Unemployment compensation for telecommuters-Beware

mhees10076

Hi Everyone,
I wanted to run this by you as I myself am a telecommuter. I work in Florida and the Company is in California. A recent article in the Associated Press wrote about a telecommuter in Florida that worked for an office in New York. This has gone to the Court of Appeals because Florida turned her down for unemployment benefits and told her to file in New York and New York court stated New York should not pay because she did her work in Florida. In the unanimous decision, the Court of Appeals found that eligibility for benefits depends on where the worker is, not where the employer is. The ruling said that no other state or federal court appeared to have tackled the question of who should pay benefits for interstate telecommuters.

My question is if this is the case, why should my employer pay unemployment benefits in California if California will not pay and should they be paying it to Florida, which I still need to check into because it appears to me that Florida will turn me down if I should ever lose my job. Has anyone tried to collect unemployment in California being an interstate telecommuter?

If anyone wants a copy of this article, give me your email address and I will send it to you. Thanks for your input. I greatly appreciate it. Marlene

Don D

Typically an employer must pay unemployment taxes in each state where the employer has a presence of worker(s). Tax notices are received from states all the time when that employer either never had or no longer has workers living and working in that state. If the employer is disatisfied with a tax notice and feels it is not due, the employer should write a protest letter and request a full explanation from the UI Division OF Employment Security, Contributions or Benefits Department. Even if that's not the precise wording in a given state, it's adequate to get the question to the correct department.

mhees10076

Thank you very much for the info. I'm going to have to check with my employer on this. Marlene

Don D

One other thing: Each state employment security UI division has a department called the interstate claims unit. They handle, naturally, interstate claims. They are responsible for sorting through the issues and charging it appropriately, so the claimant or employee has no reason to give this any thought. If it turns out that a claim is due and the employer was not registered or not paying in the appropriate state, they sort through that as well. Tell your employer if they are not paying FUTA taxes in the state where you work, they'd better get themselves registered and start paying or they are breaking the law. If they give you the dreaded "duhhhhh" reaction, tell them to call the employment security claims state office in the state where they are headquartered and ask a question about this.