August 2023 | Issue 38
Paid Leave & WA Cares
How to prepare for Q3 reporting changes
When submitting your Q3 wage report this October, you will now report Paid Leave and WA Cares premiums from employees at the same time on the same report.
New (v8) CSV file specifications and templates are now available on the Paid Leave website. The new file format now includes fields for employee date of birth and WA Cares exemption status.
Prepare your test file according to the new CSV Specifications and CSV template. We recommend employers or employer agents test their file formats prior to the reporting due date(s).
WA Cares worker information
Do your workers still have questions about WA Cares? We’ve made it easy to communicate WA Cares updates with your staff. Our employer toolkit’s monthly newsletter content from July includes information about premiums, benefits, exemptions and helpful advice on planning for long-term care. We’ve also created a paycheck insert you can send to your workers on include with their pay stubs.
WA Cares exemptions
ESD is currently processing a high volume of exemption applications. We are doing our best to process applications as quickly as possible but we are not able to address all applications before you began withholding premiums on July 1.
Approved exemptions from workers who submitted their applications before July 1 will have an effective exemption date of July 1, 2023, regardless of when their application is approved. In some cases, this may mean you will be deducting premiums from workers' wages before they are able to provide you a copy of their exemption approval letter. Once they provide their exemption approval letter, we encourage you to return their deductions at your earliest convenience since ESD will not assess premiums for these workers for any part of Q3.
Workers who submit exemption applications on or after July 1, and are approved, will be issued an effective exemption date starting the quarter following the date the exemption was approved, and will be assessed premiums for all of Q3.
Once ESD processes an application, we send a confirmation email to the customer. If an applicant would like an update on the status of their application, we suggest they log into their SAW account. We ask that they avoid calling our customer care team to ask about status. Our agents cannot quote processing timelines for individual applications.
Live webinars
Are you looking for in-depth conversations about reporting for WA Cares and Paid Leave? We're adding more opportunities to join us for live webinars in September. Look out for scheduling info in our next Employer Newsletter. Webinars are limited to 200 participants and fill up fast, so don't delay in registering!
Unemployment Insurance (UI): Act before Sept. 30 to protect your tax rate
Protect your tax rate with a deferred payment contract
Avoid a delinquent tax rate for 2024 by filing all tax reports and paying all current and past-due unemployment taxes, penalties, and interest in full by Sept. 30. Employers with delinquencies are charged:
- At least a one percentage point increase in their regular tax rate the first year they’re delinquent.
- A two-percentage point increase if they’re late a second consecutive year.
- The maximum shared-cost (social) tax rate.
Consider a deferred payment contract if you can’t pay
If you can’t pay the balance owed, you can still protect your tax rate by getting a deferred payment contract. Start by emailing Employment Security Department’s Collections unit at ESCtax@esd.wa.gov.
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