Unemployment Insurance (UI) Benefit Charges are charges against an employer’s account that represent unemployment benefit payments made to former employees of that employer.
These charges are used to track an employer’s history with unemployment benefits and to help compute the employer’s UI tax rate. The following categories can assist employers with understanding this process.
Understanding Benefit Charges
When UI benefits are paid out to an individual, they are charged to the accounts of the business(es) that employed the individual during their base period (which covers the first four quarters out of the of the last five prior to when the initial UI claim is filed). The diagram below shows how to determine the base period.
When benefits are paid out to an individual, the most recent employer’s UI tax account gets charged first and then continues until wage credits are used up. This means that the last employer tied to the individual (within the base period) is generally charged first, until their wage credits are exhausted., After that, benefits charges go to the next most recent employer, and so on.
For more details, see the Unemployment Insurance Benefits Handbook.
Any time that a UI claim for benefits is filed, employers are notified of potential charges against their UI tax account and are given the right to protest the claim.
Within 40 days after each calendar quarter, Iowa Workforce Development (IWD) sends notices to each contributory employer that summarizes the UI benefits charged to their UI tax accounts, otherwise known as the Statement of Charges (Form 65-5307). Employers are given 30 days from the mailing date on the Statement of Charges to file an appeal of any charges.
If you wish to appeal a charge listed against you on your employer UI account, you now can do so through your employer IowaWORKS (iowaworks.gov) account under the Employer’s Charges tab.
Some grounds for appealing charges in the Statement of Charges form include but are not limited to:
- If this statement is the first notification you’ve received that a UI claim was filed.
- If you’ve received a previous decision stating that your account will not be charged. (It is not grounds for appealing a Statement of Charges if you’ve received a previous decision allowing the payment of benefits.)
- If there is another appeal pending that is related to the charges on the statement.
- If the UI benefit charges are not otherwise valid or correct.
UI Benefit Charges to an Employer’s UI tax account between July 1 and June 30th are used in the computation of the rate for the following calendar year – even if the charges have been reversed after July 1. For example: for 2026 tax rate computation, July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, will be the four quarters added to the computation in addition to the previous 16 quarters.
To have UI benefit charges removed from computation of your UI tax rate, an employer must file a timely appeal of any UI Tax rate notice that includes the questioned charges. This is the only way to prevent the rate from becoming final.
This is a separate appeal and must be submitted in writing to the UI Tax Bureau. Tax Rate appeal is not reported through the employer IowaWorks account.
For more information refer to Information on Rate Computations for Private Employers.
For questions regarding the Statement of Charges, please contact IWD using one of the following methods:
Via Phone: 888-848-7442 (Select Language, Employer, Option 6 for Chargebacks)
Via email:
If the last two digits of the Iowa UI tax account number are:
- 01 through 50, email: Benefit.Charges1@iwd.iowa.gov
- 51 through 00, email: Benefit.Charges2@iwd.iowa.gov
Correspondence may also be mailed to IWD at the following address:
- Iowa Workforce Development
- Chargeback Unit
- 1000 E Grand Ave
- Des Moines, IA 50319-0209
- Fax: 515-242-5247