The Blog

Paul Trause, Commissioner, Employment Security Department

01/30/12

Unemployment taxes for the October-December 2011 tax period are due on Jan. 31. But what if your business is struggling and you can’t afford your tax bill?

The Employment Security Department has this advice: Contact us right away. In many cases, we can set up a deferred-payment contract that keeps you in good standing with the department.

You will owe interest and penalties on the delayed taxes, but you can avoid a higher “delinquency” tax rate that would add 2 percentage points to your tax rate.

Also, even if you can’t afford to pay some or all of your taxes, be sure to file your quarterly wage report on time.

By having accurate wage information on file, the department can determine quickly whether a laid-off worker is eligible for benefits and what the correct benefit amount should be. Without the wage report, we must rely on an ex-employee’s records to calculate benefits – and that may result in benefit overpayments that can drive up taxes.

In addition, tracking down employers who don’t file quarterly reports consumes considerable staff time. We’d like to reduce our costs in this area, and businesses can help by filing their quarterly wage reports on time.