South Carolina Code 9-11-210. Contributions of members; employer to pay required member contributions on earnings after July 1, 1982; tax treatment; funding; retirement treatment
(2) Any police officer who is a participant in the Supplemental Allowance Program on June 30, 1974 and has not made contributions under said Program with respect to his credited service prior to his date of participation therein may elect, by written notice filed with the Board within ninety days after July 1, 1974, to establish credit for such service as Class Two service by making a special contribution equal to the amount which would have resulted had he, during each month of such service, made contributions to the System equal to two percent of the portion of his monthly compensation in excess of four hundred dollars during the month immediately preceding his participation in the Supplemental Allowance Program and had such contributions been accumulated with interest at the rate of four percent per annum to July 1, 1974 and at regular interest as determined by the Board thereafter to the date of payment. Such contribution shall be paid within twelve months following the filing of the aforesaid notice.
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 9-11-210
- Accumulated contributions: means the sum of all the amounts deducted from the compensation of a member and credited to the member's individual account in the employee annuity savings fund, together with regular interest on the account, as provided in this chapter. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
- Board: means the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Public Employee Benefit Authority acting through its Division of Retirement Systems. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Class Three member: means an employee member of the system with an effective date of membership after June 30, 2012. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Compensation: means the total remuneration paid to a police officer for service rendered to an employer for his full normal working time; when compensation includes maintenance, fees and other things of value, the board shall fix the value of that part of the compensation not paid in money directly by the employer. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Credited service: means a member's earned service and purchased service. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Employer: means :
(a) the State;
(b) a political subdivision, agency, or department of the State which employs police officers and which has been admitted to the system as provided in § 9-11-40; and
(c) a service organization, the membership of which is composed solely of persons eligible to be members as defined by this section, if the compensation received by the employees of the service organization is provided from monies paid by the members as dues, or otherwise, or from funds derived from public sources and if the contributions prescribed by this chapter are to be paid from the funds of the service organization. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10 - Member: means a person included in the membership of the system, as provided in this chapter. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Other fund: means :
(a) the South Carolina Retirement System; or
(b) the Police Insurance and Annuity Fund of the State of South Carolina. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10 - Police officer: means a person who receives his salary from an employer and who is:
(a) required by the terms of his employment, either by election or appointment, to give his time to the preservation of public order, the protection of life and property, and the detection of crimes in this State; or
(b) an employee after January 1, 2000, of the South Carolina Department of Corrections, the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice, or the South Carolina Department of Mental Health who, by the terms of his employment, is a peace officer as defined by § 24-1-280. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10 - Regular interest: means interest compounded annually at the rate or rates determined for a particular purpose by the board in accordance with § 9-11-30. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Retirement allowance: means monthly payments for life under the system payable as provided in § 9-11-160. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- Supplemental allowance program: means the supplemental allowance program established under the system as of July 1, 1966, and as in effect on June 30, 1974. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
- System: means the South Carolina Police Officers Retirement System. See South Carolina Code 9-11-10
(3) Any Class Two member, other than a member who makes the election provided in subsection (2) of this section, who has credited service which does not qualify as Class Two service may elect by written notice filed with the Board at any time prior to retirement to establish credit for such service as Class Two service by making a special contribution prior to retirement equal to the excess of (a) five percent of his monthly rate of compensation at the time such contribution is made, over (b) sixteen dollars, multiplied by (c) the number of months of such credited service.
(4) Reserved.
(5) The Board shall prescribe by appropriate rules and regulations the manner in which the contributions provided in subsections (2), (3) and (4) of this section shall be made.
(6) Each member who was, immediately prior to his becoming a member, a participant in another fund shall, and is hereby authorized and required to, cause the amount of his full contributions made under such other fund to be transferred to the System within two months of the date of his membership, provided that the service credited to him under such other fund is includable in his credited service under the System. If the amount so transferred exceeds the amount which would have been transferable from the Police Insurance and Annuity Fund had the member made all required contributions thereto in connection with service prior to July 1, 1962 before becoming a member, plus the amount which the member would have been required to contribute to the System on account of service after said date and prior to his actual date of membership, the Board shall under uniform rules and regulations determine the amount of such excess and treat it as an additional contribution which upon his retirement shall be used to provide an additional retirement allowance. If, however, a deficiency exists, the Board shall require that such deficiency be made up by the member within such period of time as the Board may deem reasonable. This subsection shall not apply to a member transferred from a correlated system to whom the provisions of § 9-11-40(9) are applicable.
