UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE AGENCY MAKES JOBLESS BENEFIT STATEMENTS AVAILABLE ONLINE

Contact: Melanie Brown 313-46-2939

Agency: Licensing and Regulatory Affairs

JANUARY 24, 2011 - With tax season approaching, the state of Michigan has begun making available year-end tax statements to anyone who has received unemployment benefits in 2010.

"Those who have established free online web accounts with the agency will be able to view and print out their 1099 statement from our website at www.michigan.gov/uia," Stephen Geskey, director of Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) said.

UIA is making the 1099 statements available online starting February 1.

UIA has made it easy to create an online account and offers an online video showing unemployed workers how to establish their own personal web account with the agency.

"Individuals can go to our website, click on ‘webcasts,' then click on ‘unemployed workers' and, finally, select the webcast - ‘Claim Portal - Online Services for Unemployed Workers,'" Geskey explained.

"UIA has also begun to mail more than 825,000 1099-G forms to those who drew any unemployment benefits last year," Geskey said.

"Unemployment benefits are taxable, and those who received benefits will need these statements to prepare their 2010 state and federal tax returns," Stephen Geskey, director of Michigan's Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA), explained.

The statements, called 1099-G or "Certain Government Payments," are prepared by UIA and report how much individuals received in unemployment benefits last year.

They also detail how much in state and federal income taxes were deducted from a person's unemployment benefits, if the individual chose to have the taxes withheld.

A common question about the 1099-G statement concerns the amount of compensation it reports.

"The statement's total compensation figure includes the amount of benefits paid, even though these payments may have later been offset by restitution paid back by the individual, or by court ordered deductions such as Friend of the Court payments," Geskey explained. "Because of these required deductions, jobless workers may have actually received less than what is reported on the 1099-G. We advise those with these types of deductions to consult with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to learn how these deductions affect their taxes and for instructions about reporting them."

Geskey pointed out that the agency also sends the 1099-G information to the IRS and the Michigan Department of Treasury.

For more information about LARA, please visit www.michigan.gov/lara. Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/michiganLARA, "Like" us on Facebook or find us on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/michiganLARA