Last year, the fund paid out almost $2.6 billion to unemployed Oregonians, department spokesman Craig Spivey said. 

“We’re looking at about 26 states across the country (whose systems) are currently bankrupt or about to be bankrupt,” he said. 

California’s trust fund, for example, is $7 billion in debt, Spivey said. 

By contrast, “Oregon is one of the most solvent trust funds in the country,” he said. “We’re looked at as a model.” 

Back in the mid-1970s, the Oregon Legislature set up a “self-balancing” unemployment insurance trust fund, fueled by employer payroll taxes, Spivey said. 

Today, “our trust fund is sitting at a little over $1 billion,” he said. 

To keep the fund solvent, the state Employment Department notified employers in November that their payroll tax rates for 2010 would increase. 

Under Oregon law, the Employment Department uses a specific formula each August to figure out how much must be collected in the coming year to keep the fund sound. 

Oregon uses eight tax schedules to make annual adjustments in employer tax rates, based on how healthy the trust fund is. Each schedule has a range of tax rates, with employers with the most unemployment insurance claims paying the highest rate. 

This year, the state is using Tax Schedule 6. Oregon employers will be charged an average rate of 2.76 percent of the first $32,100 paid to each employee. Tax rates in Schedule 6 range from 1.8 percent to 5.4 percent, the department said. 

The tax rate for new employers is 3.1 percent, up from 2.4 percent, the department said. 

“The good news is we’ve been able to hold it (the increase) to Schedule 6 and not gone all the way up to Schedule 8. Our goal is to keep that solvency,” Spivey said. 

— Sherri Buri McDonald 

Don’t wait for a paper copy of your 2008 W-2. Instead, sign up to receive it electronically at getmytaxform.com/NAU/.

The last day to sign up is Jan. 9.

If you received your 2007 W-2 electronically, you do not need to re-register for your 2008 W-2 to be sent electronically. Your registration will remain in effect as long as you are employed with NAU.

Employees who receive their W-2’s electronically can:

• have their W-2 available online about a week sooner than mailed copies
• download the W-2 to a personal computer for access anytime
• print multiple copies as needed (for taxes, financial aid filing, loan applications, etc.)
• access their W-2 online all the way through Oct. 15
• import the W-2 into tax preparation software
• remove the risk of having their Social Security number on a paper copy in the mail
• help the university be a little more green

To register, log on to getmytaxform.com/NAU/. Choose the option “create an account” and follow the steps provided.

Use the same address to delete or modify this registration or if you do not remember your user ID or password.

For details visit hr.nau.edu/m/content/view/802/553.

• To obtain a reprint of your 2007 or 2008 Form W2, please call 1-800-360-1265 or register for electronic delivery by logging on to https://www.getmytaxform.com/lsbs and follow the steps.  
• You will need your date of birth and your social security number.  There is a $10.00 administrative fee for the 2008 reprint and a $12.00 fee for 2007.
• To obtain a reprint of your Form W2 for 2006 or prior years, please mail your request as follows:
  • Include a self addressed stamped envelope
  • Include on a spare sheet of paper your name, Social Security number, address for the restaurant(s) where you were employed.
  • Include a payment of $12.00, either in cash or money order made payable to LS Management, Inc.
  • Mail the above requirements to:
    LS Management, Inc.
    PO Box 9508
    Wichita, KS 67277

Jeffco Public School employees can now get their W2s quicker and easier by registering online.

CIC Plus has contracted with the district to provide W-2 statements to employees and offers a Web site to expedite the process.

The online procedure is secure and W-2s will be available a minimum of 3-7 days earlier than those mailed. No more waiting to get your form in the mail! Also, reprints are available if you register for the online service.

In order to receive a W-2 electronically, employees must register at https://www.getmytaxform.com/jeffcoschools/ and then follow the prompts. By Jan. 31, 2007, employees will receive an e-mail directing them back to the Web site to obtain a copy of their annual tax statement.

If an employee registers to receive a W-2 electronically, no tax form will be mailed to them. Additional information will be sent to employees and schools.

However, that tax credit may end up costing you more on your tax return.

United Way Financial Stabilization Partnership Coordinator, Amy Davis, says it’s a mistake that wasn’t foreseen.

“Now that it’s coming around the end of the year. Tax season is just around the corner and Christmas. Everyone’s worried about finances and stuff like that. It’s coming to the forefront that this could be an issue with some families, ” says Davis.

Those who will be affected include: people who have more than one job, young people who work but are claimed as dependents by their parents, people who receive social security but earn taxed wages, and married couples where both spouses work.

Davis says there may not be much you can do now to change the amount you will owe come tax time.

