If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
Posted on 02/20/2010 7:22:52 AM PST by 5etester
At a time when Michigan employers can least afford it,they are going to be paying more in unemployment taxes.This scenario looks to be essentially an annual increase as far as the eye can see.Our unemployment trust fund is insolvent and constantly borrowing more.Let's take a look at the program.
Each employer is charged with a 6.2% payroll tax to fund the unemployment insurance program.However,if that employer is current on any federal loans,they receive a tax credit,otherwise known as FUTA,of 5.4%.Taxes are paid on the first $7,000 of income in Michigan.So a $434 tax is reduced by $378 leaving the employer to actually pay $56 per employee each year.
That was until 2009.Michigan became the first state to be assessed a FUTA penalty.This is due to the fact that we have an outstanding loan balance as a state.Under Title XII of the Social Security Act,states are authorized to borrow money to fund unemployment benefit payments when their state's reserve fund has become insolvent.And boy,are we borrowing.As of Feb. 18th,we are currently in hock for $3,485,282,333.32.We are authorized advances of up to $350 million per month and we have borrowed $113,900,000.00 in February so far.Our total outstanding balance is only exceeded by California,a state just a tad larger and with the same problems only magnified.
Due to the A.R.R.A.,otherwise known as the stimulus bill,the interest payments on the loan have been eliminated for 2009 and 2010 which saved Michigan $41 million in 2009.That will return in 2011.Oh,and that FUTA penalty.Every year in which we have an outstanding balance,employers will be penalized .3% of their tax credit.That amounts to $21 per employee for 2009.It doubles to $42 this year.Except that Michigan has also expanded the tax base from the first $7,000 of income to $9,000.So the penalty this year won't be $42,it will be $54.For every employee.
This schedule will increase for 19 years.That's how long it will take for the entire FUTA credit to evaporate and employers will pay the full tax of 6.2%.At the $9,000 of income rate,that is a tax of $558 per employee.So,employers could potentially go from the 2008 rate of $56 actually paid by the employer each year to $558.This amounts to a tax increase of nearly 1,000% on employers.
You may say that's only a worst case scenario.True,but with our trust fund insolvent and with our outstanding loan balance now over $3 billion and growing,how long will it take us to repay the entire balance to get out from under the FUTA penalty?Our state faces a $2.8 billion shortfall for the remainder of FY2010 and FY2011.We only have a $47 billion budget annually,so this means our unemployment loan balance already exceeds 7% of the annual state budget.Not only do we need to return to positive growth in Michigan to escape the recession (depression here as far as I'm concerned),we need to have massive growth over a long period to pay off this debt.And this also doesn't take into account any future increases on the tax base.They only raised it from $7,000 to $9,000.Washington goes all the way up $35,000.Do you really think we'll stay this low,comparatively speaking,for long with our debt in this bad of shape?And let's not forget the interest the state will have to resume paying annually in 2011 on the entire balance.Michigan employers had better get accustomed to annual increases for years and years.
Maybe you should let people who actually live here try to educate you before offering your “expertise”.
As far as letting things run their course is concerned, does that mean all districts must go democrat first? Detroit has been consistently democrat for decades and it looks like they’re happy at the bottom of the barrel. My district has gone democrat a total of 36 years since the late 1800s and has a strong conservative well out in front.
Things are looking better for republicans in Michigan elections than they have in a long time and you would think conservatives could offer some encouragement but what we get is told how stupid we are.
Your opinion no matter how wrong you are.
If you would like to be added or dropped from the Michigan ping list, please freepmail me.
That is what you get when you have someone that doesn’t know his a** from a hole in the ground writing about taxes.
“Each employer is charged with a 6.2% payroll tax to fund the unemployment insurance program.However,if that employer is current on any federal loans,they receive a tax credit,otherwise known as FUTA,of 5.4%.Taxes are paid on the first $7,000 of income in Michigan.So a $434 tax is reduced by $378 leaving the employer to actually pay $56 per employee each year. “
Emloyers pay both SUTA and FUTA, the SUTA laws are different from state to state especially concerning the rate and exemptions.
FUTA is a tax sent directly to Washington and it funds the administration of the state unemployment programs and the federal oversite of these programs. It also funds federally declared emergency unemployment which is generally an additional X number of weeks for each worker in the states that meet the emergency rules.
