Nebraska Employers To Pay Estimated $11.4 Million Less In Taxes In 2020

LINCOLN-(KFOR Feb. 5)-Governor Pete Ricketts and the Nebraska Department of Labor announced Wednesday $11.4 million in new tax relief thanks to a reduction in the unemployment insurance tax rate.

Nebraska employers will pay an estimated $11.4 million less in taxes in 2020 than they paid in 2019. Of this projected tax relief, $6.2 million resulted from the Commissioner of Labor exercising his discretionary authority.

Nebraska’s average unemployment insurance tax rate for employers in 2020 is 0.55 percent, a decrease of .15 percentage points from 2019. The State of Nebraska has now delivered $138.4 million in cumulative unemployment insurance tax relief from 2016 to 2020, relative to the taxes that would have been collected in those years had 2015 tax burdens remained constant.

Governor Ricketts credits Nebraska’s reemployment program, launched in October 2015, for supporting the latest decrease. The 2019 fiscal year decline in benefits paid is the largest year-over-year decrease since the 2016 drop when the program was implemented.

Unemployment insurance benefits are paid from the Trust Fund to workers separated from covered employment who meet eligibility requirements. Nebraska’s average unemployment insurance tax rate is based on the revenue target for the Trust Fund, which is used to pay benefits; the state’s total taxable wages; and the amount of unemployment benefits paid in the previous fiscal year.

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