The Maine Departments of Labor (MDOL) and Revenue Services (MRS) announced that employers will soon begin to report and pay state unemployment insurance (SUI) taxes electronically to the Maine Department of Labor (MDOL) after having filed with MRS since the late 1990s.

What was the combined central registration application for taxes administered by MRS and the MDOL has been replaced with two separate applications.? ReEmployME, MDOL's Employer Services division, is now requiring registration for?new?Maine employers. (News release, Maine Department of Labor, September 12, 2018.)

The main implementation of the new system starts November 16, 2018. During the period of transition to ReEmployME, Maine employers, payroll processors and third party agents will be able to use either the MDOL ReEmployME tax system or the MRS Maine Employers Electronic Tax Reporting System (MEETRS), whichever is more convenient. (October 2018 Maine tax alert.)

All liable and active employers need to create a portal account in?ReEmployME?to electronically file quarterly reports and make contribution payments through the new system beginning with fourth quarter 2018. Employers were urged by the MRS to timely file their third quarter 2018 return with the MRS by October 31, 2018.

MRS will no longer issue a first bill for unpaid UI tax liability.? All bills for unpaid UI tax liability are now issued by MDOL.? Thus, all UI bill payments must be remitted to MDOL in accordance with MDOL UI payment procedures.

The new UI tax system affects filing Form ME UC-1 and related payments as follows:

• Through November 7, 2018, employers will continue to file Form ME UC-1 and related payments with MRS.? This includes forms filed electronically and on paper.
• Beginning November 16, 2018, employers that currently file Form ME UC-1 and remit related payments?electronically?with MRS will need to do so using the new MDOL's ReEmployME electronic filing and payment application.? The new MDOL ReEmployME application will utilize the same data file specifications currently used for purposes of the MRS Maine Employers Electronic Tax Reporting System (MEETRS) program; however,?beginning in November 2018, the UI data file is submitted directly to MDOL.
• During the period of transition to the ReEmployME tax system beginning November 16, 2018, Maine employers, payroll processors and third party agents will be able to use either the MDOL ReEmployME tax system or the MRS MEETRS, whichever is more convenient.
• Employers that currently file the paper version of Form ME UC-1 and the related payment to Maine Revenue Services may,?after November 16, 2018, register with MDOL to file those returns and make those payments electronically using the new ReEmployME application.
• Employers that elect to continue filing Form ME UC-1 via paper on or?after November 1, 2018?must submit the returns and related payments to MRS, not the MDOL.? MRS will continue to process?paper?returns and accompanying payments for the MDOL.? However, MRS will no longer provide customer support functions related to those returns; any UI tax question for returns filed and payments made on or?after November 1, 2018?must be directed to MDOL.

Change to the Maine EZ Pay application beginning July 2, 2018

Effective July 2, 2018, employers that use the Maine Revenue Services EZ Pay application to make Maine?SUI payments?are no longer able to delay the payment to a future date.? SUI payments remitted using the Maine EZ Pay system must be completed the same day the transaction is initiated. ?

Also, employers are no longer able to utilize the "bill payment" tax type selection in the EZ Pay application to make SUI payments.? The Maine EZ Pay "UC-1 unemployment contribution payment" selection can be used instead to pay a bill for an unemployment contribution account.? These changes do not affect other tax payments made using the Maine EZ Pay application.

Employers have filed separate unemployment and withholding tax returns with the Revenue Services Department since 2015

As we reported previously, from 1997 through 2014, state income tax withholding and SUI tax reporting were filed together with the Revenue Services Department using quarterly Form 941/C1-ME. Beginning with tax periods on and after January 1, 2015, employers began reporting all withholding tax on Form 941ME and all UI wages and contributions separately on Form ME UC-1. The payment of each tax also began to be submitted separately to the Revenue Services Department in 2015. (EY Payroll NewsFlash Vol. 15, #134, 7-10-2014.)

Although the forms and payments were separated for tax periods beginning in 2015, the Revenue Services Department has until now continued to process the SUI returns and payments on behalf of the Labor Department.

Continue to watch the Labor Department's Bureau of Unemployment Compensation Employer Services website for more information on the new ReEmployME system or call +1 207 621 5120 or +1 844 754 3508.

Maine is part of a four-state consortium to deploy UI systems on the cloud

A consortium of four states, Mississippi, Maine, Rhode Island and Connecticut, known as ReEmployUSA (formerly known as MRM) began deploying the country's first multi-tenant unemployment insurance system on the cloud in August 2017, with Mississippi's migration to the cloud in September 2017 (see also here).

This was followed by Maine's roll-out of the ReEmployME system, with the first phase for UI benefits in December 2017 and the second phase for UI tax in late 2018.

Rhode Island plans to follow suit in 2019, with Connecticut migrating to the cloud in 2020 for UI benefits and 2021 for UI taxes. The new cloud-based system is intended to replace the states' aging legacy UI benefits and tax systems.

Development of the cloud-based system was funded in part by a US Department of Labor $90-million grant. Other states have also received federal consortium funding for the purpose of modernizing aging legacy UI benefits and tax systems.

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