Answer: All faculty, staff, and graduate assistants are eligible to seek cellular service using these procedures.
Answer: An employee has up to sixty (60) days to seek a reimbursement for initial costs of cellular equipment (optin 1) or incidental business usage (optoin 2) without the reimbursement becoming taxable. Between sixty (60) and one-hundred twenty (120) days, the reimbursement will appear on your pay advice and become taxable per IRS accounting rules. After one-hundred twenty (120) days, an employee becomes ineligible to seek a business reimbursement.
Answer: No. Payroll is unable to provide retroactive reimbursement for this type of stipend.
Answer: Yes. A stipend is taxable compensation as defined by the IRS and will appear on an employee's payment advice.
Answer: All cellular usage by an employee on a University-provided cellular service and all business-usage of a personally-owned cellular service that is reimbursed by the University may be audited.
Answer: The University does not provide reimbursement for downloads such as ringtones, games, or other non-business related amenities.
Answer: There are no limitations as to which carrier an employee may seek cellular service from when using a personally-owned cellular service. However, an employee must seek cellular service from a carrier on a state contract through Telecommunications and Networking when provided with a University-purchased cellular service (option 3).
Answer: It is the responsibility of the supervisor or fiscal agent to review with the employee on an annual basis the reimbursement amount to ensure that it is representative of busienss use. If it is concluded that a change is needed, the stipend can be resubmitted any time during the fiscal year with a revised amount.
Answer: No. Even unused minutes of a cellular plan on a University-purchased cellular service cannot be used for personal use as these minutes were purchased with State of Illinois dollars.
Answer: All employees using cellular service paid for in whole or part by the University must comply with the State Officials and Employees Ethics Act, University policy on University Property (http://www.policy.ilstu.edu/employee/3-1-32.shtml), and any other applicable University policies, and federal and state laws. Employees provided with University-owned cellular service are also required to comply with the Telephone Usage Policy described in the Illinois Administrative Code, Part 5030: Personal Use of State Telephones.
Answer: As defined by the Illinois Administrative Code - Part 5030: Personal Use of State Telephones, University-purchased cellular service (option 3) and equipment are considered State of Illinois property and intended for business-use only. Personal use is considered an abuse of University services and a violation of University policy and applicable state and federal laws. University cellular services and equipment is not to be issued to non-University personnel. These constraints also apply to ALL cellular services and equipment purchased by the University including those products purchased prior to the adoption of these procedures. All University-purchased cellular services must be coordinated through Telecommunications and Networking through contracts maintained by the State of Illinois. In the event that cellular services provided through the State of Illinois do not satisfy the needs of the department, cellular services and equipment can be purchased through one of the following alternate carriers: Verizon Wireless, AT & T/Cingular and Sprint/Nextel. If cellular service is sought from one of these alternate carriers, the supervisor and/or fiscal agent must explain how the contract maintained by the State of Illinois does not meet this need. The purchase of cellular services and equipment from these alternate carriers may not take place without prior approval from Telecommunications and Networking.
Answer: With a family plan, the percentage or reimbursement for the initial costs and the monthly recurring costs will be different. If for example, the cellular device will be used for business 50% of the time but the amount of minutes from the family plan consumed will be business 30% of the time, then 50% of the initial costs may be reimbursed while only 30% of the monhtly recurring costs of the family plan may be reimbursed.
Answer: In this scenario, an employee can either be provided with a University-owned cellular service and then comply with University policy and applicable state and federal laws or submit reimbursements for business-use of a personally-owned cellular service for each call placed or received.
Answer: Sixty (60) days prior to the end of the current fiscal year, Human Resources will send reminders to employees indicating that the stipend will expire on 6/30. At that point, an employee may begin the process of requesting a new stipend for the upcoming fiscal year. These requests must be received no later than June 1 to ensure that a stipend will be distributed for the July pay period. Human Resources will not accept requests for stipends with retroactive dates.
Answer: If navigation services are part of a service for which there are recurring costs, then these procedures do apply. If there are no recurring fees for this service, these procedures do not apply.
Answer: A department should maintain copies of a cellular bill used to calculate the stipend for an employee for the reimbursement of recurring business usage of a personally-owned cellular service. This documentation will be required to justify the rate of reimbursement in the event of an audit. A department should also keep records for all reimbursements and maintain a history of these records as mandated by University retention policy.
Answer: Telecommunications and Networking is responsible for coordinating with the carriers all purchases including any early termination on behalf of a department. If applicablae, the department is responsible for any penalties incurred for early termination of a contract. An employee may be responsible for early termination fees if service was discontinued as a result of an abuse case.
Answer: When a department no longer has intentions to use cellular equipment, it needs to be turned over to Telecommunications and Networking. If a department suspects that it may reassign this hardware, it may continue to keep this equipment up to 1 year after service has been discontinued.
Answer: Each department is responsible for reporting what University-purchased cellular equipment is currently in their possession. Telecommunications and Networking will then coordinate with each carrier the transition of billing from the department.
