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Full-time faculty who teach summer intersession classes received a big shock in their July 8 payroll checks. Additional state and federal taxes — up to 150 percent of the federal and 250 percent of the state — had been deducted, said Roger Marheine, president of the Faculty Association.

“Grossly excessive federal and state taxes [had been] withheld,” Assistant English Professor Marheine told faculty in an e-mail on July 13.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education, which processes faculty payroll checks, confirmed July 20 that PCC can “run a verification report” to determine the withholding differences, according to Vice President of administrative services, Richard van Pelt in an e-mail to Marheine on Wednesday.

Van Pelt’s response followed several e-mail communications between Marheine, van Pelt, and Payroll Supervisor Margaret K. Ory.

According to Ory, the tax-withholding mistake had been “due to a clerical error on the part of the Payroll Office,” she explained to Marheine on July 15.

The July 8 paychecks had been processed using a method that withheld more taxes than expected by full-time faculty who are accustomed to being paid 12 times a year, she said.

Ory assured faculty that it was a one-time mistake and gave them the option of applying for a refund of the excess taxes paid.

Marheine said that “the only acceptable remedy is for the college to generate an entirely new payroll assessment for the July 8 checks, calculate the appropriate taxes that should have been withheld, and refund the correct amounts to all faculty immediately.”

Van Pelt assured Marheine that “we are having our staff make all the preparations we can to get ready” and planned to run the report July 20, at night.

The excessive tax withdrawals had impacted 181 faculty members, van Pelt said.

Marheine said faculty members had been “severely injured” by the unexpected deductions.

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