What Payments to Report

This page contains information on what payments to an employee are reportable for Missouri unemployment tax. Choose a category to go directly to your area of interest, or scroll down to see the entire text.

• Wages in General
  • Meals
  • Special Rule for Agricultural and Domestic Employees for In-Kind Wages
• Specific Wage Categories
  • Cafeteria Plans
  • Health Plans and Medical Payments
  • Retirement Plans
  • Taxable Wage Limit

Wages in General

Reportable wages include gross cash payments plus the reasonable cash value of any goods or services which the employee receives for work performed in lieu of money (meals receive special treatment). Bonuses, commissions, vacation pay, holiday pay and termination pay are wages. Tips received from persons other than the employing unit are wages to the extent required to be reported under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act. No payroll deductions are excluded from wage amounts reportable.

Meals

Meals are not reportable as wages if they are provided by the employer to the worker for the employer's convenience and on the employer's premise, unless they are required to be reported under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, 26 U.S.C., Section 3306. Meals are not reportable for agricultural and domestic employees.

Special Rule for Agricultural and Domestic In-Kind Payments

The value of considerations other than cash are not reportable for domestic and agricultural employees. For instance, if a domestic employee receives room, board and $1,000.00 per month cash as payment for services, only the cash payments are reportable as wages.

Specific Wage Categories

Cafeteria Plans

A cafeteria plan is a voluntary plan which gives an employee the choice of converting part of his or her wages into benefits which are free from income tax. Payments to cafeteria plans come from employee and employer contributions.

Contributions to a cafeteria plan paid by an employee and/or employer for qualified benefits are not reportable if such payment would not be wages for Federal Unemployment Tax. These qualified benefits can be payments to an accident and health plan, group term life insurance premiums and dependent care assistance benefits up to the limits set by the Federal Unemployment Tax Act.

Health Plans and Medical Payments

The Missouri Employment Security Law exempts from wages payments made by an employer to or on behalf of a worker for medical or hospitalization expense or death, including payments made into a fund, annuity, or for insurance for these purposes, provided such payments are made under a plan that applies to all workers or a class of workers. Payments made to an employee for income replacement due to sickness or disability would be wages unless made under a workers' compensation law. In the case of such payments, if the third party which made the payments to the employee makes an accounting to the employer, the employer must report the amounts. Otherwise, the third party must report the amounts.

The law further exempts from wages any payments on account of sickness, accident, disability, or medical or hospitalization expenses that are made by an employer to or on behalf of an individual after the expiration of six calendar months following the month an individual last worked, regardless if such payments were made under a plan or a workers' compensation law.

Retirement Plans

Employee Payments to a Plan

Employee payments (salary deductions, for instance) to any retirement plan are reportable as wages.

Employer Payments to a Plan

Whether employer payments to a retirement plan are reportable depends on whether or not the retirement plan is a qualified plan. Employer contributions to a qualified plan are not reportable as wages. Employer contributions to a non-qualified plan are reportable as wages.

Qualified Retirement Plans
A qualified retirement plan is a written plan which an employer has established for the exclusive benefit of his or her employees and their beneficiaries.

The Internal Revenue Service can issue a determination or an opinion letter regarding a plan's qualifications, for which they charge a fee. An employer may adopt a master or prototype plan instead of setting up their own original plan.

Examples of plans which may be qualified plans:

• 401-K plan
• An IRS-approved profit sharing or stock bonus plan for a grade or class of workers
• Deferred compensation plan
• Money purchase pension plan
• Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plan
• Keogh or HR-10 plan

Taxable Wage Limit

There is a limit on the amount of wages paid to an individual worker in a calendar year on which each employer must pay a tax. This limit is known as the taxable wage limit or taxable wage base. See the table of taxable wage bases for prior years and an example calculation of excess wages.

No tax is required on that part of wages paid to a worker by an employer or its predecessor during a calendar year which exceeds the taxable wage limitations for such year. However, all wages must be reported for benefit purposes.

*Beginning with calendar year 2005 through calendar year 2009, the taxable wage base is set by state statute.

After 2009, the taxable wage base can be increased by $1,000 or decreased by $500 for any year, depending on the average balance of the Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund of the four preceding calendar quarters. In no event shall the state taxable wage base increase beyond thirteen thousand dollars, or decrease to less than seven thousand dollars.