Procedures for Honoraria Payments

Honoraria payments, regardless if made by cash or check, gift certificate/card or other tangible item are taxable to the recipient as income and therefore, must be recorded as such. See Policy 9.43 Reimbursable Expenses for clarification on payments made to service providers.

Honorarium or fee payments may not be made directly to an employee of another State of Iowa department or agency. Payment to an employee of some other State agency, except for reimbursement of travel expenses, will be made to the employing agency.

Payment should be requested on a Request for Payment (RFP) form, accessible from the Business Operations web page or through the forms repository on MyUniverse.

The RFP should include recipient's name, supplier number (social security number if no supplier number is available), complete mailing address (even if check is to be picked up), amount of payment, and the date and nature of services. Our goal is to keep the necessary information as minimal as possible. And, although an individual may already exist in the supplier data base, an updated address is necessary to ensure subsequent correspondence is made to the most current address available.

If the recipient has not previously been paid by the University, a Supplier Information Form will need to be completed. The form and instructions are available from the Business Operations web page or through the forms repository on MyUniverse.

For honoraria payments of $250 or more, a personal services contract should be completed between the recipient and the University. The Agreement should outline services to be performed, the rate of pay, date of event and any other requirements. A model agreement can be found on the Accounts Payable web site, and should be modified as needed.

University departments should not be creating invoices to the University on behalf of the individual performing services.

Reimbursement of travel expenses may be included as a separate item on the same request for payment. Reimbursement of travel expenses should be in accordance with travel guidelines as established for reimbursement of University of Northern Iowa staff. Any travel allowance paid as a lump sum reimbursement, or not otherwise in compliance with travel guidelines, will be considered a part of the honorarium fee, and therefore be taxable.

Consult the payment processing schedule published on the Accounts Payable web site to anticipate date of payment.