Employees at Northwestern University in Qatar

Direct Deposit and Banking

While working in Qatar, you can continue to direct deposit money to multiple bank accounts in the US. In addition, you can choose to have an amount, percentage, or all of your net pay deposited to a bank account of your choice in Qatar. You can make changes to your US bank accounts any time through HRIS Self-Service, but enrollments and changes for Qatar accounts must be made using the paper direct deposit enrollment form for Qatar. Completed forms should be submitted to the Evanston payroll office or scanned and sent via email to payroll@northwestern.edu.

Federal Tax

While NU-Q has a tax protection policy in place so that employees will be reimbursed for any additional tax obligation due to some allowances, payroll must withhold tax on all of these amounts unless you provide us with instructions otherwise. You will be provided time to discuss with a tax consultant being provided to you how much you should request to have withheld each month from your paychecks to avoid a large out of pocket amount due when filing your annual tax return. The tax consultant will also be available to prepare your tax return for you. You may not have all of the information from the tax consultant prior to being issued your first paycheck which includes all of your allowances. There is a foreign earned income exclusion which most employees will qualify for and would be a reason to increase your allowances. In this case, you may want to submit a W4 with an estimate of the allowances you may need to lower the amount of federal tax withheld. Completed Federal W4 forms should be submitted to the Evanston payroll office or scanned and sent via email to payroll@northwestern.edu.

Illinois State Tax

If you were previously a resident of Illinois prior to transferring to Qatar, we will not report your wages or withhold Illinois income tax from the time that you officially relocate to Qatar as long as your appointment is longer than one year. You may still maintain tax residency in Illinois for reason besides an appointment of a year or less, and if this applies you must notify someone in payroll. If you spend more than 35 days in Illinois during any 12 month period such as if you return to Illinois for the summer, you will need to continue to be treated as an Illinois resident. You may also want to maintain Illinois residency for other purposes such as paying in-state tuition to an Illinois university in which case you would need to notify payroll. You should discuss your state tax residency with the tax consultant being provided and notify payroll of any issues. Completed Illinois W4 forms should be submitted to the Evanston payroll office or scanned and sent via email to payroll@northwestern.edu.

Address Changes

Please do not forget to update your home address using HRIS Self-Service. Your home address listed in HRIS must be a valid US address. You may choose to have your home address be listed as the NU-Q Support Office.

Pre-tax Transit Deductions

Please complete a pre-tax transit form to indicate when you would like to have your deductions for the CTA Chicago Card Plus or Transit Checks for Metra canceled. Completed pre-tax transit forms should be submitted to the Evanston payroll office or scanned and sent via email to payroll@northwestern.edu.

Parking Deductions

Please remember to contact the Evanston or Chicago parking offices to request to have your deductions stopped. The Evanston parking office can be reached at parking@northwestern.edu or 847-491-3319, and the Chicago parking office can be reached at chicagoparking@northwestern.edu or 312-503-1103.

Staff Vacation Leave Accrual and Home Leave

If your staff appointment letter includes time for home leave, these days will be added to your vacation accrual balance each September. Staff vacation and home leave still require prior approval from your supervisor. These additional days for home leave will be added in manually to your vacation balance by the payroll office after the previous fiscal year's leave accruals have been approved and finalized in late September. Home leave does not carry forward to a new fiscal year, and employees are still subject to the same maximum number of days which is 1.5 times their annual vacation accrual amount based on their years of service. Employees may exceed this limit during the year but must be below this by August 31, termination, or transfer. For example, an employee who accrues 3 weeks per year and receives 2 weeks home leave should be at or below 22.5 days (1.5 times 3 weeks) of vacation by August 31, termination, or transfer. Employees should record their home leave as vacation using HRIS Self-Service where they can also view their current balance. Details on leave accruals and absences can be found in the Staff Handbook.

Additional resources

•  Link to benefits information for employees in Qatar