CHAPTER 22 - RAILROAD RETIREMENT TAX ACT
Title 26 > CHAPTER 22
Sections (9)
§ 3201 Rate of tax
(a) Tier 1 tax In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on the income of each employee a tax equal to the applicable percentage of the compensation received during any calendar year by such employee for services rendered by such employee. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the term “applicable percentage” means the percentage equal to the sum of the rates of tax in effect under subsections (a) and (b) of section 3101 for the calendar year.
(b) Tier 2 tax In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on the income of each employee a tax equal to the percentage determined under section 3241 for any calendar year of the compensation received during such calendar year by such employee for services rendered by such employee.
(c) Cross reference For application of different contribution bases with respect to the taxes imposed by subsections (a) and (b), see section 3231(e)(2).
§ 3202 Deduction of tax from compensation
(a) Requirement The taxes imposed by section 3201 shall be collected by the employer of the taxpayer by deducting the amount of the taxes from the compensation of the employee as and when paid. An employer who is furnished by an employee a written statement of tips (received in a calendar month) pursuant to section 6053(a) to which paragraph (3) of section 3231(e) is applicable may deduct an amount equivalent to such taxes with respect to such tips from any compensation of the employee (exclusive of tips) under his control, even though at the time such statement is furnished the total amount of the tips included in statements furnished to the employer as having been received by the employee in such calendar month in the course of his employment by such employer is less than $20.
(b) Indemnification of employer Every employer required under subsection (a) to deduct the tax shall be liable for the payment of such tax and shall not be liable to any person for the amount of any such payment.
(c) Special rule for tips In the case of tips which constitute compensation, subsection (a) shall be applicable only to such tips as are included in a written statement furnished to the employer pursuant to section 6053(a), and only to the extent that collection can be made by the employer, at or after the time such statement is so furnished and before the close of the 10th day following the calendar month (or, if paragraph (3) applies, the 30th day following the quarter) in which the tips were deemed paid, by deducting the amount of the tax from such compensation of the employee (excluding tips, but including funds turned over by the employee to the employer pursuant to paragraph (2)) as are under control of the employer. If the taxes imposed by section 3201, with respect to tips which are included in written statements furnished in any month to the employer pursuant to section 6053(a), exceed the compensation of the employee (excluding tips) from which the employer is required to collect the taxes under paragraph (1), the employee may furnish to the employer on or before the 10th day of the following month (or, if paragraph (3) applies, on or before the 30th day of the following quarter) an amount of money equal to the amount of the excess. The Secretary may, under regulations prescribed by him, authorize employers— to estimate the amount of tips that will be reported by the employee pursuant to section 6053(a) in any quarter of the calendar year, to determine the amount to be deducted upon each payment of compensation (exclusive of tips) during such quarter as if the tips so estimated constituted actual tips so reported, and to deduct upon any payment of compensation (other than tips, but including funds turned over by the employee to the employer pursuant to paragraph (2)) to such employee during such quarter (and within 30 days thereafter) such amount as may be necessary to adjust the amount actually deducted upon such compensation of the employee during the quarter to the amount required to be deducted in respect of tips included in written statements furnished to the employer during the quarter. If the taxes imposed by section 3201 with respect to tips which constitute compensation exceed the portion of such taxes which can be collected by the employer from the compensation of the employee pursuant to paragraph (1) or paragraph (3), such excess shall be paid by the employee.
(d) Special rule for certain taxable group-term life insurance benefits In the case of any payment for group-term life insurance to which this subsection applies— subsection (a) shall not apply, the employer shall separately include on the statement required under section 6051— the portion of the compensation which consists of payments for group-term life insurance to which this subsection applies, and the amount of the tax imposed by section 3201 on such payments, and the tax imposed by section 3201 on such payments shall be paid by the employee. This subsection shall apply to any payment for group-term life insurance to the extent— such payment constitutes compensation, and such payment is for coverage for periods during which an employment relationship no longer exists between the employee and the employer.
§ 3211 Rate of tax
(a) Tier 1 tax In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on the income of each employee representative a tax equal to the applicable percentage of the compensation received during any calendar year by such employee representative for services rendered by such employee representative. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the term “applicable percentage” means the percentage equal to the sum of the rates of tax in effect under subsections (a) and (b) of section 3101 and subsections (a) and (b) of section 3111 for the calendar year.
(b) Tier 2 tax In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on the income of each employee representative a tax equal to the percentage determined under section 3241 for any calendar year of the compensation received during such calendar year by such employee representative for services rendered by such employee representative.
