Thomas & Thorngren

In the last two months there have been three states (TN, UT, and WV) that have amended their UI laws relating to the situation where an employee resigns because his/her military spouse has been reassigned and relocated. In Tennessee, SB 884 was signed by Governor Haslam on April 4, 2012. This bill permits an employee [...]

HB 347 was signed by Governor Nathan Deal on May 2, 2012.  This bill is an effort to restore solvency to the Georgia UI Trust Fund, which is broke and has borrowed $760 million from the Federal Unemployment Account. The bill increases the state unemployment taxable wage base from $8,500 to $9,500 effective January 1, [...]

A web-based program named “SIDES” is gaining traction as an efficient way for employers and TPA’s such as our company to interact with state UI agencies. This program has been developed through a partnership between the U.S. Department of Labor and NASWA (the National Association of State Workforce Agencies). SIDES (State Information Data Exchange System) [...]

The Kentucky legislature has found a way to pay the interest on federal loans to the state’s Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund. An interest payment is due by September 30 of this year and every future year when the state has an outstanding loan balance, with certain exceptions. Uncle Sam can be very harsh on employers [...]

Legislation awaiting Governor Rick Scott’s signature will have an immediate impact on 2012 UI taxes.  The Florida unemployment taxable wage limitation was scheduled to increase from $7,000 to $8,500 effective January 1, 2012, but House Bill 7027 reduces the new taxable wage limitation from $8,500 to $8,000.  This will provide some relief to Florida employers, [...]

On March 5, 2012 Governor Susana Martinez signed into law Senate Bill 32 making changes to unemployment insurance tax rates in an attempt to provide immediate relief to employers in the short term. The most welcome feature of SB 32 is the retroactive decrease in UI tax rates for 2012 from the initial calculation sent [...]

On February 22nd President Obama signed The Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012 (H.R. 3630).  The news media reported that this bill extends the emergency jobless benefits and the Social Security payroll tax cut through the end of the year.  However, there are additional provisions in this legislation that will have [...]

The federal unemployment tax rate for employers has become a moving target, making budgeting for this expense more difficult. Your FUTA tax payments for 2011 are not a good predictor of your 2012 liability, which will be higher for most multi-state companies. The problem is that federal loans to the state UI trust funds can [...]

In recent months we have been observing a renewed focus on limiting and controlling the payment of UI benefits. This is evident in recent state legislation and also in the changing policies of state UI agencies.  We believe this results from the growing realization that the benefits paid must be balanced with the taxes collected [...]

We have now received UI tax rate notices for calendar year 2012 from thirty-six states.  The trend for 2010 and 2011 was for dramatically higher tax rates, but thankfully that is not the case (so far) for 2012. In thirteen of the states, a higher tax rate table and/or higher adjustment factors take effect for [...]