Essential Estrogen

Iowa's unemployment tax rate table will remain unchanged for 2008. This marks the sixth consecutive year the overall rate has remained steady, according to state officials.

Iowa Workforce Development is the state agency charged with collecting unemployment insurance taxes from employers and operating Iowa's unemployment insurance payment programs for workers. Unemployment tax rates are based on wages and recent unemployment benefit payments. Due to the design of Iowa's unemployment tax system and Iowa Workforce Development's oversight of the trust fund, no increase is anticipated.

In the state of Iowa, there are eight tables that each have 21 rankings. Rates vary from 0 to 9 percent on table one and 0 to 7 percent on table eight. Table one collects the most tax, and table eight collects the least tax. The table in effect is determined by a formula that considers the total funds available to pay benefits on the rate computation date, the total wages paid by all contributory employers during the first four of the five calendar quarters immediately preceding the rate computation date, and the highest 12 consecutive month benefit cost ratio during the 10-year period ending on the rate computation date. The bottom line is, in calendar 2008, the tax rate will continue to be calculated by using table six.

"The state has our commitment to carefully manage the trust fund in the coming year to continue this beneficial trend for Iowa businesses," said Elisabeth Buck, director of Iowa Workforce Development. "Iowa has one of the lowest unemployment insurance tax rates in the nation. Nearly half of our employers have a zero percent rate, and, of the remaining employers, over 75 percent pay less than 1 percent."

At the beginning of the year, Iowa Workforce Development launched the Unemployment Insurance Tax System, which allows employers doing business in Iowa to electronically file the quarterly employer's contribution and payroll report and pay unemployment insurance contributions online. Many employers throughout the state have logged on to take advantage of electronic filing and online bill-pay services.