California DU'ers - have a tax question.

[TNDemo]

My son is a student in California and is working there this summer. He got his first paycheck and it has deductions for Medicare, Federal Tax, CA State Tax and something that is "DCP CAS SAV." What is that? He does not seem to know either.

[SoCalDem]

1. CASDI is for state disability, but I have no clue on the letters you gave

He should ask his boss to explain it to him.. ..Those deductions are KILLERS :(

[Bertha Venation]

2. Defined Contribution Plan Casual Savings

"California State Assembly Bill 906 authorized the University to mandate that employees who are not members of the University of California Retirement Plan become “safe harbor” participants in the Defined Contribution Plan (DCP), in lieu of contributing to Social Security. The DCP is a qualified retirement plan administered by the University of California Employee Benefits Office in the Office of the President."

Is your son working at or a student at a U of CA?

See this link (.pdf)
http://www-ogsr.ucsd.edu/financialinfo/gradstudent/fica_info/dcp.pdf

(I'm a CA native but never had this deduction. You made me curious enough to look it up.)

[TNDemo]

3. He is a student at Berkeley and is working on a

research project there so his check is from the university. I assume this is not optional for him?

[Bertha Venation]

4. I don't know if it's optional, but it seems that the money is not gone.

Looks like some kind of alternative retirement savings plan. IIRC, CA state employees don't pay into SS because they have CALPERS. Since your son is a student, I guess they assume it's not automatic that he'll stay in the state's employ.

He can probably get the answers he needs either from the state's or the university's employee web sites.

Best of luck!