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Less paper equals more cash for employers

1/25/2011

11-007

Media contact: Jamie Swift, communications manager, 360-902-0904

OLYMPIA – Electronic tax filing is saving thousands of dollars for employers and the Employment Security Department. Since 2008, the number of paper filers has been cut in half as more employers move to e-filing. About 15 percent of employers, or about 30,000, still file the old-fashioned way – by paper. 

Because e-filing prevents many reporting errors, penalties for errors are down more than 20 percent from two years ago.

Employment Security also benefits, as e-filers saved Employment Security an estimated $650,000 dollars in printing and postage costs in 2010. 

“Our e-filing programs have really improved and employers are getting more savvy about using online filing tools,” said Employment Security Commissioner Paul Trause. “Electronic filing is more efficient for employers and for us as a government agency.”

Employment Security’s most-commonly used electronic filing program allows department tax specialists to log in and assist employers in filling out their tax forms, helps employers avoid filing errors and maintains historical filing information so it doesn’t have to be re-entered every quarter. 

Of those businesses still filing by paper, about 94 percent are small businesses with 10 or fewer employees. The construction industry has the highest number of employers still filing by paper -- more than 5,000 construction companies, or about 17 percent of the industry.

Employers that want to make the switch can find more information online at www.esd.wa.gov.

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Broadcast version 

Electronic tax filing is saving money for employers and the Employment Security Department. 

Employers that file their taxes electronically saved Employment Security an estimated six-hundred-and-fifty-thousand dollars in printing and postage costs in 2010.

Also, penalties for filing errors are down more than 20 percent as more employers choose to e-file.

The number of paper filers has decreased by nearly half in the past two years, from more than twenty-seven percent in 2008, to about fifteen percent today. 

Employers that want to make the switch can find more information online at www.esd.wa.gov.

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