Prepared by the Quality
Reporting Service Center - (312) 751-4992 - QRSC@RRB.GOV
Please share this
information with the appropriate members of your staff who file the following
reports, as well as programming staff who support these functions.
-
Form BA-3a/d, Annual Report
of Creditable Compensation
-
Form BA-4, Report of
Creditable Compensation Adjustments
-
Form BA-6a, Form BA-6
Address Report
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*Form BA-9, Report of
Separation Allowance or Severance Pay
-
Form BA-10, Report of
Miscellaneous Compensation and Sick Pay
-
*Form BA-11, Report of Gross
Earnings
-
Form GL-99, Deemed Service
Month Questionnaire
-
Form UI-41a, Supplemental
Report of Compensation
Purpose
The purpose of this letter is to provide information regarding the planned
format and content changes for the forms/reports listed above and the date for
implementing the changes. Our Program Letters No. 05-03 and No. 05-06, dated
December 10, 2004 and March 29, 2005, respectively, provide details for
revisions to most of the forms. This letter provides details for the forms
highlighted with an asterisk (*).
Expanded Compensation
Amounts
-
Form BA-9, Report of
Separation Allowance or Severance Pay
Tier II earnings based elements
are being expanded in all RRB programs and processes to be consistent with
changes being made for Tier I based elements, which will require an additional
digit within the next few years. The Tier II elements to be expanded on Form
BA-9 are the Taxable Compensation and the Creditable Compensation amounts which
are used to calculate a special benefit called the Separation Allowance Lump-Sum
Amount (SALSA).
Name and Date Formats
-
Form BA-9, Report of
Separation Allowance or Severance Pay
-
Form BA-11, Report of Gross Earnings
For consistency of RRB and
employer report processes, all reported names are being expanded; and all date
fields are being converted to use a four-digit year. The first and last names
will allow for 15 and 20 characters, respectively. Years will be represented in
the CCYY format; complete dates will be represented in the MMDDCCYY format. (See
Attachments 1 and 2 for the new tape layouts for these reports.)
Obsolescence of
Forms/Reports
-
Form BA-3a, Annual Report of
Creditable Compensation
-
Form BA-3d, Annual Report of Creditable Compensation; Miscellaneous Compensation
and Sick Pay
-
Form BA-10, Report of Miscellaneous Compensation and Sick Pay
Because the new Form BA-3, Annual
Report of Creditable Compensation will be used to report regular service and
compensation as well as miscellaneous compensation and sick pay (See Program
Letter 05-03.), the forms now used for theses purposes will no longer be needed.
Forms BA-3a, BA-3d and BA-10 will become obsolete.
Scheduled Implementation
To allow employers ample time to
make these changes, we released our previous letters prior to establishing a
final implementation date. We have now set January 2008 for implementation of
the changes. This means that earnings and address reports for the 2007 earnings
year must be reported in the new formats or using revised forms, which will be
made available by the fall of 2007. As previously noted, some of the changes are
optional; others are mandatory. Please review our previous letters for these
details. You may also use Attachment 3 as a reference.
Additional Information or Assistance
You may obtain copies of Program Letters 05-03 and 05-06 at the RRB website,
www.rrb.gov. You may also contact the Quality Reporting Service Center for the
letters or to ask questions about the new reports. The email address and
telephone number are shown at the top of this page. The RRB is planning a
National Employer Training Seminar in Chicago in May 2006 and these changes will
be presented at a breakout session.
Attachments
Attachment 1 provides the new BA-9 file layout.
Attachment 2 provides the new BA-11 file layout.
Attachment 3 lists the changes to forms/reports to be implemented in January
2008.
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