“There’s not a lot of time left because credit goes through the end of the year, I believe. You can talk with you HR department at work and see if you can change your withholdings. Have them withhold a little but more so you won’t owe so much at tax time, ” says Davis.

You can also visit the website irs.gov and utilize its withholding calculator function.

Orszag, who heads the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, said in a conference call with reporters that the 36 percent rise in improper payments was due to “stricter methodology” used to identify erroneous disbursements and to the growth in federal spending during the past year.

President Barack Obama will soon sign an executive order, Orszag said, intended to reduce mistaken payments, including subjecting federal contractors to sanctions such as fines or contract suspensions if they fail to disclose significant overpayments in a timely fashion.

Most contractors are now only required to reimburse the government for any overpayments that auditors find erroneous, Orszag said. In cases of suspected fraud, contractors can be criminally prosecuted.

“We need to protect taxpayer dollars because every dollar that goes to the wrong recipient or in the wrong amount is a dollar that is not available to help an unemployed worker or invest in education or other key priorities the administration has,” Orszag said.

As the reported improper payments rose 36 percent in the fiscal year that ended on Sept. 30, federal spending rose 18 percent, to $3.522 trillion, in the same period, according to the Treasury Department. That was up from $2.978 trillion in fiscal 2008, according to the department’s final fiscal-year report released in October.

Medicare Monitoring

Orszag, 40, cited more aggressive Medicare monitoring procedures as an example of stricter methods detecting erroneous payments. He said auditors now verify a patient’s need for a wheelchair with the prescribing doctor rather than with the supplier who sold the wheelchair. Payments made on the basis of an illegible doctor’s signature are also considered erroneous.

At least $54.2 billion in erroneous payments — more than half the total — were made by Medicare or Medicaid, according to data released by the OMB.

The executive order will require each federal agency to report their rate of erroneous payments on a Web site, Orszag said. Under a 2002 law, federal agencies are required to identify the programs that are susceptible to improper payments and audit a sample of disbursements.

The program with the highest rate of erroneous payments identified by OMB was the Earned Income Tax Credit, a benefit available to low-income families with a working parent. The program’s erroneous payment rate was 25.5 percent, according to a chart released by OMB.

Orszag said that in many cases the erroneous EITC payments may not be the result of intentional abuse.

“Many of the reported errors come from the complexity of the relationships and the rules that apply to the EITC, simply whether a child is with you all of the year, part of the year, 6 months,” Orszag said. “What many people would view as trivial or innocent mistakes are counted in the error rate.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Dorning in Washington at mdorning@bloomberg.net.

Uncle Sam has implemented a wide array of programs to support the domestic housing market. These programs include:

1. Mortgage modifications.

2. Massive funding support for Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and the Federal Housing Administration.

3. Increasing the loan limits on mortgages eligible for purchase by Freddie and Fannie in certain regions of the country.

4. Capital injections into a number of large banks and mortgage originators via the TARP.

5. An $8k tax credit for new home purchases.

Of all of these programs, most analysts believe the tax credit has had the largest positive impact. Why has that happened? In my opinion, the tax credit directly impacts the buyer while the other programs are an attempt to support housing but are as much or more supportive of the financial organizations than the homebuyers.

That said, all of these programs are funded by Uncle Sam and at some point in time even a socialized housing program needs to operate within the confines of a budget or limits.

To that end, the primary reason for today’s selloff in the equity markets is a story circulating from International Strategy and Investment. Who is ISI?

ISI consists of two parts: ISI Group Inc., a registered broker-dealer, and ISI Inc., a registered investment advisor. ISI is engaged in investment research, sales, trading and portfolio management with offices in New York, Washington DC, Alabama and Beijing.

What did ISI have to say about the housing tax credit? Bloomberg reports, Housing Credit Will Likely Be Phased Out, ISI Says,

The U.S. Congress will probably phase out the tax credit for first-time home buyers, according to a note sent by ISI Group Inc.’s Washington research analysts.

“There could be an agreement reached as early today on the Reid/Baucus amendment that would PHASE OUT (not extend, as we originally understood when the idea was first proposed last week) the home buyer tax credit,” ISI analysts said in the note. “The phase out is worse than a straight extension and probably worse for housing than the consensus.”

I have been supportive of providing a tax credit to support our housing market. However, tax credits can not go on for perpetuity. If that were the case, they are not a credit they are a subsidy. As such, the subsidy skews the long term health and well being of a properly functioning market.

While the equity markets have had approximately a 2% retracement today and may retreat further without the tax credit to support housing, I actually view a discontinuation of the credit as a positive. Why? Let the market work. Let homebuyers purchase homes which they can truly afford without the assistance of Uncle Sam. Let the local housing markets find levels where buyers and sellers will naturally transact without the presence or influence of Uncle Sam.

It’s called capitalism.