We compute a statewide required income each year by adding the estimated level of benefit to be paid out in the upcoming calendar year and the amount of income required to repay outstanding federal loans within five years. This level of required revenue is then used to set the base tax rates for classes 1 through 20.
The required income is divided by the projected level of taxable wages for the upcoming calendar year. This number represents the average tax rate that would need to be in effect on all employers to generate the required level of income.
To set the tax rate for employers in tax class 20, this average tax rate is multiplied by 20 and divided by the sum of the experience factors. The experience factors are established in state law 41-31-50, where the experience factor for rate class 20 is 1.00; the factor for class 19 is 0.900; the factor for class 18 is 0.810, etc (Note: Experience factors may be weighted if the percent of taxable wages falling into tax class 1 is greater than 5%).
The remaining tax rates are set in accordance with 41-31-50 where tax rate 19 is 90% of tax rate 20; tax rate 18 is 90% of tax rate 19; etc.
Each employer is also assessed a 0.06% Departmental Administrative Contingency Assessment as well as an interest surcharge. The interest surcharges for the tax classes are set by dividing the estimated interest income required by the projected taxable wages for the upcoming year, the statewide average interest surcharge.
The interest surcharge for tax class 20 is determined by multiplying the statewide average interest surcharge by 20 and dividing by the sum of the experience factors as established in state law 41-31-55 (Note: Experience factors may be weighted if the percent of taxable wages falling into tax class 1 is greater than 5%). The remaining interest surcharges are set in accordance with 41-31-55 where interest surcharge for class 19 is 90% of the surcharge for class 20, etc.
The tax rate associated with the benefits and loan repayments is added to the interest surcharge and the 0.06% contingency assessment to determine the final effective tax rate for each class. A complete list of the tax rates can be found in the CY2011 contribution table.