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Foreword

To all employers:

You pay the taxes which support the Unemployment Compensation programs.

Your contributions to the West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Fund are used to pay unemployment benefits to qualified claimants, benefits which sustain the purchasing power of the individual, the community and the state during periods of involuntary unemployment. Your contribution rate may be affected by the promptness and accuracy with which you submit reports, pay taxes, and supply information to the Unemployment Compensation Division.

The taxes which you pay directly to the federal government finance the Employment Service (Job Service) placement system and related activities such as research in matters pertaining to the West Virginia economy and participation in the training of workers to meet the demands of industry. Your federal taxes also defray the administrative costs of unemployment compensation and provide funds which may be loaned for unemployment benefit purposes, to states whose unemployment compensation reserves are depleted.

All programs under WorkForce West Virginia are vital to the economic health of the state, nation and community, and they affect your business directly or indirectly. Your payroll taxes therefore constitute an investment. To protect that investment it is necessary for you to understand your rights and duties under the Unemployment Compensation Law and that you cooperate with all divisions of WorkForce West Virginia to ensure that the Unemployment Compensation, Employment Service, and related programs are administered efficiently and economically.

We have prepared this handbook to promote your understanding and to encourage your cooperation. We hope it will be helpful to you and to others in your organization who are responsible for hiring and discharging workers, issuing separation reports, examining and completing unemployment compensation claim notices, and preparing payrolls and tax forms.

Statements in the handbook are for general information and do not have the effect of law or regulation.

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Table of contents

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Employing Units

An employing unit is an individual, partnership, association, corporation, governmental entity, or other type of organization which has in its employ one or more individuals performing services within West Virginia.

♦Initial Statement by employing unit

Every employing unit is required to submit an Employer's Initial Statement, Form UC-201-B, when beginning business in West Virginia or succeeding to the business of another employing unit in this state. The Initial Statement must bear the exact business name of the employing unit and the street address of the business headquarters. A post office box number or general delivery address is not sufficient.

If the employing unit is an individual, the Initial Statement must show the individual's name, social security number and home address. If the employing unit is a partnership, each individual partner must sign the statement and indicate social security number and place of residence. If the employing unit is a corporation, the individual name, title, social security number and residence of each officer must be entered.

An Initial Statement submitted by a political subdivision or government agency must bear the signature and title of a duly authorized individual.

♦Supplements to Employer's Initial Statement

An employing unit succeeding to the business of a liable employer is required to submit a Supplement, Form UC-201-BS, Statement for Transfer of Business, which must be signed by both the successor employer and the predecessor employer.

An employing unit which is a political subdivision, government agency or private nonprofit organization is required to prepare a Supplement, Form UC-201-BNP, describing the nature of the employing unit and indicating on which basis, tax or reimbursement, it wishes to make payments if found liable. (See `Government agencies and nonprofit organizations.')

From the information shown on the Initial Statement and any supplements, the Unemployment Compensation Division is able to determine whether the employing unit is an `employer' as defined in the Unemployment Compensation Law and, therefore, liable for the payment of contributions (or for a political subdivision, government agency or private nonprofit organization that so elects, liable for the reimbursement of benefit payments).

♦Records to be kept by employing unit

Whether or not liable for payment of contributions, or reimbursement of benefits, every employing unit is required to keep records showing: the period covered by each payroll; the place of employment within the state; the scheduled hours per day or week; and, for each individual worker and each payroll period, the worker's social security number, name, wages (and other remuneration), wage rate, travel expenses, and dates covered, time lost due to reasons other than lack of work, exact dates of employment, and cause of any separation. Records and supporting evidence include cash books, journals, ledgers and corporate minutes. The state law specifies that such records be open to inspection by the Commissioner of WorkForce West Virginia or a representative. A federal statute requires that employment records be retained for four years.

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♦Responsibility for notifying the Division when liability is incurred

It is the responsibility of the employing unit to notify the Unemployment Compensation Division when it incurs liability under the law, regardless of the fact that an Initial Statement reflecting nonliability may have been submitted previously.

