The NJ Department of Labor is advising residents who received unemployment benefits to expect to receive their 1099 G in male or electronically via email within the next couple of days.
Department of Labor officials said if they have your email address on file, you will receive your 1099-G for the 2020 tax year via email by January 31.
The NJ Department of Labor explained and advised residents that New Jersey's state does not tax Unemployment Insurance benefits. They are subject to federal income taxes.
The states labor department has released the following information to assist residents who received unemployment benefits in 2020 with navigating the tax season and if they shall remain unemployed in 2021:
To help offset your future tax liability, you may voluntarily choose to have 10 percent of your weekly Unemployment Insurance benefits withheld and sent to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
You can opt to have federal income tax withheld when you first apply for benefits. You can also select or change your withholding status at any time by writing to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Unemployment Insurance, PO Box 908, Trenton, NJ 08625-0908. Click here for the "Request for Change in Withholding Status" form.
After each calendar year during which you get Unemployment Insurance benefits, we will provide you with a 1099-G form that shows the number of benefits you received and taxes withheld. This information is also sent to the IRS.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR TAX YEAR 2020:
- If you received Unemployment Insurance, Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), or Extended Benefits (EB), you might have chosen to withhold 10% of your benefits for tax purposes. Depending on your tax bracket, you could owe additional taxes and are responsible for declaring the income.
- The option to withhold taxes was not available for the supplemental $600 Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) or $300 FEMA Lost Wages Assistance payments. You are responsible for paying any required federal taxes on any unemployment compensation payments you received in 2020, including these new COVID-19 related programs, in 2020.
- For example: If you received 35 weeks of the maximum benefits ($713 x 35) in 2020, plus FPUC (17 weeks x $600), plus FEMA/LWA (6 weeks x $300), your Form 1099-G will show the sum of all of these payments ($36,955) if you did not choose to have federal taxes withheld from the UI benefits.
- If you were overpaid benefits, your 1099-G would still reflect, per federal law, the number of funds paid to you, regardless of any funds you have returned. Please refer to the section titled “Repayments” in the IRS Publication 525 Taxable and Nontaxable Income for guidance on how to report overpayments/returned funds.
- Please note that your 1099-G reflects the total amount paid to you in 2020, regardless of the week that payment represents. Meaning, if you were paid in 2020 for weeks of unemployment benefits from 2019, those will appear on your 1099-G for 2020. Similarly, if you were paid for 2020 weeks in 2021, those will not be on your 1099-G for 2020 – they will appear on your 1099-G for 2021.
- If we have your email address on file, we have sent you via email the information for your 1099-G for 2020.
- 1099-G information will also be available from the Check Claim Status tool no later than January 30. It will not be available in your unemployment dashboard.
INFORMATION CREDIT: NJ Department of Labor