A new law adopted by the state legislature earlier this year requires all corporations to register their officers with the state Employment Security Department by Sept. 30.
All corporations in Washington state, including nonprofit organizations, must provide the following information for each officer, full name, title, Social Security number, home address, the date the person became a corporate officer, how much stock the officer owns and how the person is related to other officers who own more than 10 percent of the business.
Employment Security recently sent a reporting form and instructions to all corporations. Since then, the agency has received numerous calls from employers to verify that the request is not a hoax by a potential identity thief. Many of the callers also want to know why the information is being collected and whether the sensitive information will be protected from public disclosure.
The new law is intended to prevent unemployment fraud.
In most cases, business owners and corporate officers are not eligible for unemployment benefits, yet a study last year showed that many have received benefits anyway. The new registration requirement will help ensure that people don’t collect benefits if they are not eligible.
In addition, registration will help the department collect unpaid taxes if corporate officers deliberately try to evade their unemployment tax bills. Under previous law, other employers had to cover those costs.
