If you qualify for unemployment benefits, you’ll likely receive them via the Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs. But someone has to pay for the benefits that unemployed workers receive. Enter the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, or FUTA tax. Here’s how it works and what you pay for it.
The Federal Unemployment Tax Act: The Basics
The Federal Unemployment Tax Act is a means of collecting funds for unemployment payments for unemployed workers. Basically, it’s a means of accumulating funds to pay unemployment benefits to laid-off workers.
According to FUTA, employers must pay an unemployment tax of 6% on the first $7,000 of employee wages. These taxes help fund the U.S. Department of Labor’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs. An employees wages dictate the amount of FUTA taxes an employer pays. It’s also important to understand that the tax enacted by the Federal Unemployment Tax Act is paid by the employer, not the employee. FUTA does not come out of an employee’s wages.
More specifically, employers must pay FUTA taxes of 6% on the first $7,000 in income for each employee. Employers also are eligible for a credit against the FUTA tax of up to 5.4%. Employers must file their FUTA taxes annually come tax time and then report those taxes to the IRS via Form 940, the Employer’s Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return.
Who It Benefits
In short, anyone who has received unemployment benefits has indirectly benefited from FUTA and its resulting taxes. And how many workers is that? About 23.1% of jobless workers received unemployment benefits from state IU programs as of December 2014, according to information from the Economic Policy Institute.
However, to quality for unemployment insurance, workers must have been laid off by no fault of their own. Also, they must meet their state’s eligibility requirements. The IRS also says that IU benefits are intended as temporary financial assistance to unemployed workers. Meanwhile, eligibility for receiving said benefits are decided by state unemployment laws (though these laws must fall under federal guidelines).
What’s Exempt from FUTA Tax
But some wages are exempt from the FUTA tax. Exempt wages include those paid to a deceased employee’s spouse or by a parent to a child under age 21. Also wages for services performed outside the United States or those paid to a foreign government or other international organization, are exempt. Meanwhile, wages paid by non-profit organizations or those paid to hospital interns don’t qualify. Neither do wages a school pays to a student of that school. If wages are paid by a seasonal camp to part-time student employees (i.e. those who worked less than 13 weeks during the calendar year), they dodge FUTA as well.