Employee Awards and Prizes

Employee Awards and Prizes
Type of Policy
Administrative
jgastley3
Policy No
10.12
Effective Date
Review Date
Policy Owner
Human Resources
Contact Name
Jerri Philips
Contact Title
Director - Payroll
Contact Email
jerri.philips@hr.gatech.edu
Policy Statement

Prizes and awards (cash and non-cash) made to employees are considered wages. In accordance with the Internal Revenue Service regulations, awards and prizes are subject to FICA, FUTA, and federal and state income tax withholdings. All awards and prizes given to Georgia Tech employees must be paid and/or reported through the Georgia Tech Payroll Department, to ensure that taxes are properly withheld.

Procedures

  1. If sufficient funds are available, the employee taxes may be paid in addition to the dollar amount awarded to the employee.

    Example: 
    Employee Award to be paid (Net)$1,000.00
    Employee Taxes (Fed 25% + State 2% + FICA 7.65%)$ 530.22
    Employer Tax (FICA 7.65%)$ 117.06
    Total Expense ($1,530.22 EE + 117.06 ER)  $1,647.28
  2. If the employee will be responsible for paying the taxes:
Example: 
 Employee Award to be paid $1,000.00
Employee Taxes **(award amount x 7.65% + Fed 25% + State 2%)$ 346.50
Net Employee Award$ 653.50
Employer FICA**$ 76.50
  
Total Expense ($1,000 EE + 76.50 ER)$1,076.50

    

**Note: If the employee has reached their social security annual maximum, there will only be 1.45% medicare tax charged.

Employee taxes are withheld as follows: 
Federal 25.00% FICA (6.2% SS + 1.45% Medicare)7.65%

State

< $8,000 – 2%

8 – 10,000 – 3%

10 – 12,000 – 4%

12 - 15,000 – 5%

> 15,000 - 6%

 

All recipients (employee, student employee, and non-employee) should be submitted on the Awards and Prizes form. Forms may be obtained on line http://www.ohr.gatech.edu/; under Payroll (https://techworks.psguest.gatech.edu:5963/psp/paprodg/EMPLOYEE/EMPL/e). The Payroll Department will verify the employment status. If a recipient is not an employee, the initiating department will be notified to pay the recipient through AP. Prizes for non-employee recipients should be submitted on AP check request form.

Forms

A copy of the Awards and Prizes form is available as a reference for the following instructions. This sample form has numbers written on it which correspond to the numbers in the instructions below.

Instructions for completion of the Awards and Prizes form:

  1. Enter the name of the award/prize event.
  2. Enter the name and phone number of the award coordinator.
  3. The form must be signed and dated by an authorized department administrator.
  4. Enter the award/prize presentation date.
  5. Enter the name and phone number of the person responsible for check pick-up.
  6. Enter the date needed and if it is to be a check or deposited with their next payroll.
  7. Check the “Gross Up” box if the department wishes to absorb recipient’s taxes (approx. 34.65%)
  8. Enter the name of the award/prize recipient.
  9. Enter the recipient GT ID and Employee ID.
  10. List the purpose of the award/prize.
  11. Enter the $$$ amount of award payment
  12. Enter the estimated department’s total expense of the award including any employer portion of the FICA (7.65%), and the employeeportion of taxes if the department is willing to pay for them. (Please refer to the gross-up examples above for calculation).
  13. Enter GT peoplesoft project #/name. No State Fund is allowed.
  14. Enter GTF/GTRC Project # (Funding Source).

The department should submit the form to Accounting Services for review if the funding source is Georgia Tech Foundation. If the funding source is Georgia Tech Research Corporation, the form should be approved by Grants and Contracts. After the form is approved, it will be forwarded to Payroll for check processing.