JULY 5, 2023 – If you have seen the news, you know that Florida now requires employers with 25 or more employees to verify each new employee’s employment eligibility within three business days after the first day that the new employee begins working.
In addition, Florida now requires a Certification Process. Each employer with 25 or more employees, must certify on its first reemployment tax return filed each calendar year that it used E-Verify or the I-9 to confirm employment eligibility of each new employee. This is great news as we originally understood the certification was needed every quarter.
Certification must be completed by (1) the individual owner, (2) the corporate president, treasurer, or other principal officer, or (3) a partner or member/managing member. The certification statement should be signed and dated if the employer uses E-Verify at the time of certification. If you use a payroll service, like PayMaster, we are not able to file the certification on your behalf, as we do not fit into one of those three roles. We will still continue to file your RT-6 each quarter.
Certifying use of the E-Verify system must be made on paper or online:
- The new RT-E form, which can be found here and mailed to the state. The form is one page and simply wants the company name, Federal Employer Identification Number, and the name, title signature, and date of the authorized person. Completing and filing this form should not take more than 5 minutes, once a year, so it does not appear to be burdensome.
- Registration to certify can also be done online. Registration should first be performed here. Registration took just a few minutes and I even performed my certification for this year, which took less than 60 seconds.
Filing is due by no later than the last day of the month following the quarter in which the first reemployment tax return is due in the calendar year.
All in all, it is not as burdensome as I had thought and the biggest problem is simply remembering to do it. For most businesses, the first filing of the year will be the first quarter, so we will include a reminder in our April newsletter each year.
For a refresher on the new Florida E-Verify law, read our blog post at https://blog.paymaster.com/e-verify-florida-edition/
