21 April 2016 New Jersey employers to see decrease in SUI taxes beginning July 1, 2016 Governor Chris Christie announced that because the state's unemployment insurance (UI) trust fund has continued to have a positive balance of over $1 billion, employers will save $200 million in state unemployment insurance (SUI) taxes for fiscal year (FY) 2017. A representative of the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development confirmed that SUI tax rates for fiscal year 2017 (effective July 1, 2016 through June 30, 2017) will be based on Schedule D, with rates ranging from 0.6% to 6.4%. Schedule E, with rates ranging from 1.2% to 7.0%, has been in effect for several years. The new employer rate will decrease to 3.1% for FY 2017, down from the current 3.4%. (Telephone conversation, April 21, 2016.) New Jersey began borrowing from the federal government in March 2009, with the debt reaching an all-time high of $2.1 billion in April 2011. As a result, New Jersey employers saw a FUTA credit reduction of 0.3% for calendar year 2011 and 0.6% for calendar year 2012. The state was able to repay its federal loan balance in August 2013, but borrowed again on a short-term basis in December 2013 and then repaid this loan on May 1, 2014. As a result, employers did not see a FUTA credit reduction for calendar years 2013-2015, and stopped seeing a federal interest assessment beginning with calendar year 2014. As we reported previously, Department Commissioner Harold J. Wirths announced in mid-2015 that by the end of May 2015, the UI trust fund had a balance of over $1 billion, the highest balance in over seven years. He stated then that the health of the trust fund was anticipated to begin triggering annual, incremental SUI tax rate reductions for employers, projected to amount to SUI tax savings of at least $1 billion over the next five years.
Document ID: 2016-0734 | ||||||||||||||||||||
