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Broadcast Email Archive 2021
August 9, 2021
August 9, 2021
STD. 686 Employee Action Request (EAR) and STD. 457 California State University (CSU) Student Payroll Action Request (SPAR)
Action Required by Department: Share the following information with all departmental human resources (HR) office employees.
Description: The State Controller's Office (SCO) revised the STD. 686 (EAR) and STD. 457 (SPAR) forms and implemented new Employment History (EH) data fields on the EAR screen in the Uniform State Payroll System effective December 1, 2020. These changes were in response to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, resulting in an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) redesign of the Form W-4 Employee’s Withholding Certificate.
As a reminder the most significant change eliminated withholding allowances for federal tax withholding as shared with the release of Personnel Letter #20-028. Please consider the helpful tips below while processing EAR/SPAR forms:
Review the 2020 Employee Action Request (EAR) Std. 686 Form and Federal Withholdings Toolkit
Verify the EAR/SPAR forms entered into EH after July 1, 2021 with pay history to ensure that the forms are entered correctly for accurate federal withholding.
Refrain from keying numerical federal allowances in the dependent field. This field requires whole dollar amounts. For example, keying a number 2 will translate as $2.00 resulting in an incorrect calculation for the federal withholding
Verify the amount(s) in the additional withholding fields to ensure the correct amount has been entered. Do not enter the amount for dependents in this field.
Population Affected: All HR Offices
Contacts:
Statewide Customer Contact Center (916) 372-7200
HR Suggestions Email (All HR Staff) PPSDHRSuggestions@sco.ca.gov
CS Escalation Email (HR Supervisors and Managers) PPSDOps@sco.ca.gov
Cal Employee Connect Email connecthelp@sco.ca.gov
Cal Employee Connect Feedback Email connectfeedback@sco.ca.gov
SCO Key Initiatives:
Cal Employee Connect Project
California State Payroll System Project