NYS Department of Labor payroll deduction question - federal unemployment taxes are paid by the employer and the employee?
I'm trying to understand my pay stub and noticed something confusing about unemployment taxes. I thought federal unemployment taxes are paid by the employer and the employee, but my coworker said employees don't pay FUTA taxes directly. I'm looking at my NYS Department of Labor account and trying to figure out what taxes actually fund my unemployment benefits. Can someone explain how this works? I want to make sure I understand what I'm contributing to versus what my employer pays when I eventually need to file a claim.
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Sebastián Stevens
Actually your coworker is mostly correct. FUTA (Federal Unemployment Tax Act) is paid entirely by employers, not employees. What you might be seeing on your pay stub is SUTA (State Unemployment Tax Act) deductions, which in New York are also primarily employer-paid. Employees in NY don't typically have unemployment tax deductions from their paychecks. The NYS Department of Labor unemployment benefits you'd receive are funded by these employer taxes.
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Angelina Farar
•That makes more sense! So when I file for unemployment benefits through NYS Department of Labor, it's being funded by what my employer paid in, not what was taken from my check?
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Bethany Groves
wait i thought we paid into unemployment insurance too?? my pay stub has all kinds of deductions and i assumed some went to unemployment stuff. this is confusing
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KingKongZilla
•You're probably thinking of SDI (State Disability Insurance) which does come out of employee paychecks in some states, but NY doesn't have that. Your unemployment benefits are funded by employer taxes to the NYS Department of Labor. If you need to check your eligibility or file a claim, you can log into your my.ny.gov account.
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Rebecca Johnston
The whole system is set up so employers fund unemployment insurance through their quarterly tax payments to both federal and state agencies. When you file with NYS Department of Labor, they're using money from this pool. If you ever have trouble reaching them about your claim status, I used claimyr.com to get through to an actual agent - there's a demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works.
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Nathan Dell
•Is that service legit? I've been trying to call NYS Department of Labor for weeks about my pending claim and keep getting busy signals.
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Rebecca Johnston
•Yeah it worked for me when I had an adjudication issue last month. Way better than sitting on hold for hours or getting disconnected.
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