NYS Department of Labor asking about federal unemployment tax act (futa) on my claim - what type of tax is this?
I'm filling out some paperwork for my NYS Department of Labor unemployment claim and they're asking about something called the federal unemployment tax act or FUTA. I have no idea what type of tax this is or if I need to worry about it as someone collecting UI benefits. Is this something employers pay or something I'm supposed to pay? I'm really confused because I thought unemployment was supposed to help me, not create more tax problems. Has anyone dealt with this before?
9 comments
Join the conversation
NeonNebula
FUTA is actually a tax that employers pay, not something you as an unemployment claimant need to worry about. It's a federal payroll tax that employers pay to fund the unemployment insurance system. Your employer would have been paying this while you were working - it's how the system gets funded to pay benefits like what you're receiving from NYS Department of Labor now.
0 coins
Diego Chavez
•Oh that makes so much more sense! I was panicking thinking I'd have to pay some new tax on top of everything else. Thanks for explaining that.
0 coins
Anastasia Kozlov
Yeah FUTA is an employer-side tax. It's like 6% on the first $7,000 of wages per employee, but employers can get credits that bring it down to 0.6% in most cases. This is completely separate from your weekly unemployment claim process with NYS Department of Labor. You shouldn't need to do anything related to FUTA as a claimant.
0 coins
Sean Kelly
•wait so my old employer was paying this the whole time I worked there? I never even knew about it
0 coins
Zara Mirza
I'm confused too because NYS Department of Labor paperwork is always asking about weird stuff... why would they even mention FUTA if we don't have to pay it?? This whole system is so confusing
0 coins
NeonNebula
•They might be asking about it for verification purposes or to confirm your work history. Sometimes they need to verify that your previous employers were paying into the system properly.
0 coins
Luca Russo
If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to clarify this kind of thing, I used a service called Claimyr that helped me reach an actual agent when I had questions about my claim. You can check it out at claimyr.com - they have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Really saved me from spending hours on hold trying to get simple questions answered.
0 coins
Diego Chavez
•That sounds useful, I've been trying to call NYS Department of Labor for days about other issues with my claim and keep getting disconnected. I'll check that out.
0 coins
Nia Harris
FUTA = Federal Unemployment Tax Act. It's definitely an employer tax not employee. But honestly the whole unemployment system is such a mess, I wouldn't be surprised if they start trying to make us pay it too LOL
0 coins