Carleson v. Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd

Carleson v. Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd. (1976) 64 Cal.App.3d g145, discussed the distinction between a tax rate employer and a reimbursement employer. Tax rate employers must pay a federal unemployment tax, must pay unemployment contributions into the unemployment fund, and must contribute additional amounts against a balancing account. (Id., at p. 152.) A separate reserve account is maintained for each tax rate employer to which are credited all the contributions of the employer and to which are charged benefits paid to an unemployed individual. When benefits paid out are subsequently held to have been paid erroneously, the code is explicit that the tax rate employer's account is not to be charged with those amounts. ( 1335, 1338; Carleson v. Unemployment Ins. Appeals Bd., supra, 64 Cal.App.3d at pp. 153, 155.) In Carleson the court distinguished between "anticipated overpayments" which included payments pending appeal of erroneous determinations of eligibility, as in the instant case, and "error overpayments" which included computational errors exceeding the maximum benefits allowable. The Carleson court held that although a reimbursement employer was liable to reimburse the unemployment fund for "anticipated overpayments," such employer was not liable for "error overpayments" of the Employment Development Department. The Legislature subsequently amended sections 803, subdivision (c), and 821, subdivision (b), to provide explicitly that the employer be liable for the cost of either type of error. (See fn. 4, ante.) The Legislature, obviously aware of Carleson, reenacted and strengthened the language requiring reimbursement.