Texas Prepaid Higher Education Tuition Program
Multiple Contracts in Multiple Plans and Deduction Authorization

Multiple Contracts in Multiple Plans

State agency and higher education employees may have one or more separate contracts in one or all of the plans available. Agencies must set up a separate deduction for each plan for the sum of the contract amounts designated by the employee.

Deductions for all of the plans are considered post-tax deductions, meaning each deduction is taken after taxes are calculated.

Deduction Authorization

The Board is responsible for the creation and content of the following payroll deduction authorization forms:

• Employer Authorization form — payroll deduction
• Employee Payroll Deduction form

Employer Authorization Form

An Employer Authorization form must be completed by any agency establishing payroll deductions for any of the Board plans. This form allows for the collection of pertinent agency information in case future payroll deductions require employer assistance.

Agencies must submit a separate Employer Authorization form to each plan they intend to submit payroll deduction payments to.

This form is available for each plan via the websites listed above.

Employee Payroll Deduction Form

To initiate a payroll deduction, the employee must complete an Employee Payroll Deduction form. This form includes important employee information, the monthly deduction amount and the account number(s) payroll deduction funds should be deposited to. A separate Employee Payroll Deduction form must be provided by the employee for each account in each plan to be included in the deduction.

The deduction may cover an unlimited number of separate contract accounts for any number of beneficiaries within the established rules of the prepaid higher education tuition plan.

A state employee may authorize a change in the amount to be deducted from his or her salary or wages by providing the agency payroll officer a revised Employee Payroll Deduction form that stipulates the changed amounts.

Neither the Comptroller’s office nor a state agency is liable or responsible for any damages or other consequences resulting from a state employee authorizing an incorrect amount of a prepaid tuition or savings account deduction. Furthermore, a state agency or institution of higher education is not required to accept a Payroll Deduction Authorization form if the agency believes the form contains an obvious alteration to the payroll deduction authorization form issued by the Board.

State agencies may reject an employee payroll deduction form if the form is:

• Incomplete, contains erroneous data or is otherwise insufficient for the agency to establish the deduction in accordance with the form.
  – or –
• For an individual not employed by the agency.

Source

Texas Education Code, Chapter 54, Subchapters F, G and H.