#897 Payroll Processing for 2011 Gift Cards

Kansas Health Policy Authority (KHPA) HealthQuest has again implemented a program for plan year 2011 that includes the incentive of a $50 Gift Card for completing the HealthQuest Personal Health Assessment (PHA). As a reminder, the Gift Card Award is a taxable fringe benefit to the plan participant for the total of all gift cards selected by or for the plan participant and their eligible dependent(s). For State employees and their eligible dependents, the taxes on the fringe benefit income will be deducted from the participating employee’s paycheck based on the issue date of the employee e-mail and/or notification letter which provides the information for gift card redemption. Fringe Benefit Income is added to, and reported in, taxable gross wages on the W-2.

The ‘FBN’ earnings for the gift cards will be loaded directly to the employee paysheets for payroll processing. The ‘FBN’ earnings can be viewed on the employees paycheck beginning Wednesday morning following the first preliminary calc. In addition, agencies will continue to receive the KTECKHPA report in their agency mailbox on the MVS, also available on Wednesday morning following the first preliminary calc, which lists all employees in the agency who had ‘FBN’ earnings added to their paysheet for the biweekly pay period being processed. The first pay period for plan year 2011 gift cards that was processed in payroll was the pay period February 6, 2011 to February 19, 2011 paid March 4, 2011.