19 January 2017 Massachusetts Employer Medical Assistance Contribution rates unchanged for 2017 The Massachusetts Employer Medical Assistance Contribution (EMAC) rate for employers that have been liable for six years or more continues at 0.34% for 2017, up to the taxable wage base of $15,000 per employee. Employers are exempt from payment of the EMAC in any quarter the average employee count is fewer than six. Newly liable employers are also exempt for up to the first three years of liability from the EMAC and receive a reduced EMAC rate for the next two years. Employers in their fourth year of liability in 2017 pay at 0.12% and at 0.24% if in their fifth year of liability for 2017. As with state unemployment insurance (SUI) returns and taxes, employers file their EMAC quarterly reports and pay the associated tax electronically via UI Online. Legislation enacted in mid-2014 that modified the EMAC also increased the SUI taxable wage base to $15,000 effective in 2015, froze the SUI rate schedule for calendar years 2015-2017, and raised the minimum wage incrementally to $11 by 2017. (SB 2195, Chapter 144.) The legislation also increased by one year the number of years of liability necessary to achieve a SUI experience rate. This also changed the number of years a new employer is exempt from the EMAC. As a result, newly liable employers are exempt from the EMAC for up to the first three years of liability (changed from up to two years of liability) and are assigned a special EMAC rate in the fourth and fifth years of liability (previously, the third and fourth years). Employers that have been liable for six years (formerly five years) receive the fully-liable EMAC rate (currently 0.34%).
Document ID: 2017-0119 | ||||||||||||||||||||
