Eugene Community Safety Payroll Tax (CSPT)
Understand Eugene's Community Safety Payroll Tax regulations and ensure correct employee exemptions.
Overview
The Eugene Community Safety Payroll Tax (CSPT) is a local tax administered by the city of Eugene, Oregon.
By default, Check API will calculate and withhold Eugene CSPT on wages earned at workplaces located in Eugene, Oregon, as it does with other workplace taxes.
However, Eugene CSPT is unique in that, unlike most other taxes, it is applicable based on employer presence, rather than the employee’s residence or workplace. As such, there are some unique considerations to correctly configuring Eugene CSPT in Check, which we will outline in this document.
Wages Earned in Eugene
Per the Business Location Overview guidance published by the City of Eugene, wages earned in Eugene may or may not actually be subject to Eugene CSPT depending on the employer’s physical location and the nature of the employee work location.
A few scenarios described in the above document include:
- Remote Workers — A remote worker located in Eugene is not subject to Eugene CSPT, if the employer is not also located in Eugene.
- Client Locations — Work performed at a client location in Eugene is not subject to Eugene CSPT, if the employer is not also located in Eugene.
- Temporary Job Sites — Similarly, work performed at a temporary job site in Eugene is not subject to Eugene CSPT, if the employer is not also located in Eugene.
All of these work scenarios would be represented in Check as wages earned at a Eugene workplace, and would therefore be subject to Eugene CSPT by default.
In order to correct this, employees in these work scenarios should be made exempt from Eugene CSPT. You can set the exemption setting of an employee from Console by following these steps:
- Navigate to the Employees tab and select the employee.
- Navigate to the employee's Withholdings tab.
- Under "Oregon", check the boxes under “Oregon Exemptions” for Eugene CSPT, then select “Save changes”.
Note: In order to ensure correct taxability, you must exempt both “Eugene Community Safety Payroll — Employee” and “Eugene Community Safety Payroll — Employer” taxes.
Alternatively, exemptions can also be set using the Employee Tax Elections API.
Wages Earned outside Eugene
Inversely, wages earned outside of Eugene, Oregon may actually still be subject to Eugene CSPT, if they are one of the above scenarios (Remote Workers, Client Locations, or Temporary Job Sites) for an employer that is physically located in Eugene.
These scenarios are not supported in Check. By default, Check will consider all wages at a workplace outside of Eugene as not subject to Eugene CSPT.
If work is performed in one of these scenarios which should be subject to Eugene CSPT, you must submit a corrections request to Check Support to correct the taxable wages and tax amount.
Q4 Reduced Rate
As of 2024, Employers are eligible to claim a discounted rate of 0.15% (versus 0.21% normally) on the first $100,000 of payroll, if they employ an average of 2 or fewer employees over the course of the year. This discount can only be claimed in Q4 of the calendar year. See here for more information.
Check does not support this reduced tax rate, and will always tax Eugene CSPT at the full rate (0.21%, as of 2024).
Last updated on June 30, 2024