WAC 192-310-030
What are the report and tax payment
penalties? (RCW 50.12.220.) (1) Penalty for late tax
reports. An employer who does not file a tax report within
the time frame required by WAC 192-310-010 (3)(d) must pay a
penalty of twenty-five dollars for each violation, unless the
penalty is waived by the department.
(2) Definition of incomplete or incorrect format tax
report. An employer must file a tax report that is complete
and in the format required by the commissioner.
(a) An "incomplete report" is any report filed by any
employer or their agent where:
(i) The entire wage report is not filed on time; or
(ii) A required element is not reported (Social Security
number, name, hours worked, or wages paid); or
(iii) A significant number of employees are not reported;
or
(iv) A significant number of any given element is not
reported, for example, missing Social Security numbers, names,
hours, or wages; or
(v) Either the employer reference number or Unified
Business Identifier (UBI) number is not included with the tax
or wage report; or
(vi) The report includes duplicate Social Security
numbers, or impossible Social Security numbers as shown by the
Social Security Administration (such as 999-99-9991,
999-99-9992, etc.).
(b) An "incorrect format" means any report that is not
filed in the format required by the commissioner under WAC 192-310-010 (3)(c). Agency forms include "drop-out ink" that
cannot be copied. Therefore, photocopies are considered
incorrectly formatted reports and forms.
(c) For purposes of this section, the term "significant"
means an employer who has:
(i) One employee and reports incomplete wage elements for
the one employee; or
(ii) Two to nineteen employees and reports incomplete
wage elements for two or more employees; or
(iii) Twenty to forty-nine employees and reports
incomplete wage elements for three or more employees; or
(iv) Fifty or more employees and reports incomplete wage
elements for four or more employees.
(3) Penalty for filing an incomplete or incorrect format
tax report. An employer who files an incomplete or
incorrectly formatted tax and wage report will receive a
warning letter for the first occurrence. For subsequent
occurrences of either an incomplete or incorrectly formatted
report within five years of the date of the last occurrence
(whether or not the last occurrence was before the effective
date of this amendatory section), the employer must pay a
penalty as follows:
(a) When quarterly tax is due and an employer has
submitted an incomplete report or filed the report in an
incorrect format, the following schedule will apply after the
initial warning letter: Ten percent of the quarterly
contributions for each occurrence, up to a maximum of $250.00,
but not less than:
(i)
2nd occurrence
$75.00
(ii)
3rd occurrence
$150.00
(iii)
4th and subsequent occurrences
$250.00
(b) When no quarterly tax is due and an employer has
submitted an incomplete report or filed the report in an
incorrect format, the following schedule will apply after the
initial warning letter:
(i)
2nd occurrence
$75.00
(ii)
3rd occurrence
$150.00
(iii)
4th and subsequent occurrences
$250.00
(c) After five years without an occurrence, prior
occurrences will not count and the employer shall receive a
warning letter instead of a penalty on the next occurrence.
(4) Penalty for knowingly misrepresenting amount of
payroll. If an employer knowingly (on purpose) misrepresents
to the department the amount of his or her payroll that is
subject to unemployment taxes, the penalty is up to ten times,
in the discretion of the department, the difference between
the taxes paid, if any, and the amount of taxes the employer
should have paid for the period. This penalty is in addition
to the amount the employer should have paid. The employer
must also pay the department for the reasonable expenses of
auditing his or her books and collecting taxes and penalties
due as provided in WAC 192-340-100.
(5) Late tax payments. All employers must file a tax
report every quarter, including employers who have no payroll
for a given quarter. If an employer does not report on time,
it will be charged a late fee of $25.00 for each report. If
the payment is late, the employer will be charged interest at
a rate of one percent of taxes due per month. A late payment
penalty is also charged for overdue taxes:
(a) First month: Five percent of the total taxes due or
$10.00, whichever is greater;
(b) Second month: An additional five percent of total
taxes due or $10.00, whichever is greater; and
(c) Third month: An additional ten percent of total
taxes due or $10.00, whichever is greater.
(6) Waivers of late filing and late payment penalties.
The department may, for good cause, waive penalties for late
filing of a report and late payment of taxes that are due with
a report. The commissioner must decide if the failure to file
reports or pay taxes on time was not the employer's fault.
(a) The department may waive late penalties when there
are circumstances beyond the control of the employer. These
circumstances include, but may not be limited to, the
following:
(i) The return was filed on time with payment but
inadvertently mailed to another agency;
(ii) The delinquency was caused by an employee of the
department, such as providing incorrect information to the
employer, when the source can be identified;
(iii) The delinquency was caused by the death or serious
illness, before the filing deadline, of the employer, a member
of the employer's immediate family, the employer's accountant,
or a member of the accountant's immediate family;
(iv) The delinquency was caused by the unavoidable
absence of the employer or key employee before the filing
deadline. "Unavoidable absence" does not include absences
because of business trips, vacations, personnel turnover, or
terminations;
(v) The delinquency was caused by the accidental
destruction of the employer's place of business or business
records;
(vi) The delinquency was caused by fraud, embezzlement,
theft, or conversion by the employer's employee or other
persons contracted with the employer, which the employer could
not immediately detect or prevent. The employer must have had
reasonable safeguards or internal controls in place; or
(vii) The employer, before the filing deadline, requested
proper forms from the department's central office or a
district tax office, and the forms were not supplied in enough
time to allow the completed report to be filed and paid before
the due date. The request must have been timely, which means
at least three days before the filing deadline.
(b) The department may waive late penalties if it finds
the employer to be out of compliance during an
employer-requested audit, but the department decides the
employer made a good faith effort to comply with all
applicable laws and rules; and
(c) The department will not waive late penalties if the
employer has been late with filing or with payment in any of
the last eight consecutive quarters immediately preceding the
quarter for which a waiver is requested. If an employer has
been in business for fewer than the eight preceding quarters,
then all preceding quarters must have been filed and paid on
time and a one-time only waiver may be granted.
(7) Incomplete reports or incorrect format penalty
waivers. For good cause, the department may waive penalties
or not count occurrences for incomplete reports or reports in
an incorrect format when the employer can demonstrate that the
incomplete or incorrectly formatted report was not due to the
fault of the employer.
(8) Missing and impossible Social Security numbers. When
a Social Security number is impossible or missing, the
department may waive penalties for incomplete reports only
once for each worker and only when:
(a) The report was incomplete because it included
impossible Social Security numbers, but the employer can show
that the impossible Social Security numbers were provided to
the employer by the employees; or
(b) The report was incomplete because of missing Social
Security numbers, but the employer can show that the employee
did not work for the employer after failing to provide a valid
Social Security card or application for Social Security number
within seven days of employment.
(9) Penalty waiver requests.
(a) An employer must request a waiver of penalties in
writing, include all relevant facts, attach available proof,
and file the request with a tax office. In all cases the
burden of proving the facts is on the employer.
(b) At its discretion, the department may waive penalties
on its own motion without requiring a request from the
employer if it finds that the penalty was caused by the
department's own error or for other good cause.
(10) Extensions. The department, for good cause, may
extend the due date for filing a report. If granted, the
employer must make a deposit with the department in an amount
equal to the estimated tax due for the reporting period or
periods. This deposit will be applied to the employer's debt.
The amount of the deposit must be approved by the department.