The US Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Unemployment Insurance today posted the results of its review of state unemployment trust fund loan status. Below is the report showing FUTA Tax Rates for 2014. See posting at: http://oui.doleta.gov/unemploy/finance.asp States with increased FUTA tax rates include: California: 1.8% Connecticut: 2.3% Indiana: 2.1% Kentucky: 1.8% New York: [...]
The slow economic recovery from the Great recession and solvency measures implemented in a number of states is finally resulting in the repayment of Title XII loans and avoidance of increasing Federal Unemployment Taxes in a number of states for 2014. As of January 1, 2014 16 states and jurisdictions had outstanding loans to be repaid. [...]
The House Ways and Means Committee released a Report today finding that job growth weakened post the 2008 recession while EUC paid out record levels of benefits. The full report is available at http://waysandmeans.house.gov/uploadedfiles/euc_labor_day_report_082814.pdf The report points to findings from scholars at the University of Pennsylvania who found that the extended EUC benefits had a “dramatic [...]
On August 15th, US DOL announced a series of webinars to engage the public in implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). The Act was signed into law by President Obama on July 22, 2014. The full announcement can be found at http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEN/TEN_6-14.pdf Employers, states and their representatives are encouraged to participate in these [...]
As of July 1st the state of Connecticut had not submitted a request for waiver of the Benefit Cost Rate (BCR) Add On tax increase to the Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA). Without a waiver, the FUTA will automatically increase Federal Unemployment Tax rates for employers with employees in Connecticut. The waiver request is due under federal [...]
On May 19th, Gov. Nathan Deal and State Labor Commissioner Mark Butler announced that the almost $1 billion federal loan used to help pay state unemployment insurance (UI) benefits since 2009 had been repaid. The final payment of $62,490,887.99 was sent to the U.S. Department of Labor on May 14 and the GDOL has received confirmation [...]
The EXPIRE Act is expected to pass the Senate next week with an expansion of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC)included. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden indicated in a statement on the floor of the Senate that “the WOTC can help small businesses hire an even greater number of struggling Americans. First, it’ll do more [...]
Federal law requires that states pay interest on outstanding loan balances under Title XII of the Social Security Act. Payment of interest is a requirement of employers in each state in order to receive full offset credit against the FUTA tax (26 USC 3304(a) (17)) and must be paid from funds other than funds in the [...]
The US Department of Labor released its UI Solvency Report on May 13th, showing the relative solvency of each state UI trust fund in comparison to other states based on US DOL suggested standards. See the link to the report at http://workforcesecurity.doleta.gov/unemploy/docs/trustFundSolvReport.pdf Our conclusions based on the data included in the study are alarming with respect [...]
On April 17, 2014, the US DOL Employment and Training Administration distributed a Training and Employment Guidance Letter to state workforce agencies advising the agencies that although US DOL does not know whether Congress will act, based on previous retroactive legislation states may expect the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC) to be retroactively authorized. DOL interprets [...]