GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA
SESSION 2001

HOUSE BILL 344
RATIFIED BILL

AN ACT RELATING TO THE ANNUAL FILING OF WAGE REPORTS BY DOMESTIC SERVICE EMPLOYErs and to the late filing and payment penalties under the employment security laws of North carolina.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 96‑9 (a)(8) reads as rewritten:
"(8)	An employer of domestic service employees as defined by the Internal Revenue Code may be given permission by the Chair of the Commission to file reports once a year on or before the last day of the month following the close of the calendar year in which the wages are paid. Permission to file a report annually may be revoked if the employer is found liable to the Commission for quarterly contributions under subdivision (6) of this subsection.
		"
SECTION 2.  G.S. 96-10(a) reads as rewritten:
"(a)	Interest on Past-Due Contributions. – Contributions unpaid on the date on which they are due and payable, as prescribed by the Commission, shall bear interest at the rate set under G.S. 105-241.1(i) per month from and after that date until payment plus accrued interest is received by the Commission. An additional penalty in the amount of ten percent (10%) of the taxes due shall be added.  Penalties and interest collected pursuant to this subsection shall be paid into the Special Employment Security Administration Fund. If any employer, in good faith, pays contributions to another state or to the United States under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act, prior to a determination of liability by this Commission, and the contributions were legally payable to this State, the contributions, when paid to this State, shall be deemed to have been paid by the due date under the law of this State if they were paid by the due date of the other state or the United States."
SECTION 3.  G.S. 96-10(g) reads as rewritten:
"(g)	Upon the motion of the Commission, any employer refusing to submit any report required under this Chapter, after 10 days' written notice sent by the Commission by registered or certified mail to the employer's last known address, may be enjoined by any court of competent jurisdiction from hiring and continuing in employment any employees until such report is properly submitted. When an execution has been returned to the Commission unsatisfied, and the employer, after 10 days' written notice sent by the Commission by registered mail to the employer's last known address, refuses to pay the contributions covered by the execution, such employer shall upon the motion of the Commission be enjoined by any court of competent jurisdiction from hiring and continuing in employment any employees until such contributions have been paid.
An employer who fails to file a report within the required time shall be assessed a late filing penalty of five percent (5%) of the amount of contributions due with the report for each month or fraction of a month the failure continues. The penalty may not exceed twenty-five percent (25%) of the amount of contributions due.  An employer who fails to file a report within the required time but owes no contributions shall not be assessed a penalty unless the employer's failure to file continues for more than 30 days."
SECTION 4.  Sections 2 and 3 of this act become effective when they become law and apply to penalties assessed for reports and contributions due for quarters beginning on or after April 1, 2001. The remainder of this act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 5th day of June, 2001.

	_____________________________________
		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 President of the Senate

	_____________________________________
		 James B. Black
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Michael F. Easley
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2001