A Comprehensive Guide on the Unemployment/Reemployment Requirements & Deadlines

For a business owner, paying reemployment/unemployment taxes is a vital responsibility among several others to ensure that the entire system runs in a smooth manner. If you are an entrepreneur just starting your business, you must be aware of the various vital aspects regarding this.

Unemployment/Reemployment Requirements

General liability requirements

A particular business is liable for state reemployment tax if any of the following applies to the concerned employer in the preceding or current calendar year:

1. The business Is liable for the federal unemployment tax.
2. It has paid a minimum wage of $1500 in a calendar quarter. This includes paying $800 each to two workers.
3. It has had a minimum of 1 employee (this does not have to be the same employee) for any part of a day in 20 different weeks within the same calendar year.

Special liability requirements for some particular employer types

• Governmental Entities

Coverage is extended towards employees from the state of Florida and any county, city or joint governmental unit.

• Indian Tribes

As per s. 3306(u) of the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, coverage is extended towards employees for service that is carried out in the employment of an Indian tribe member. However, there are some conditions attached to this.

• Agricultural Employers

For this, liable agricultural employers are those who paid cash wages amounting to $10000 in the preceding or current year in a calendar quarter. Or those individuals who have employed 5 or more workers for a part of a day in 20 different calendar weeks.

Business owners with liability under this provision should also report any other employees (excluding domestic workers). The other employees should be reported even if the paid wages were lower than $1,500 for any of the quarters or their employment was valid for less than 20 different weeks.

• Domestic Employers

Business owners who paid wages of a minimum of $1,000 in the prior or current year in any one calendar quarter are liable to pay reemployment tax. These particularly imply business owners of organizations with employees who deliver domestic services – maintenance workers, maids, cooks, caretakers, butlers, house-parents, private yacht crews, chauffeurs, and social secretaries.

• Non-profit Employers

Coverage is extended towards the non-profit organization (like scientific, religious, education, charitable, or literary groups) employees. These organizations include those that employ 4 or more workers for any part of a day in 20 different calendar weeks during the preceding or current calendar year. Some of the exceptions to this coverage are church schools and churches.

Unemployment/Reemployment Deadlines

A majority of the employers pay both the state unemployment tax (SUTA) and federal unemployment tax (FUTA). Employers need to pay unemployment tax (which is now known as reemployment tax) using the form RT-6 (Employer’s Quarterly Report) quarterly to the Florida Department of Revenue. Typically, this form and any tax owed are due 30 days after each quarter ends.

Given below is the due date schedule for unemployment reports:

Liable employers receive a pre-printed Employer’s Quarterly Report (RT-6) via mail for each quarter unless they choose to file electronically. Business owners who do not receive this form may download it from the web portal of the Department of Revenue, Florida by navigating to the Reemployment Tax section.

If your business lacks proper infrastructure related to payroll, risk management, or HR, you can face issues paying unemployment/reemployment tax. Regarding that, you can reach out to us to manage these crucial areas. Also, if you want to know more about what we do, consider going through our blogs.

Reference Links:

https://floridarevenue.com/forms_library/current/rt800002.pdf

https://floridarevenue.com/Pages/forms_index.aspx

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc759

https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/rt_return_pay.aspx