Recalculation of Calendar Year 2024 Tax Rates

Due to an administrative reinterpretation of Labor & Employment Article § 8-606(d), the Maryland Division of Unemployment Insurance has recalculated the Annual Tax Rate for Calendar Year 2024 for all earned and standard rate employers. As in calendar years 2022 and 2023, the Division of Unemployment Insurance has compared two different methods of computing the tax rate (one based on pre-pandemic experience and one based on immediate past years’ experience) and assigned the lower of the two rates to each earned and standard rate employer. 

The vast majority of employers are not affected by this recalculation. No employer should see a rate increase by this recalculation. All employers’ rates are either unchanged or lowered from the rate provided in the original 2024 Tax Rate Notice sent in January. (New employers do not have the necessary years of history to use the alternate computation method as they do not have pre-pandemic experience.) 

If you are an employer affected by the recalculation, your new UI tax rate will appear in your BEACON employer portal Wednesday, March 27th. All employers will receive a new 2024 Rate Notice in their BEACON portal by Monday, April 1, and notice of the correspondence will be sent to each employer in accordance with their preferred method of communication (texts and emails alerting employers of the correspondence will be sent when the correspondence is available on the BEACON portal, while hard copy letters will be mailed Monday, April 1). The correspondence will explain the recalculation and provide other information, including the right to dispute or appeal the rate. 

If you have already paid your contributions for Quarter 1 of 2024 and your rate was lowered by the recalculation, you will receive a credit for the difference that can be used towards a future payment. The correspondence will provide further details about how to request a refund instead of receiving credit for future payment. 

More information about this recalculation is available on the Recalculation of Calendar Year 2024 Tax Rates FAQs webpage.

Click HERE for more information.