Industry News
Washington State plans aggressive campaign against UI cheaters
February 14, 2006
The Washington State Employment Security Department (WESD), long at the forefront of the country’s effort to combat fraud, has proposed an ambitious legislative agenda for 2006. WESD has submitted two bills and a $1.8 million supplemental budget request with the goal of significantly improving its ability to prevent, detect and punish employers who don’t pay their taxes and individuals who claim benefits not owed to them.
The first proposal addresses the state’s need to crack down on businesses that engage in SUTA dumping and to develop better procedures for detecting illegal tax-evasion schemes. The second proposal seeks to eliminate penalty inequities for employers by establishing a fixed penalty rate. WESD plans to invest the $1.8 million in additional staff who will implement new technology-based fraud-detection tools and investigate the additional cases; perform audits on employers who don’t properly file the required reports and taxes; and identify, audit and collect from SUTA dumping violators. WESD anticipates that these proposals will lead to the collection of an estimated $14.2 million in overpayments, taxes and penalties the first year.