(7) The collection of members’ contributions is as follows:
Each employer must cause to be deducted on each and every payroll of a member the contributions payable by the member. In determining the amount to be deducted in a payroll period, the employer may consider the rate of compensation of the member on the first day of the payroll period as continuing throughout the payroll period and it may omit deduction from compensation for any period less than a full payroll period if a police officer was not a member on the first day of the payroll period. The chief fiscal officer of each employer shall transmit the amounts deducted to the System together with a schedule of the contributions, on forms prescribed by the Board, to reach the Retirement System on or before the last day of each month for the preceding month. If any employer fails to do so, or if arrears should at any time exist in making monthly payroll reports and remittances as required hereunder and by the rules and regulations of the Board, the compensation of any person or officer of any employer charged with the responsibility of making monthly payroll reports and remittances to the System must be withheld by the employer in each instance of failure to make the reports and remittances until all reports and remittances required hereunder and by the rules and regulations of the Board have been made. The System shall furnish monthly to the disbursing officers of each employer a statement of any failure to make payroll reports and remittances and the names of the persons or officers failing to make the reports and remittances.
Any person failing to transmit, in the manner and within the period herein required, the contributions deducted is guilty of a misdemeanor and must be punished by fine or imprisonment, or both, in the discretion of the court.
(8) Every member shall be deemed to consent and agree to the deductions made and provided for herein, and shall receipt for his full salary or compensation, and payment of salary or compensation less such deduction shall be a full and complete discharge and acquittance of all claims and demands whatsoever for the services rendered by such person during the period covered by such payment, except as to the benefits provided under the System.
(9) Each of the amounts so deducted shall be credited to the individual account of the member from whose compensation the deduction was made.
(10) Any employer may pay to the System on behalf of the members in its employ the amounts which such members would otherwise be required to contribute pursuant to subsection (2) or (3) of this section in order to establish credit as Class Two service for any period of credited service prior to the date on which such members became eligible for Class Two membership or for participation in the Supplemental Allowance Program or any amounts which such members would otherwise be required to contribute pursuant to subsection (4) of this section in order to establish credit for any period of service prior to the date on which such members became eligible for membership. Such amounts contributed by an employer shall not be credited to the members’ accumulated contributions, but in the event that a member’s accumulated contributions are returned to him upon termination of his membership or are paid to the person designated by him upon his death prior to retirement, any amount contributed by the employer on behalf of the member pursuant to this subsection (10) shall be returned to said employer.
(11) Each department and political subdivision shall pick up the employee contributions required by this section for all compensation paid on or after July 1, 1982, and the contributions so picked up shall be treated as employer contributions in determining federal tax treatment under the United States Internal Revenue Code. For this purpose, each department and political subdivision is deemed to have taken formal action on or before January 1, 2009, to provide that the contributions on behalf of its employees, although designated as employer contributions, shall be paid by the employer in lieu of employee contributions. The department and political subdivision shall pay these employee contributions from the same source of funds which is used in paying earnings to the employee. The department and political subdivision may pick up these contributions by a reduction in the cash salary of the employee. The employee, however, must not be given the option of choosing to receive the contributed amount of the pickups directly instead of having them paid by the employer to the retirement system. Employee contributions picked up shall be treated for all purposes of this section in the same manner and to the extent as employee contributions made prior to the date picked up.
(12) Payments for unused sick leave, single special payments at retirement, bonus and incentive-type payments, or any other payments not considered a part of the regular salary base are not compensation for which contributions are deductible. This item does not apply to bonus payments paid to certain categories of employees annually during their work careers. Bonus or special payments applied only during the "Average Final Compensation" period are excluded as compensation. Not including Class Three members, contributions are deductible on up to and including forty-five days’ termination pay for unused annual leave. If a member has received termination pay for unused annual leave on more than one occasion, contributions are deductible on up to and including forty-five days’ termination pay for unused annual leave for each termination payment for unused annual leave received by the member. However, only an amount up to and including forty-five days’ pay for unused annual leave from the member’s last termination payment shall be included in a member’s average final compensation calculation for members eligible to have unused annual leave included in that calculation.