Electronic Repayment of Overpaid Wages

Repayment methods

• Check/Money order payable instructions

Repayment plan options

• Scheduled Payments coordinated with Payroll Services
• Recoup from cash out payments
• Interim Advances (active employees only)

Collections

Outstanding debt, if remaining unpaid, will be turned over to a Collections Agency.  At that time, the collection agent will add their fee of 25% – 40% of the total debt, which the employee is required by law to pay.

FAQS

1. Check/Money Order payments: Make check or money order payable to “University of Florida”.  The check or money order may be sent to the employee’s department or directly to University Payroll Services PO Box 113201, Gainesville, FL 32611-3201
2. Scheduled Payments coordinated with Payroll Services: The employee may contact Payroll Services by writing payroll-services@ufl.edu to discuss setting up a payment plan.  The employee will then be expected to notify Payroll Services if they are unable to make any scheduled payments.
3. Recouping debt from cash out: Payroll Services can recoup overpayments from employees who are due a leave cash out payment at the time they separate from the University.
4. Interim Advance option for active employees: The Interim Advance option may be elected for repayment of 6 paychecks or less.  Payroll Services can use an after-tax deduction (INTADV) to recoup overpayments from an employee’s future earnings before they separate from the university.  The employee needs to agree to the repayment schedule in advance.
5. Taxation/Form W-2c Inquiries: Once Payroll Services receives the full repayment and corrects the overpayment in the system, the employee receives a Form W-2c (corrected W-2) notification letter.  Form W-2c shows any changes in the OASDI (Social Security) and Medicare tax calculations, since we do not ask employees to repay the gross amount. When Payroll Services sends Form W-2c, included is a letter that references IRS Publication 525 about how to handle wage overpayments from a prior year.  Please see https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p525.pdf.  Page 34 of this publication contains the Repayments section. Note, we are not personal tax return experts and are prohibited from giving any tax advice.  The employee will need to consult a tax preparer, a tax advisor, or the IRS for assistance.
6. FICA Alternative  (FICALT): FICA Alternative contributions made to an employee’s account for checks in which the employee was overpaid are included in the wage refund calculation total.  However, if the employee confirms that they have not rolled over their account into a new one or had a distribution of those funds, UF can collect the FICA Alternative contribution back from the vendor directly.  FICA Alternative contributions are typically included in the wage refund calculation because employees who leave the University usually roll over their FICALT retirement account into one of their existing retirement account.  When that happens, we no longer have access to the funds and cannot collect the money back directly from the vendor.  In addition, most employees want to leave these funds in their retirement account and prefer to pay back the amount due directly.If an employee requests that Payroll Services collect the amount due directly from their FICA Alternative account and has not rolled over the account, we will remove that portion from the repayment calculation and total amount owed.

Last Reviewed

Last reviewed on 03/20/2024