms and record layouts for the following reporting forms: Form BA-3a, Annual Report of Creditable Compensation; Form BA-4, Report of Creditable Compensation Adjustments; Form BA-6a, Form BA-6 Address Report; Form BA-9, Report of Separation Allowance or Severance Pay; and the Form BA-11, Report of Gross Earnings. In addition, these changes will obsolete the Form BA-10, Report of Miscellaneous Compensation & Sick Pay and Form BA-3D, Annual Report of Creditable Compensation record layout.

The RRB will implement new forms and record layouts effective with reports for 2007 earnings year, which are due the last day of February 2008. Compliance with these reporting changes is mandatory for all employers and reports in the old format cannot be processed once the new format is in place. Employers who file automated reports are also required to submit test reports in the new record layouts to the RRB for review by June 30, 2007 to ensure that their company programming changes meet with the RRB requirement guidelines.

For more information, please refer to program letter PL07-01 entitled Summary of the Future Changes effective January 2008 in Service and Compensation and Related Reports. This program letter and all related program letters can be viewed on the RRB website at www.rrb.gov under the Employer Forms and Publication link. We have also provided a “Countdown to Employer Changes” in the “Spotlight” box on the website home page, as a reminder of the upcoming deadline. Please monitor the website for additional information on upcoming changes.

If you have any specific questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the Quality Reporting Service Center at (312)751-4992.

Elimination of Paradox Program on CD-ROM Scheduled for 2008

The RRB-developed PC reporting program, which the RRB distributed on CD-ROM (using Paradox), will be obsolete as of January 1, 2008. We are exploring alternatives to that program that will comply with the new formatting requirements. We will keep you advised of our progress.

Form Letter ID-30 Discontinued

Effective July 1, 2006 the RRB no longer releases the Notice Under Section 2(f) Of Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act (form letter ID-30) to payroll offices when employees indicate on an unemployment application that they may receive wage guarantee payments or pay for time lost. The Notice of RUIA Claim Determination (form letter ID-4E) or its electronic equivalent notice via RaiLinc constitutes sufficient and timely notice of benefit payments that may be subject to reimbursement under section 2(f) of the RUIA. The discontinued use of the form letter ID-30 is beneficial because it reduces the amount of paper correspondence being sent to employers.

You should continue to obtain information from the RRB about the amount of reimbursement due under section 2(f) by e-mail or facsimile.

October Release of Forms ID-40R/S, Annual Notices under the RUIA

The RRB has released Form ID-40R/S, Annual Notice under the RUIA to all employers. The Form ID-40R/S notifies employers of their RUIA contribution rate to be used during the period of January 1 through December 31, 2007 and was mailed in October 2006. If you did not receive the form, please contact:

Please Return Forms GL-99

The due date has already passed for returning Forms GL-99, Employer’s Deemed Service Questionnaire which you may have received from the RRB. If you have not replied to the form, please complete the forms and return them ASAP.

The information you provide on the forms may result in the RRB awarding additional months of service to the applicable employees based on their reported service months and Tier II compensation for calendar years 2002, 2003, 2004 and/or 2005.

Important Security News

With the increase rise in identity theft, the RRB strongly encourages all employers to take extra security precautions when preparing and sending service and compensation reports to the RRB. A few ways to accomplish this are as follows:

• Password protect or Encrypt (WinZip) all CD-ROM/diskette files. Be sure to provide us with the password via a separate method (i.e. e-mail) and indicate in the remarks section of the G-440, Report Specifications Sheet that the report is password protected and/or encrypted;
• Send paper reports, tapes, cartridges, CD-ROM/diskette files in boxes (as opposed to paper envelopes which can be accidentally damaged) via overnight, priority, or certified mail and request a return receipt for your records;
• Affix an identification label with the statement “Property of the USRRB” along with our mailing address on each tape, cartridge, CD-ROM/diskette file;
• File your adjustment or address reports via the Employer Reporting System (ERS);
• Contact us annually to verify and update your company’s designated contact official information (i.e. e-mail address, phone/fax numbers, mailing address) with the RRB, via the Form G-117a, Designation of Contact Officials.

Taking these precautions can reduce the risk of unauthorized access or tampering of employee information.