Current through Register Vol. 24-18, September 15, 2024
(1)
Penalty
for late tax and wage reports. An employer who does not file a tax or
wage report within the time frame required by WAC
192-310-010(3)(d)
must pay a penalty of $25 for each violation, unless the penalty is waived by
the department.
(2)
Definition of incomplete or incorrect format tax or wage report.
An employer must file tax and wage reports that are complete and in the format
required by the commissioner.
(a) An
"incomplete report" is any report filed by any employer or their agent where:
(i) The entire wage report is not filed on
time; or
(ii) A required element is
not reported (Social Security number, name, standard occupational
classification code or job title, hours worked, or wages paid); or
(iii) A significant number of employees are
not reported; or
(iv) A significant
number of any given element is not reported, for example, missing Social
Security numbers, names, standard occupational classification codes or job
titles, hours, or wages; or
(v)
Either the employment security department number or Unified Business Identifier
(UBI) number is not included with the tax or wage report; or
(vi) The report includes duplicate Social
Security numbers, or impossible Social Security numbers as shown by the Social
Security Administration (such as 999-99-9991, 999-99-9992, etc.); or
(vii) The report includes impossible standard
occupational classification codes (such as 00-0000, 99-9999, etc.).
(b) An "incorrect format" means
any report that is not filed in the format required by the commissioner under
WAC 192-310-010(3)(c).
Agency forms include "drop-out ink" that cannot be copied. Therefore,
photocopies are considered incorrectly formatted reports and forms.
(c) For purposes of this section, the term
"significant" means an employer who has:
(i)
One employee and reports incomplete wage elements for the one employee;
or
(ii) Two to 19 employees and
reports incomplete wage elements for two or more employees; or
(iii) Twenty to 49 employees and reports
incomplete wage elements for three or more employees; or
(iv) Fifty or more employees and reports
incomplete wage elements for four or more employees.
(3)
Penalty for filing an
incomplete or incorrectly formatted tax or wage report. An employer who
files an incomplete or incorrectly formatted tax and wage report will receive a
warning letter for the first occurrence. For subsequent occurrences of either
an incomplete or incorrectly formatted report within five years of the date of
the last occurrence (whether or not the last occurrence was before the
effective date of this amendatory section), the employer must pay a penalty as
follows:
(a) When quarterly tax is due and an
employer has submitted an incomplete report or filed the report in an incorrect
format, the following schedule will apply after the initial warning letter: Ten
percent of the quarterly contributions for each occurrence, up to a maximum of
$250.00, but not less than:
|
(i)
|
2nd occurrence
|
$75.00
|
|
(ii)
|
3rd occurrence
|
$150.00
|
|
(iii)
|
4th and subsequent occurrences
|
$250.00
|
(b)
When no quarterly tax is due and an employer has submitted an incomplete report
or filed the report in an incorrect format, the following schedule will apply
after the initial warning letter:
|
(i)
|
2nd occurrence
|
$75.00
|
|
(ii)
|
3rd occurrence
|
$150.00
|
|
(iii)
|
4th and subsequent occurrences
|
$250.00
|
(c)
(i) The department will not issue a warning
letter or penalty under this subsection for failure to report standard
occupational classification codes or job titles for quarters where the
department does not give employers the option to report standard occupational
classification codes or job titles for their employees.
(ii) The department will not charge an
incomplete report penalty for failure to report standard occupational
classification codes or job titles unless the employer knowingly failed to
report standard occupational classification codes or job titles.
(d) After five years without an
occurrence, prior occurrences will not count and the employer shall receive a
warning letter instead of a penalty on the next occurrence.
(4)
Penalty for knowingly
misrepresenting amount of payroll. If an employer knowingly (on purpose)
misrepresents to the department the amount of their payroll that is subject to
unemployment taxes, the penalty is up to 10 times, in the discretion of the
department, the difference between the taxes paid, if any, and the amount of
taxes the employer should have paid for the period. This penalty is in addition
to the amount the employer should have paid. The employer must also pay the
department for the reasonable expenses of auditing their books and collecting
taxes and penalties due as provided in WAC
192-340-100.
(5)
Late tax payments. All
employers must file a tax and wage report every quarter, including employers
who have no payroll for a given quarter. If an employer does not report on
time, it will be charged a late fee of $25.00 for each report. If the payment
is late, the employer will be charged interest at a rate of one percent of
taxes due per month. A late payment penalty is also charged for overdue taxes:
(a) First month: Five percent of the total
taxes due or $10.00, whichever is greater;
(b) Second month: An additional five percent
of total taxes due or $10.00, whichever is greater; and
(c) Third month: An additional 10 percent of
total taxes due or $10.00, whichever is greater.
(6)
Nonsufficient funds (NSF).
