Dear Colleague,

It has been a frustrating two weeks, and I appreciate those of you who shared your questions with me. I am writing to share additional information and resources with you about the state payroll tax issue. 

First, the issue with the District’s quarterly filings with the Employment Development Department (EDD) did not impact the accuracy of your 2022 Wage and Tax Statement (Form W-2).  Your W-2 form accurately reported your earnings from 2022.  

The District’s quarterly wage reports were filed on March 10, 2023.  By March 17, 2023, SFUSD had completed filing all required California returns and remitted all state taxes due.  EDD will reconcile the District’s wage reports with the taxes remitted to the state for each employee, and will coordinate with the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) to address the reported issues with employee tax filings and withholding to stop additional notifications from being sent out.  

Therefore, after a short processing period you should be able to take the following action depending on your personal circumstances:

If you have already filed your 2022 state tax return and received a notification from the FTB, you should follow the directions in the notification you received and contact the FTB after March 31, 2023.  You should be able to initiate the reprocessing of your tax return and possible refund.

If you have already filed your 2022 state tax return but have not received a notice from FTB, there is no action that needs to be taken at this time.  You may not receive a notification and your return will be processed correctly.  However, if you do receive a notification from FTB, we suggest you follow the directions in the notification you received and contact the FTB after March 31, 2023. Doing so should initiate the reprocessing of your tax return.

If you have not yet filed your 2022 state tax return, you should consult your tax advisor and file when they deem appropriate. We believe that filing after March 31st will reduce the risk of delays to your 2022 tax return.
 
We recognize the stress and inconvenience this situation has likely caused.  We have taken the steps we can to expedite the processing of your tax returns.  We are also working with BALANCE to provide financial advice and coaching for SFUSD employees through our partnership.  

Employees can call their toll-free hotline at 855-468-1480 to speak to a financial counselor. Services are confidential, and multilingual support is available. 

After working with a telephone counselor, arrangements can also be made for in-person coaching at the San Francisco Public Library on a variety of financial topics including how to navigate sudden changes to income or expenses, access child tax credit, stimulus payments, debt and credit management, and others.

More information is available on sfusd.edu/2022PayrollTax. Current employees can log into the employee portal for more information on BALANCE.

We hope that you find this resource useful as we continue to navigate this issue together. Once again, I am deeply sorry about the impact of this error and am committed to ensuring that we do not repeat this mistake again. 

Sincerely,
Dr. Matt Wayne, SFUSD Superintendent