(c) Cross reference For application of different contribution bases with respect to the taxes imposed by subsections (a) and (b), see section 3231(e)(2).
§ 3212 Determination of compensation
The compensation of an employee representative for the purpose of ascertaining the tax thereon shall be determined in the same manner and with the same effect as if the employee organization by which such employee representative is employed were an employer as defined in section 3231(a). ( Aug. 16, 1954, ch. 736 , 68A Stat. 432 .)
§ 3221 Rate of tax
(a) Tier 1 tax In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on every employer an excise tax, with respect to having individuals in his employ, equal to the applicable percentage of compensation paid during any calendar year by such employer for services rendered to such employer. For purposes of the preceding sentence, the term “applicable percentage” means the percentage equal to the sum of the rates of tax in effect under subsections (a) and (b) of section 3111 for the calendar year.
(b) Tier 2 tax In addition to other taxes, there is hereby imposed on every employer an excise tax, with respect to having individuals in his employ, equal to the percentage determined under section 3241 for any calendar year of the compensation paid during such calendar year by such employer for services rendered to such employer.
(c) Cross reference For application of different contribution bases with respect to the taxes imposed by subsections (a) and (b), see section 3231(e)(2).
§ 3231 Definitions
(a) Employer For purposes of this chapter, the term “employer” means any carrier (as defined in subsection (g)), and any company which is directly or indirectly owned or controlled by one or more such carriers or under common control therewith, and which operates any equipment or facility or performs any service (except trucking service, casual service, and the casual operation of equipment or facilities) in connection with the transportation of passengers or property by railroad, or the receipt, delivery, elevation, transfer in transit, refrigeration or icing, storage, or handling of property transported by railroad, and any receiver, trustee, or other individual or body, judicial or otherwise, when in the possession of the property or operating all or any part of the business of any such employer; except that the term “employer” shall not include any street, interurban, or suburban electric railway, unless such railway is operating as a part of a general steam-railroad system of transportation, but shall not exclude any part of the general steam-railroad system of transportation now or hereafter operated by any other motive power. The Surface Transportation Board is hereby authorized and directed upon request of the Secretary, or upon complaint of any party interested, to determine after hearing whether any line operated by electric power falls within the terms of this exception. The term “employer” shall also include railroad associations, traffic associations, tariff bureaus, demurrage bureaus, weighing and inspection bureaus, collection agencies and other associations, bureaus, agencies, or organizations controlled and maintained wholly or principally by two or more employers as hereinbefore defined and engaged in the performance of services in connection with or incidental to railroad transportation; and railway labor organizations, national in scope, which have been or may be organized in accordance with the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended (45 U.S.C., chapter 8), and their State and National legislative committees and their general committees and their insurance departments and their local lodges and divisions, established pursuant to the constitutions and bylaws of such organizations. The term “employer” shall not include any company by reason of its being engaged in the mining of coal, the supplying of coal to an employer where delivery is not beyond the mine tipple, and the operation of equipment or facilities therefor, or in any of such activities.
(b) Employee For purposes of this chapter, the term “employee” means any individual in the service of one or more employers for compensation. The term “employee” includes an officer of an employer. The term “employee” shall not include any individual while such individual is engaged in the physical operations consisting of the mining of coal, the preparation of coal, the handling (other than movement by rail with standard railroad locomotives) of coal not beyond the mine tipple, or the loading of coal at the tipple.
(c) Employee representative For purposes of this chapter, the term “employee representative” means any officer or official representative of a railway labor organization other than a labor organization included in the term “employer” as defined in subsection (a), who before or after June 29, 1937 , was in the service of an employer as defined in subsection (a) and who is duly authorized and designated to represent employees in accordance with the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C., chapter 8), as amended, and any individual who is regularly assigned to or regularly employed by such officer or official representative in connection with the duties of his office.
