WAC 192-300-220   What unemployment taxes apply to professional employer organizations and client employers?  (1) Effective January 1, 2008, each professional employer organization and each client employer shall be assigned an individual tax rate based on its own experience.

     (2)(a) This subsection applies to professional employer organizations and client employers which have a coemployment relationship as of January 1, 2008.

     (b) Except as provided in (d) and (e) of this subsection, the tax rate for professional employer organizations and client employers shall be determined on the basis that the client employer transferred from the professional employer organization effective January 1, 2008. A client employer's proportionate experience (benefits charged and taxable payroll) for the entire first quarter beginning January 1, 2008, shall transfer to the client employer. On or after January 1, 2008, experience shall transfer to a client employer regardless of whether the professional employer organization was the base year employer prior to that date.

     (c) The client employer's tax rate shall remain unchanged for the remainder of the rate year in which the transfer occurred.

     (d) Client employers that are qualified employers under RCW 50.29.010 or are delinquent under RCW 50.29.025 (2)(c)(i) and that joined a professional employment organization after the computation date of July 1, 2007, shall be assigned their own tax rate for 2008 as if they had not joined the professional employer organization. Any experience from July 1, 2007, to December 31, 2007, assigned to the professional employer organization for those client employers shall transfer to the client employer for purposes of setting future rates.

     (e) If an employer is registered with the department and has its own tax rate, but is also a client employer for purposes of some of its employees, it shall keep its own tax rate for 2008 and that rate shall apply to all its employees. Any employees of a client employer that is in a coemployment relationship with a professional employer organization shall be considered a branch account under the registered employer.

     (f) Beginning on January 1 of the year after the transfer, the client employer's tax rate for each rate year shall be based on a combination of:

     (i) The client employer's experience with payrolls and benefits; and

     (ii) The experience assigned to the professional employer organization which is attributable to the client employer, based on the percentage of employees transferred as of January 1, 2008, regardless of the date the client employer joined the professional employer organization.

     (g)(i) The professional employer organization's tax rate on any payroll retained by the professional employer organization shall remain unchanged for the remainder of the year in which the transfer occurs.

     (ii) Beginning on January 1 of the year after the transfer, the professional employer organization's tax rate for each rate year shall be based on its experience with payrolls and benefits as of the regular computation date for that rate year excluding the experience that has been attributed to client employers.



[Statutory Authority: RCW 50.12.010 and 50.12.040. 07-23-130, § 192-300-220, filed 11/21/07, effective 1/1/08.]