I'm a tax preparer and deal with unemployment/commission situations frequently with my clients. Just want to emphasize something others have touched on but is super important: when you report the commission income on your weekly claim, make sure you're entering the GROSS amount (before any taxes, fees, or deductions). ESD calculates their benefit reduction based on gross income, not what you actually take home. I've seen people get confused and report their net commission amount, which can cause issues later if ESD cross-references with employer wage reports. Also, since you mentioned this is from an HVAC job - if there are any installation-related costs or chargebacks that come out of your commission later, those don't change what you report to ESD for this week. You report what you actually received, period. Any subsequent adjustments are separate matters. Good luck with everything, and you're smart to ask these questions upfront rather than guessing!

Just wanted to add one more thing that might be helpful - if your commission check puts you over the earnings threshold for that week and you don't receive unemployment benefits, you should still file your weekly claim! A lot of people think they shouldn't bother filing if they know they won't get paid that week, but you need to maintain your claim to stay active in the system. When you file, you'll just answer "yes" to receiving income and enter your commission amount. The system will automatically calculate that you're not eligible for benefits that week, but it keeps your claim current so you can receive benefits the following weeks when you don't have income. Missing a weekly filing can cause your claim to become inactive, which creates more headaches to reactivate later.

Update: I filed my claim this morning and reported the severance. The Washington ESD website was pretty clear about how to report it in the weekly claim section. Now I just have to wait to see how it affects my benefit amount.

For anyone reading this later - I had a similar situation and used Claimyr to talk to Washington ESD about severance. The agent told me that they really appreciate when people are upfront about severance from the beginning. Makes the whole process smoother.

I had this exact same confusion when I first applied! You definitely don't need the unemployment tax number as an employee - that's your employer's UBI number that they use for their quarterly tax filings. For a regular unemployment claim, you just need your own info (SSN, work history, etc.) and basic employer details like business name and address. Washington ESD can look up all the backend tax stuff themselves. Make sure you're on the claimant section of their website, not the employer portal - they look really similar and it's easy to accidentally end up on the wrong form asking for employer-specific information you wouldn't have.

I just went through this same confusion a few months ago when I first filed! You definitely don't need your employer's unemployment tax number (UBI number) for your personal claim - that's strictly for employers when they file their quarterly reports with the state. It sounds like you might have accidentally ended up on the employer portal section of the Washington ESD website, which happens to a lot of people since the navigation isn't great. For a regular unemployment claim, you only need your SSN, basic employer info (name, address), and your work history. Just make sure you're on the right page by going directly to esd.wa.gov and clicking "File for Unemployment Benefits" - that'll take you to the actual claimant application where you won't see any requests for employer tax numbers.

Thanks everyone for explaining this. The Washington ESD system makes something that should be simple way more complicated than it needs to be.

I'm new to unemployment and this thread has been really eye-opening! I had no idea that UI benefits themselves count as taxable income. I've been collecting for about 3 weeks now and haven't set up tax withholding yet. Should I be worried about owing a lot at tax time? Also, does anyone know if there's a penalty for not having taxes withheld from unemployment benefits, or is it just like any other situation where you might owe taxes in April?

For what it's worth, I work in HR and deal with unemployment claims regularly. Eligible redetermined is typically a good thing - it means Washington ESD reviewed something about your claim and confirmed you should continue receiving benefits.

I went through the exact same thing last month! My status changed from "eligible" to "eligible redetermined" and I panicked thinking I'd done something wrong. Turns out Washington ESD had to verify some information with my previous employer about my separation date. The whole process took about 3 weeks but I kept getting my regular payments the entire time. The "redetermined" part just means they looked at your case again and confirmed you're still eligible - it's actually good news! Just keep filing your weekly claims like normal and you should be fine.