The department shall charge $25.00 for checks dishonored by nonacceptance or
nonpayment. This is considered a commercial charge under the Uniform Commercial
Code (RCW 62A.3-515).
(7)
Waivers of late filing and late
payment penalties. The department may, for good cause, waive penalties
for late filing of a report and late payment of taxes that are due with a
report. The commissioner must decide if the failure to file reports or pay
taxes on time was not the employer's fault.
(a) The department may waive late penalties
when there are circumstances beyond the control of the employer. These
circumstances include, but may not be limited to, the following:
(i) The return was filed on time with payment
but inadvertently mailed to another agency;
(ii) The delinquency was caused by an
employee of the department, such as providing incorrect information to the
employer, when the source can be identified;
(iii) The delinquency was caused by the death
or serious illness, before the filing deadline, of the employer, a member of
the employer's immediate family, the employer's accountant, or a member of the
accountant's immediate family. "Serious illness" includes a request from a
medical professional, local health official, or the Secretary of Health to be
isolated or quarantined as a consequence of an infection from a disease that is
the subject of a public health emergency, even if you or your immediate family
member have not been actually diagnosed with the disease that is the subject of
a public health emergency;
(iv) The
delinquency was caused by the unavoidable absence of the employer or key
employee before the filing deadline. "Unavoidable absence" does not include
absences because of business trips, vacations, personnel turnover, or
terminations;
(v) The delinquency
was caused by the accidental destruction of the employer's place of business or
business records;
(vi) The
delinquency was caused by fraud, embezzlement, theft, or conversion by the
employer's employee or other persons contracted with the employer, which the
employer could not immediately detect or prevent. The employer must have had
reasonable safeguards or internal controls in place;
(vii) The employer, before the filing
deadline, requested proper forms from the department's central office or a
district tax office, and the forms were not supplied in enough time to allow
the completed report to be filed and paid before the due date. The request must
have been timely, which means at least three days before the filing deadline;
or
(viii) An infection from a
disease subject to a public health emergency occurred at the employer's place
of business and caused the employer to close or severely curtail
operations.
(b) The
department may waive late penalties if it finds the employer to be out of
compliance during an employer-requested audit, but the department decides the
employer made a good faith effort to comply with all applicable laws and
rules;
(c) The department may waive
late penalties for failure to file a "no payroll" report for one quarter if a
new business initially registered that it would have employees that quarter,
but then delayed hiring its first employees until after that quarter;
and
(d) The department will not
waive late penalties if the employer has been late with filing or with payment
in any of the last eight consecutive quarters immediately preceding the quarter
for which a waiver is requested. If an employer has been in business for fewer
than the eight preceding quarters, then all preceding quarters must have been
filed and paid on time and a one-time only waiver may be granted.
(8)
Incomplete reports or
incorrect format penalty waivers. For good cause, the department may
waive penalties or not count occurrences for incomplete reports or reports in
an incorrect format when the employer can demonstrate that the incomplete or
incorrectly formatted report was not due to the fault of the
employer.
(9)
Missing and
impossible Social Security numbers. When a Social Security number is
impossible or missing, the department may waive penalties for incomplete
reports only once for each worker and only when:
(a) The report was incomplete because it
included impossible Social Security numbers, but the employer can show that the
impossible Social Security numbers were provided to the employer by the
employees; or
(b) The report was
incomplete because of missing Social Security numbers, but the employer can
show that the employee did not work for the employer after failing to provide a
valid Social Security card or application for Social Security number within
seven days of employment.
(10)
Penalty waiver requests.
(a) An employer must request a waiver of
penalties in writing, include all relevant facts, attach available proof, and
file the request with a tax office. In all cases the burden of proving the
facts is on the employer.
(b) At
its discretion, the department may waive penalties on its own motion without
requiring a request from the employer if it finds that the penalty was caused
by the department's own error or for other good cause.
(11)
Extensions. The department,
for good cause, may extend the due date for filing a report. If granted, the
employer must make a deposit with the department in an amount equal to the
estimated tax due for the reporting period or periods. This deposit will be
applied to the employer's debt. The amount of the deposit must be approved by
the department.
Statutory Authority:
RCW
50.12.010,
50.12.040. WSR 10-23-064, §
192-310-030, filed 11/12/10, effective 12/13/10; WSR 07-23-127, §
192-310-030, filed 11/21/07, effective 1/1/08. Statutory Authority:
RCW
50.12.010,
50.12.040, and
50.12.042. WSR 05-19-017, §
192-310-030, filed 9/9/05, effective 10/10/05; WSR 04-23-058, §
192-310-030, filed 11/15/04, effective 12/16/04. Statutory Authority:
RCW
50.12.010 and
50.12.040. WSR 98-14-068, §
192-310-030, filed 6/30/98, effective 7/31/98. WSR 13-23-007, §
192-310-030, filed 11/7/2013, effective
12/8/2013
