742-9-10 Form of employer report; failure of employer to submit required employee deduction report.

(A) As required by section 742.32 of the Revised Code, employers are required to file a report of employee deductions with the Ohio police & fire pension fund (“OP&F”) in accordance with the form approved by OP&F’s board of trustees, in the form attached hereto and consistent with the requirements outlined in this rule.

(B) For purposes of section 742.32 of the Revised Code, the term “employee” shall refer to a “member”, as such term is defined in divisions (A)(2)(a) and (B)(2)(a) of section 742.01 of the Revised Code.

(C) For purposes of section 742.32 of the Revised Code, the deduction shall be taken on “salary” paid by the employer to the employee for the month covered in that report, pursuant to the terms of division (L) of section 742.01 of the Revised Code and the rules of the Administrative Code adopted pursuant to that section.

(D) For all filings due prior to February 28, 2006, the provisions of the prior rule shall govern based on their respective terms.

(E) For all filings due on or after February 28, 2006, the form of the employer’s report of employee deductions shall be deemed properly filed with OP&F if all of the following occurs:

(1) The completed form of the report that is filed with OP&F by the statutory deadline is consistent with the form attached hereto as Appendix A to this rule and meets all the following requirements:

(a) A separate report for the report of deductions for firefighter members and a separate report for the report of deductions for police officer members;

(b) For electronic filings, it meets the technical specifications provided to the employers in a written notice from OP&F in March 2005, as may be amended from time to time with prior written notice to the employer;

(c) The reporting of “salary” is consistent with the requirements outlined in this rule and the written notice sent to the employers in March 2005 for those employers who file in electronic format as of the date of such notice or May 2005 from those employers who file in paper format as to the date of such notice, as may be amended from time to time with prior written notice to the employer; and

(d) The reporting of picked-up contributions, whether done through a salary reduction or paid on behalf of the member, must be consistent with the requirements outlined in rule 742-7-14 of the Administrative Code.

(2) The report and/or payment is accompanied by a completed OP&F recap form as referenced in rule 742-9-17 of the Administrative Code, and is received by OP&F by the statutory deadline. It is OP&F’s preference that the recap form is sent along with the payment, rather than the report. For electronic filers, the recap form must still be received by OP&F by the statutory deadline.

(3) The contributions due under section 742.32 of the Revised Code must be paid to OP&F by the statutory deadline, must match the amount outlined in the recap form referenced in rule 742-9-17 of the Administrative Code, and must match the total amount reported on the report referenced in paragraph (E)(1)(a) of this rule. As referenced in paragraph (E)(2) of this rule, it is OP&F’s preference that the recap form accompany this payment.

(F) In order to verify the reporting of “salary” consistent with the provisions of division (L) of section 742.01 of the Revised Code and section 742.32 of the Revised Code and the corresponding rules of the Administrative Code, OP&F may request detailed pay records involving the member’s wages and/or service credit from the employer at any time.

(G) For purposes of assessing the penalties prescribed by section 742.352 of the Revised Code for all filings due OP&F under section 742.32 of the Revised Code from and after February 28, 2006, OP&F shall take the following course of action:

(1) No report/no payment. If the required payment prescribed by section 742.32 of the Revised Code is not made in accordance with the deadline outlined in such section and no report of employee deductions is filed with OP&F in accordance with the deadline outlined in such section, which includes the recap form, OP&F shall assess the penalties prescribed by section 742.352 of the Revised Code.

(2) Report/no payment. If the required report of employee deductions prescribed by section 742.32 of the Revised Code and more fully outlined in this rule is filed with OP&F in accordance with the deadline outlined in such section, but the proper payment is not paid to OP&F in accordance with the deadline outlined in such section, OP&F shall assess the penalties prescribed by section 742.352 of the Revised Code.

(3) No report/payment. If the required report of employee deductions prescribed by section 742.32 of the Revised Code and more fully outlined in this rule is not filed with OP&F in accordance with the deadline outlined in such section, but a payment is made with OP&F in accordance with the deadline outlined in such section, OP&F shall assess the penalties prescribed by section 742.352 of the Revised Code.

