Every employing unit operating in Louisiana is required to complete and submit an Employer Application for LA Unemployment Account, (Status Report), LDOL-ES1web (PDF) for an official determination of liability or non-liability of its operations under the Louisiana Employment Security Law.
You must report part-time and temporary employees on your quarterly payroll. You should not report Distributive Education (DE) students who are hired and receive school credit while working during the school year. If they are retained for summer employment, then wages earned during the summer are to be reported.
Taxes are due no later than the last day of the month immediately following the end of each quarter. Late taxes are assessed additional penalty and interest.
EXAMPLE: For quarter ending March 31, taxes are due no later than April 30.
Each quarter, the Louisiana Department of Labor will mail you the necessary forms and instructions during the month following the end of the taxable quarter. However, the employer is responsible for obtaining the necessary forms if none are received in the mail. Those forms are available online as is an online filing option. Check out the online Quarterly UI Contributions Tax Preparations for more information.
EXAMPLE: For quarter ending March 31, the packet will be mailed no later than April and must be returned no later than April 30.
Contact the Employer Accounts Unit of LDOL at 225-342-2944. The necessary forms and instructions will then be mailed to you, or you may access them online by clicking on this link: Employer Application for LA Unemployment Account, (Status Report), LDOL-ES1web (PDF).
Quarterly charges are the sum of your percentage of the unemployment insurance benefits paid to your former employees by the Department of Labor. Each quarter you will receive a Quarterly Statement of Benefit Charges listing charges against your account.
EXAMPLE: If 50% of the money necessary for a claimant's eligibility were earned from you, you would be charged for 50% of the benefits paid to the claimant each quarter.
Each employer is assigned a tax rate, which is then a factor in computing your quarterly unemployment taxes. The tax rate is multiplied against your quarterly taxable payroll to obtain your quarterly tax liability.
For new employers, you will be assigned the average tax rate for the industry in which you are doing business. (Every business is assigned a North American Industry Classification System Code, or NAICS Code.)
After 24 months of potential liability (period during which quarterly charges could be applied against your account), rates are individually re-computed for each employer and, thereafter, on an annual basis.
Refer to the Unemployment Insurance Section of the Employer Handbook (PDF) for more information, or contact the UI Call Center @ 1-866-783-5567.
This page was last updated on July 19, 2007.