Texas employers will see an across-the-board drop in their Unemployment Insurance (UI) taxes in 2012, with the standard minimum tax falling from $70.20 per employee to $54.90, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) recently announced. According to TWC, 63.8% of experience-rated employers, some 246,374 businesses, currently pay the state minimum tax. The minimum tax rate is set at 0.61% for 2012, down from 0.78% in 2011.
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Get Your Report Now!The average rate for all employers is set at 1.96% for 2012, down from 2.03% in 2011, while the average rate for experience-rated employers is 1.87%, down from 1.96%. The maximum UI tax rate, paid by 6.2% of Texas employers, is 7.58%, down from 8.25% in 2011.
In setting 2012 tax rates, TWC said that it “sought to minimize the effects of any increases and exercise all the authority given to it by state law to hold the tax rates to the lowest and most predictable rates possible.” To keep taxes low, TWC suspended the deficit tax in 2011, a strategy supported by employer groups across the state. TWC has also recently increased work-search verifications and improved data sharing between agencies to prevent fraud and control costs. Texas’ minimum tax rate remains lower than those of other states, TWC said.