Wednesday, April 22, 2009

SUTA

Last night, I paid my quarterly State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) for all my employees. For those of you who are employees, unemployment tax (both state and federal) is one of those taxes that employers pay for you without you generally knowing it is being paid. Isn't that nice of us?

Considering I am the only employee of my S-Corp, I hate paying SUTA and FUTA (like I love paying the rest of my taxes ... right?) because I sort of suspect that it would be hard for me to ever actually collect unemployment back from the government. I am the owner of my company, so technically I always have a job unless I close down my S-Corp even if I cannot pay myself. I do not know if I am correct about how hard it will be for me to collect. God willing I will never find out. But, even though SUTA and FUTA are not big expenses (in comparison to the other taxes I pay), I get angry paying them. As the company bookkeeper / accountant / owner / etc... I have plenty of opportunity to pay lots of taxes and plenty of opportunity to get angry at the IRS.

Last night, I got a surprise. My SUTA payment was about 1/3 as much as it was last year. Of course, I was sure that I had made a calculation mistake, but I did verify that, yes, my SUTA rate went down this year. I'm sure I have Mr. Obama to thank, and I am a little embarrassed that it took me by surprise. If I had 1000 employees instead of just one, that would be quite a savings. I thought Obama hated rich jerks like me.

Today, it hit me. Most likely the fact that I pay significantly less on State Unemployment Tax might just mean the Feds are going to get me (I do not usually pay FUTA until the end of the year). But, I just looked it up and the FUTA rate is going down too (although not necessarily for me ... FUTA has weird rules around who pays what based partially on what you pay to your State).

It seems odd that at record levels of unemployment, I have to pay less into the unemployment pot, but I guess I'm not going to complain. Its just one more thing I'll just let Tyler's and Connor's grandchildren pay for as our nation's debt continues to rise.

1 comment:

  1. Well..a SUTA decrease isn't due to Obama..and the rate will be adjusted downward if you have few or no claims over a certain period of time, which, since you employ yourself..you should be at the lowest rate possible in your state. So congratulations..your such a great employer..you've never had to lay people off.

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