COTTON
Ginners Marketplace
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Social Security Administration Sending Out Mismatch Letters About a month ago, we started hearing reports of ginners throughout the Cotton Belt receiving letters from the Social Security Administration. These letters state that there are a certain number of employees in their company whose data is not matching up with the SSA system. The SSA has sent out similar letters in the past, but it has been 10 years or so. One difference in these new letters is that they do not give you the names that are mismatched, but only how many workers are affected. The SSA suggests you log into their Employer Report Status within Business Services Online system. If you log into this system, you can see which workers are affected, but you have to register with the SSA to get a login. You are not required to log into the system. You can review your records manually and possibly ďŹ gure out which ones are mismatched on your own. If you don’t want to do this and would rather get the names from SSA instead, you must either call them directly or log into the system.
Cotton Ginners Marketplace
Response To SSA Letter Is Important It is important to understand that having a mismatch is no indication that the worker is not eligible to be working in the United States, and you should not use this letter as a reason to review whether a worker has legal work status. On the other hand, you should not ignore the letter as Immigration and Customs Enforcement could use your lack of response to the letter against you. In other words, the receipt of this letter puts employers in a tough place. If you did receive a letter, you are in good company. SSA has sent out about 575,000 of them, according to reports. Some common causes of a mismatch could include things like transposing a Social Security Number from the Social Security Card into your payroll system or misspelling a name in the payroll system. These types of errors should be corrected using the W-2C form. In other instances, the source of the errors will not be clear. If you are unable to determine why a name is not matching up in the SSA system, you should notify the employee of the issue and give them a chance to get it sorted out. Your employees should understand that it is in their interest to get their mismatch sorted out. You are paying into the system for that employee, but the employee is not getting credit for those payments if the SSA cannot match the payment to a person in their system. It is important not to ignore these letters. If you receive an ICE inspection in the future, the inspectors may check to see how you responded to these letters and potentially use your lack of response against you. The letters typically contain a 60-day deadline for response. Seek Advice Before Taking Action If you have an employee who will not or cannot get their mismatch taken care of, you are put in a delicate position. Talk to
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