SUTA is a tax or as most describe it a forced insurance premium. The entire amount goes into a trust fund that can only be used for payment of benefits. No administration fees can come out of this fund. Each state has different laws as to what businesses, workers, wages are covered by their state unemployment.
They also have different taxable wages from state to state that the unemployment rate is used to compute the SUTA owed. The rate is generally figured much like an insurance premium. How long and how much they have paid into SUTA and how much they have paid out for benefits is considered when adjusting or computing their rates.
If the employer reports and pays SUTA on each worker by the date due, he gets a credit towards his FUTA. The maximum tax for FUTA is .062 Of the first 7,000. With the credit it is .008 of the first 7,000.
So 20%+ unemployment isn’t good enough for old Jenny she’s shooting for 50%?*sarcasm*
Here here!! In Ohio we have our own fight this year to wrestle control back from the Dems before it is too late for us.Good luck!
You are right.FUTA tax credits are issued to employers but reduced if the STATE is delinquent on it’s federal loan.And since I don’t know my a** from a hole in the ground,I also miscalculated the potential extremes.It should go from $56 per year in 2008 to $434 with no FUTA tax credit at all based on 6.2% of $7,000.A mere increase of 775%.I feel much better about our state now that this has been corrected.However,I was correct that the effective tax rate in Michigan is .011 in 2009 and .014 in 2010 due to the penalty,not .008 as you stated.
In my district, the man the NRCC threw overboard in 08 is leading the incumbant democrat by 10 points in early polling.
This district probably wouldn’t be in democrat hands now if it weren’t for that stupid NRCC decision to strip Walberg of funding two weeks before the last election. He lost by a whopping 2% then but leads by 10 now. However the NRCC is the same bunch of mental giants who stripped Michelle Bachman of funding at the same time. Fortunately she pulled off a win anyway.
Me, too.
That’s much more civil. Thank you.
What you are saying is that your state had to borrow money in order to pay unemployment since their fund was exhausted. They didn’t make the payments on that loan so the employers are being hit with an additional .o3 percent penality?
Wow your state must be ready to go under if it can’t pay back the money they had to borrow, and they probably will have to borrow more since businesses tend to lay off workers and therefore don’t pay unemployment to the fund.
It sounds like they will be more tempted just to pay the FUTA and not pay any SUTA.
Our state is going under.We have a family leaving Michigan every 12 minutes!They aren’t even considering how to pay back the billions they’ve already borrowed because they can’t stop the bleeding.Bernanke won’t let them borrow his printing press,so we just plod along with no idea how to fix it.We’ve had the highest rate in the nation for 33 of the last 34 months.When Granholm leaves office,she will be responsible for close to one million jobs lost in her 8 years.
Well, if we were leftists, we would be congratulating her for being so successful, if Obama has his way the entire country will be in the same shape as Michigan by the time he leaves office. Until America is broke and broken, communism will not be successfully implimented.
BTW - if Obama still believes as he did in college, a violent overthrow of our government will be cleansing and is necessary to change to communism.
I thought it was quite interesting to listen to Michelle Obama talk about she and her husband want to create AmericA Into a country they will want their grandchildren to be proud to live in.
The words create were quite interesting.
So very true. I grew up in Kalamazoo, and left Michigan in 1979, during the Carter years. My elderly parents and my brother are still there. I love to visit, and have never lost my love for this gentle state and its good people. I have very good memories of Michigan's natural beauty and down-to-earth decent people. Unfortunately, short-sighted management, liberal politics, unions and the entitlement mentality have devastated its economy. The loss of young people further damages its potential. It's heartbreaking. There has never been a greater need for intelligent, disciplined leadership in Michigan. I hope there are enough wise voters to bring it about.
I predict a power struggle between the SEIU and other unions and I’ll do anything I can to stir that trouble up.
How so?
The SEIU has a history of union busting when it benefits them. Basically they want one nationwide union. I never miss an opportunity to drop that suggestion among competing unions. Back when I was member of an AFL-CIO affiliated independent union, the UAW was trying to break our union so they could take control in my shop.
I recently found myself among several of the purple people beaters so I took the opportunity to become friendly and ask questions as a means of gaining trust. They weren’t real happy when I mentioned that many UAW members I know see SEIU as lowlife glorified janitors. LOL
Glorified janitors - that sounds about right. Good luck setting them at each others’ throats.
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