(4) All other cases, the following shall apply:

(a) Non-conforming payroll report. OP&F shall initially give verbal notice to the employer of the non-conforming nature of the report and allow the employer to have an opportunity to take corrective actions to cure such deficiencies within thirty days of OP&F’s verbal notice of deficiency. If the employer has not submitted a writing to OP&F that properly addresses the noted deficiencies by Friday of the week in which OP&F gave the verbal notice, OP&F shall then send a written notice to the employer of the non-conforming nature of the report and allow the employer to still have an opportunity to take the corrective actions identified in the written notice from OP&F within thirty days of OP&F’s initial verbal notice (referred to herein as the “cure period”), and the following shall apply:

(i) If the employer files a correct report of employee deductions in OP&F’s approved format with the correct and detailed deductions outlined in OP&F’s notice and such report is received by OP&F on or before the expiration of the cure period, no penalties will be assessed by OP&F against the employer.

(ii) If OP&F does not receive from the employer the proper report of employee deductions with the correct and detailed deductions, as noted in OP&F’s written notice to the employer, on or before the expiration of such cure period, then OP&F will assess the penalties prescribed by section 742.352 of the Revised Code, beginning the day after the expiration of the cure period.

(b) In all other situations, OP&F will notify the employer in writing of the employer’s failure to comply with the provisions of section 742.32 of the Revised Code and shall then send a written notice to the employer of the failure to comply with section 742.32 of the Revised Code and shall allow the employer to still have an opportunity to take the corrective actions identified in the written notice from OP&F within thirty days of OP&F’s initial verbal notice (referred to herein as the “cure period”), and the following shall apply:

(5) Even with the cure period, the employer will still be assessed any statutory fines for late filings and/or payments, as the case may be under the applicable statutory provision.

(6) This rule shall apply once the payment and/or report has been filed with OP&F and shall not limit any other remedies available to OP&F by law.

(H) Except for the limited exception outlined in this section, this rule will not impact any penalties and interest already assessed by OP&F for reports and/or payments due prior to February 19, 2002 since OP&F has already given notice of such assessments, but the reduction provided for in section 3 of Sub. H.B. No. 244, 124th General Assembly, shall apply to all penalties incurred for filings due prior to February 19, 2002 and the following may apply in limited circumstances. The prior versions of this rule will apply to issues that occurred prior to the effective date of such rules, but in cases where the employer misreported to another Ohio retirement system during the period beginning 2002, the provisions of this rule shall apply and OP&F will refund any penalties that were charged to an employer for misreporting to another Ohio retirement system without first being given a notice and opportunity to cure the deficiency prior to imposing the penalty.

(I) The provisions of this rule will not change the penalty amounts set forth in section 742.352 of the Revised Code.

(J) Any failure on the part of OP&F to return the deficient report to the employer under any prior versions of this rule shall not extend or change the requirement that the employer must file the corrected report within the time period stated in OP&F’s notice in order to avoid penalties associated with the deficiencies noted in such report.

(K) Employers who timely filed reports in 2006 (through pay period end date of January 31, 2007), shall not be assessed a penalty if the reports could not be loaded into OP&F’s pension administration system due to a system error.

APPENDIX A

REPORT OF RETIREMENT DEDUCTIONS

See Appendix at http://www.registerofohio.state.oh.us/pdfs/742/0/9/742-9-10_FF_A_APP1_20080512_1022.pdf

Effective: 05/22/2008

R.C. 119.032 review dates: 03/07/2008 and 05/22/2013

Promulgated Under: 111.15

Statutory Authority: 742.10

Rule Amplifies: 742.32, 742.352

Prior Effective Dates: 11/18/1999 (Emer.), 3/16/00, 8/31/00 (Emer.), 11/23/00, 2/11/02 (Emer.), 4/29/02, 5/30/02 (Emer.), 8/22/02, 11/17/03, 11/30/05 (Emer.), 02/16/2006, 6/4/2006, 7/19/2007