(d) Service For purposes of this chapter, an individual is in the service of an employer whether his service is rendered within or without the United States, if— he is subject to the continuing authority of the employer to supervise and direct the manner of rendition of his service, or he is rendering professional or technical services and is integrated into the staff of the employer, or he is rendering, on the property used in the employer’s operations, other personal services the rendition of which is integrated into the employer’s operations, and he renders such service for compensation; except that an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of an employer, other than a local lodge or division or a general committee of a railway-labor-organization employer, not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States, only when he is rendering service to it in the United States; and an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of such a local lodge or division only if— all, or substantially all, the individuals constituting its membership are employees of an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States; or the headquarters of such local lodge or division is located in the United States; and an individual shall be deemed to be in the service of such a general committee only if— he is representing a local lodge or division described in paragraph (3) or (4) immediately above; or all, or substantially all, the individuals represented by it are employees of an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States; or he acts in the capacity of a general chairman or an assistant general chairman of a general committee which represents individuals rendering service in the United States to an employer, but in such case if his office or headquarters is not located in the United States and the individuals represented by such general committee are employees of an employer not conducting the principal part of its business in the United States, only such proportion of the remuneration for such service shall be regarded as compensation as the proportion which the mileage in the United States under the jurisdiction of such general committee bears to the total mileage under its jurisdiction, unless such mileage formula is inapplicable, in which case such other formula as the Railroad Retirement Board may have prescribed pursuant to section 1(c) of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 ( 45 U.S.C. 228a ) shall be applicable, and if the application of such mileage formula, or such other formula as the Board may prescribe, would result in the compensation of the individual being less than 10 percent of his remuneration for such service, no part of such remuneration shall be regarded as compensation; Provided however , That an individual not a citizen or resident of the United States shall not be deemed to be in the service of an employer when rendering service outside the United States to an employer who is required under the laws applicable in the place where the service is rendered to employ therein, in whole or in part, citizens or residents thereof; and the laws applicable on August 29, 1935 , in the place where the service is rendered shall be deemed to have been applicable there at all times prior to that date.
(e) Compensation For purposes of this chapter— The term “compensation” means any form of money remuneration paid to an individual for services rendered as an employee to one or more employers. Such term does not include (i) the amount of any payment (including any amount paid by an employer for insurance or annuities, or into a fund, to provide for any such payment) made to, or on behalf of, an employee or any of his dependents under a plan or system established by an employer which makes provision for his employees generally (or for his employees generally and their dependents) or for a class or classes of his employees (or for a class or classes of his employees and their dependents), on account of sickness or accident disability or medical or hospitalization expenses in connection with sickness or accident disability or death, except that this clause does not apply to a payment for group-term life insurance to the extent that such payment is includible in the gross income of the employee, (ii) tips (except as is provided under paragraph (3)), (iii) an amount paid specifically—either as an advance, as reimbursement or allowance—for traveling or other bona fide and necessary expenses incurred or reasonably expected to be incurred in the business of the employer provided any such payment is identified by the employer either by a separate payment or by specifically indicating the separate amounts where both wages and expense reimbursement or allowance are combined in a single payment, or (iv) any remuneration which would not (if chapter 21 applied to such remuneration) be treated as wages (as defined in section 3121(a)) by reason of section 3121(a)(5). Such term does not include remuneration for service which is performed by a nonresident alien individual for the period he is temporarily present in the United States as a nonimmigrant under subparagraph (F), (J), (M), or (Q) of section 101(a)(15) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended, and which is performed to carry out the purpose specified in subparagraph (F), (J), (M), or (Q), as the case may be. For the purpose of determining the amount of taxes under sections 3201 and 3221, compensation earned in the service of a local lodge or division of a railway-labor-organization employer shall be disregarded with respect to any calendar month if the amount thereof is less than 20. For purposes of applying sections 3201(a), 3211(a), and 3221(a), in the case of payments made to an employee or any of his dependents on account of sickness or accident disability, clause (i) of the second sentence of paragraph (1) shall exclude from the term “compensation” only— payments which are received under a workmen’s compensation law, and benefits received under the Railroad Retirement Act of 1974. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, for purposes of the sections specified in subparagraph (A), the term “compensation” shall include benefits paid under section 2(a) of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act for days of sickness, except to the extent that such sickness (as determined in accordance with standards prescribed by the Railroad Retirement Board) is the result of on-the-job injury. Under regulations prescribed by the Secretary, subparagraphs (A) and (B) shall not apply to payments made after the expiration of a 6-month period comparable to the 6-month period described in section 3121(a)(4). Except as otherwise provided in regulations prescribed by the Secretary, any third party which makes a payment included in compensation solely by reason of subparagraph (A) or (B) shall be treated for purposes of this chapter as the employer with respect to such compensation. The term “compensation” shall not include any benefit provided to or on behalf of an employee if at the time such benefit is provided it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such benefit from income under section 74(c), 108(f)(4), 117, or 132. The term “compensation” shall not include any payment made, or benefit furnished, to or for the benefit of an employee if at the time of such payment or such furnishing it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such payment or benefit from income under section 127. Repealed. Pub. L. 113–295, div. A, title II, § 221(a)(19)(B)(v) , Dec. 19, 2014 , 128 Stat. 4040 .] Nothing in any paragraph of this subsection (other than paragraph (2)) shall exclude from the term “compensation” any amount described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 3121(v)(1). The rules of section 3121(v)(2) which apply for purposes of chapter 21 shall also apply for purposes of this chapter. The term “compensation” shall not include the value of meals or lodging furnished by or on behalf of the employer if at the time of such furnishing it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such items from income under section 119. The term “compensation” shall not include any payment made to or for the benefit of an employee if at the time of such payment it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such payment from income under section 106(b). The term “compensation” shall not include any payment made to or for the benefit of an employee if at the time of such payment it is reasonable to believe that the employee will be able to exclude such payment from income under section 106(d). The term “compensation” shall not include any remuneration on account of— a transfer of a share of stock to any individual pursuant to an exercise of an incentive stock option (as defined in section 422(b)) or under an employee stock purchase plan (as defined in section 423(b)), or any disposition by the individual of such stock.