♦Penalties

An employing unit which fails to provide required reports to the Unemployment Compensation Division is considered guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction may be fined not less than $500 on a first offense to a fine of up to $25,000 and/or imprisonment up to two years for repeat offenders.

Employer Liability

An employing unit is subject to the Unemployment Compensation Law and is required to make payments into the Unemployment Compensation Fund if it comes within any one of the following classifications:

1.Has in employment subject to the law one or more individuals for some portion of a day in each of 20 different weeks of the calendar year. (The weeks of employment need not be consecutive, nor need the same individual be employed each day.)

2.Pays total wages of $1,500 or more in any calendar quarter in the current or preceding calendar year.

3.Acquires the organization, trade or business, or substantially all the assets of a liable employer.

4.Pays cash wages of $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter for domestic service in a private home, local college club or local chapter of a college fraternity or sorority.

5.Has in agricultural employment ten or more individuals for some portion of a day in each of

20different weeks of the calendar year.

6.Pays for agricultural labor cash wages of $20,000 or more in any calendar quarter.

7.Becomes a liable employer under any federal unemployment tax act.

8.Is a state or local government agency, entity or instrumentality meeting any of the above conditions.

9.Certain religious, charitable, educational, or other organizations classified as nonprofit under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, having in employment four or more individuals for some portion of a day in each of 20 different weeks of a calendar year.

Only work which is classified as `employment' under the law is considered in determining whether an employing unit has incurred liability, except for agricultural employers. When determining the liability of an agricultural employer, the wages and number of alien agricultural workers are used. Among the services excluded from employment are those for an institution operated exclusively for religious purposes. For other exclusions, see `Employment.'

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♦Location of employment and worker

For an employing unit to incur liability under the West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Law, employees must perform their work in West Virginia (or outside the United States if the employer's base of operations is in West Virginia).

Work is considered to be within the state if (1) most of the employee's services are performed in West Virginia, and the employee works outside the state only at times or at occasional tasks; or (2) the employee performs some work in West Virginia, and the base of operation, or the place from which the employee is directed, is located in West Virginia; or (3) the employee's residence and some work are in West Virginia, and neither the base of operations nor the place from which the employee is directed is in any other state in which some work is performed.

If a worker is employed both within and without the state, but it is determined that the worker is in `employment in this state,' the employer is required to pay contributions on all of the worker's wages, those earned in West Virginia and elsewhere.

♦Interstate reciprocal coverage arrangement

If any of an employer's workers customarily perform services in more than one state, the employer may apply for coverage under the West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Law of all the worker's services, provided: any part of the worker's services are performed in West Virginia; the worker lives in West Virginia; or the employer maintains in West Virginia a place of business to which the worker's services bear a reasonable relationship.

The Contribution Accounting section of the Unemployment Compensation Division can furnish additional information and forms for applying for coverage of multi-state workers.

♦Voluntary coverage

A nonliable employing unit or an employer wishing to insure workers who are not engaged in `employment' as defined in the Unemployment Compensation Law may elect voluntary coverage by completing Form WVUC-A-33, Voluntary Election to Become an Employer. If approved, voluntary coverage remains in effect at least two calendar years, the year it is elected and the following year.

♦Employer's Certificate of Registration

When an employer has been determined liable, or an application for voluntary coverage has been approved, the Division issues an Employer's Certificate of Registration, Form WVUC-A- 29 and assigns the employer a ten-digit account number. The employer should enter this number, in its entirety, on all correspondence with the Division and on unemployment compensation forms where called for.

♦Poster to be displayed

Every liable employer is required by law to display prominently in each business establishment a poster, Notice to Employees — Unemployment Benefits, Form WVUC-B-59. The poster contains information about insured workers' rights and duties under the West Virginia Unemployment Compensation Law.

♦Duration of coverage

An employer who becomes liable within a calendar year is liable for all of that year. The employer is required to submit Contribution and Wage Reports for each calendar quarter in that year and to pay contributions on all taxable wages paid in any quarter of that year (or for a government agency or nonprofit organization that so elects, to reimburse benefits based on wages paid in any quarter of that year). For example, an employer who reaches the twentieth

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