Puerto Rico requires employers to pay unemployment taxes on a quarterly basis using Form PR-UI-10/PR-SD-10. The form is due quarterly, by the end of the month following the close of a calendar year, and can be filed online using the Department of Labor’s Portal of Services to Employers. As the name implies, these payments fund unemployment benefits for workers who lose their jobs. The obligation is to pay the current rate for up to the first $7,000 in wages for each employee.
The process of paying Puerto Rico unemployment insurance for employers is simple enough, but you’ll need an updated base of employee data to do it efficiently. AMS can help with that, but first, here’s what you need to know about this nationwide tax.
PR Unemployment Insurance and Disability Taxes
For 2018 Puerto Rico’s unemployment-taxable wage base is $7,000, which is unchanged from 2017. The territory’s basic unemployment tax rates are determined with Schedule E and range from 2% to 2.2% for positive-rated employers and from 4.5% to 5.4% for negative-rated employers. The 2018 basic tax rate for new employers was 3.1% in 2018, down from 3.2% in 2017.
Unemployment Insurance for New Employers
If you’ve only just begun to register a business with Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Services, you might be wondering how this applies to you. As you likely noticed in the above section, the rate for new employers is lower than that of older employers. This has to do with the number of unemployment claims that have been filed against your company; as a new business, you aren’t likely to have many.
Registering as an employer is simple: You can do so through the Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Resources portal. Most prefer to register electronically, using the Department of Labor’s Portal of Service to Employers. You’ll need to have your tax withholding account information and identification number ready to go.
AMS is Great for Puerto Rico Unemployment Insurance for Employers
So, what does this all mean? When determining your liability, you will need to review each quarter’s total wages paid both in the current year and the preceding year. To do that, you’ll need information about payroll and withholding. This is what we can do.
AMS Payroll Software is an excellent tool for calculating, storing, and applying all relevant payroll information. The software automatically calculates local, state, and federal taxes, prints or distributes wages, and stores the information in a back-end database for easy quarterly and end-of-year reporting. When calculating Puerto Rico unemployment insurance for employers, this is the exact information you’ll need.
If you’re just beginning to register a business with Puerto Rico Department of Labor and Human Services, you might already be worried about Puerto Rico unemployment insurance for employers. If this is the case, we recommend setting up a payroll system as soon as possible. This will streamline your accounting, ensure your data is in one place, and serve as a strong indicator for how much you’ll need to pay in taxes.
If you want to know more about this product, we recommend browsing the software page or calling our Sales and Information team at 800-536-1099.