(f) Company For purposes of this chapter, the term “company” includes corporations, associations, and joint-stock companies.
(g) Carrier For purposes of this chapter, the term “carrier” means a rail carrier subject to part A of subtitle IV of title 49.
(h) Tips constituting compensation, time deemed paid For purposes of this chapter, tips which constitute compensation for purposes of the taxes imposed by section 3201 shall be deemed to be paid at the time a written statement including such tips is furnished to the employer pursuant to section 6053(a) or (if no statement including such tips is so furnished) at the time received.
(i) Concurrent employment by 2 or more employers For purposes of this chapter, if 2 or more related corporations which are employers concurrently employ the same individual and compensate such individual through a common paymaster which is 1 of such corporations, each such corporation shall be considered to have paid as remuneration to such individual only the amounts actually disbursed by it to such individual and shall not be considered to have paid as remuneration to such individual amounts actually disbursed to such individual by another of such corporations.
§ 3232 Court jurisdiction
The several district courts of the United States shall have jurisdiction to entertain an application by the Attorney General on behalf of the Secretary to compel an employee or other person residing within the jurisdiction of the court or an employer subject to service of process within its jurisdiction to comply with any obligations imposed on such employee, employer, or other person under the provisions of this chapter. The jurisdiction herein specifically conferred upon such Federal courts shall not be held exclusive of any jurisdiction otherwise possessed by such courts to entertain civil actions, whether legal or equitable in nature, in aid of the enforcement of rights or obligations arising under the provisions of this chapter. ( Aug. 16, 1954, ch. 736 , 68A Stat. 437 ; Pub. L. 94–455, title XIX, § 1906(b)(13)(A) , Oct. 4, 1976 , 90 Stat. 1834 .)
§ 3233 Short title
This chapter may be cited as the “Railroad Retirement Tax Act.” ( Aug. 16, 1954, ch. 736 , 68A Stat. 438 .)
§ 3241 Determination of tier 2 tax rate based on average account benefits ratio
(a) In general For purposes of sections 3201(b), 3211(b), and 3221(b), the applicable percentage for any calendar year is the percentage determined in accordance with the table in subsection (b).
(b) Tax rate schedule Average account benefits ratio Applicable percentage for sections 3211(b) and 3221(b) Applicable percentage for section 3201(b) At least But less than … 2.5 22.1 4.9 2.5 3.0 18.1 4.9 3.0 3.5 15.1 4.9 3.5 4.0 14.1 4.9 4.0 6.1 13.1 4.9 6.1 6.5 12.6 4.4 6.5 7.0 12.1 3.9 7.0 7.5 11.6 3.4 7.5 8.0 11.1 2.9 8.0 8.5 10.1 1.9 8.5 9.0 9.1 0.9 9.0 … 8.2 0
(c) Definitions related to determination of rates of tax For purposes of this section, the term “average account benefits ratio” means, with respect to any calendar year, the average determined by the Secretary of the account benefits ratios for the 10 most recent fiscal years ending before such calendar year. If the amount determined under the preceding sentence is not a multiple of 0.1, such amount shall be increased to the next highest multiple of 0.1. For purposes of this section, the term “account benefits ratio” means, with respect to any fiscal year, the amount determined by the Railroad Retirement Board by dividing the fair market value of the assets in the Railroad Retirement Account and of the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust (and for years before 2002, the Social Security Equivalent Benefits Account) as of the close of such fiscal year by the total benefits and administrative expenses paid from the Railroad Retirement Account and the National Railroad Retirement Investment Trust during such fiscal year.
(d) Notice No later than December 1 of each calendar year, the Secretary shall publish a notice in the Federal Register of the rates of tax determined under this section which are applicable for the following calendar year.