New Mexico Administrative Code › Title 11 - LABOR AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION › Chapter 3 - EMPLOYMENT SECURITY › Part 400 - TAX ADMINISTRATION › Section 11.3.400.7 - DEFINITIONS

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 13, July 16, 2024
A. "Account" means
				the employer account, identified by an account number, established and
				maintained by each employer, or employer member of a group account, for the
				purpose of determining liability for contributions or payments in lieu of
				contributions and includes a record of all unemployment insurance activity
				including benefit charge allocations, contributions and wages from which
				benefits to eligible claimants can be determined.
B. "Agency" means any officer, board,
				commission, or other authority charged with the administration of the
				unemployment compensation law of a participating jurisdiction.
C. "Alternate base period" means the last
				four completed quarters immediately preceding the first day of the claimant's
				benefit year.
D. "Annual payroll"
				means the total taxable amount of payment from an employer for employment
				during a 12-month period ending on a computation date.
E. "Base period" means the first four of the
				last five completed quarters as provided in Subsection A of Section
				51-1-42
				NMSA 1978 or the alternate base period.
F. "Base-period employers " means the
				employer of an individual during the individual's base period.
G. "Base-period wages" means the wages of an
				individual for insured work during the individual's base period on the basis of
				which the individual's benefit rights were determined.
H. "Benefit charges" means the dollar amounts
				allocated or accrued to an employer's account for unemployment benefits paid to
				individuals.
I. "Benefit payments
				used to calculate the average benefit cost rate" means all unemployment
				compensation benefits and state extended benefits paid from the trust fund to
				claimants with wages from non-reimbursable covered employment.
J. "Benefit ratio" means the result
				determined by dividing an employer's benefit charges by the employer's taxable
				payroll.
K. "Common ownership"
				means that two or more businesses are substantially owned, managed or
				controlled by the same person or persons.
L. "Computation date" means for each calendar
				year the close of business on June 30 of the preceding calendar year.
M. "Contributions" means the tax payments
				required by Section
				51-1-9
				NMSA 1978 to be made into the fund by an employer on account of having
				individuals performing services for the employer.
N. "Contribution rate" means the rate
				applicable to the tax payments the employer is required to pay into the
				fund.
O. "Employer's reserve" means
				the difference between all of the employer's previous years' contribution
				payments and all of the employer's previous years' benefit charges, divided by
				the average of the employer's annual payrolls for the immediately preceding
				fiscal years, up to a maximum of three fiscal years.
P. "Employing enterprise" means a business
				activity engaged in by an employing unit in which one or more persons have been
				employed within the current or the three preceding calendar quarters.
Q. "Employment" means services performed by
				an individual including corporate officers for wages or other payment for an
				employer that has the right, whether utilized or not, to control or direct the
				individual in the performance of the services at the employer's place of
				business which includes all locations where services are performed for the
				employer under the individual's contract of service and the individual is not
				customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation,
				profession or business of the same nature as that involved in the contract of
				services.
R. "Excess claims
				premium" means the charge in addition to the contribution rate applicable to
				the employer if an employer's contribution rate is calculated to be greater
				than five and four-tenths percent, provided that an employer's excess claims
				premium shall not exceed one percent of the employer's annual
				payroll.
S. "Experience history
				factor" means the determination based on the employer's reserve which is the
				difference between all of the employer's previous years' contribution payments
				and all of the employer's previous years' benefit charges, divided by the
				average of the employer's annual payrolls for the immediately preceding fiscal
				years, to a maximum of three fiscal years.
T. "Good cause" means a substantial reason,
				one that affords a legal excuse, or a legally sufficient ground or reason. In
				determining whether good cause has been shown for permitting an untimely action
				or excusing the failure to act as required, the department may consider any
				relevant factors including, but not limited to, whether the party acted in the
				manner that a reasonably prudent individual would have acted under the same or
				similar circumstances, whether the party received timely notice of the need to
				act, whether there was administrative error by the department, whether there
				were factors outside the control of the party that prevented a timely action,
				the efforts made by the party to seek an extension of time by promptly
				notifying the department, the party's physical inability to take timely action,
				the length of time the action was untimely, and whether any other interested
				party has been prejudiced by the untimely action. However, good cause cannot be
				established to accept or permit an untimely action or to excuse the failure to
				act, as required, that was caused by the claimant's, failure to keep the
				department directly and promptly informed of the claimant's correct email or
				postal mailing address or the employer's or employing unit's failure to keep
				the department directly and promptly informed of the employer's or employing
				unit's correct email address. A written decision concerning the existence of
				good cause need not contain findings of fact on every relevant factor, but the
				basis for the decision must be apparent from the order.
U. "Group account" means the account,
				identified by an account number, established for two or more employers whose
				application to become liable for payments in lieu of contributions and for
				sharing the cost of benefits paid by them, has been approved by the department
				in accordance with Subsection E of Section
				51-1-13
				NMSA 1978.
V. "Group member" means
				any employer who has become associated with another or others to form a group
				account.
W. "Interested agency"
				means the agency of an interested jurisdiction.
X. "Interested jurisdiction" means any
				participating jurisdiction to which an election submitted under this rule is
				sent for its approval.
Y.
				"Jurisdiction" means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia,
				Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands or, with respect to the federal government,
				the coverage of any federal unemployment compensation law.
Z. "Knowingly" means having actual knowledge
				of or acting with deliberate ignorance of or reckless disregard for the
				prohibition involved.
AA.
				"Participating jurisdiction" means a jurisdiction whose administrative agency
				has subscribed to the interstate reciprocal coverage arrangement and whose
				adherence thereto has not terminated.
BB. "Payment in lieu of contributions" means
				nonprofit employers or governmental agencies that elect to pay the division for
				the fund an amount equal to the amount of regular benefits and of one-half of
				the extended benefits paid, that is attributable to service in the employ of
				such nonprofit organization or governmental agency, to individuals of weeks of
				unemployment that begin during the effective period of such election.
CC. "Predecessor" means the owner and
				operator of an employing enterprise immediately prior to the transfer of such
				enterprise.
DD. "Reserve factor"
				means the annual factor determined by the department that is necessary to
				ensure that the unemployment trust fund sustains an adequate reserve.
EE. "Services customarily performed by an
				individual in more than one jurisdiction" means services performed in more than
				one jurisdiction during a reasonable period, if the nature of the services
				gives reasonable assurance that they will continue to be performed in more than
				one jurisdiction or if such services are required or expected to be performed
				in more than one jurisdiction under the election.
FF. "Successor" means any person or entity
				that acquires an employing enterprise and continues to operate such business
				entity.
GG. "Taxable year" means
				the calendar year beginning the first day of January and ending the last day of
				December.
HH. "Total wages for the
				purpose of computing the reserve ratio and the benefit cost rate" means all
				wages paid to covered employees for payroll periods ending in a calendar year
				as reported on the quarterly census of employment and wages.
II. "Trust fund balance" means the trust fund
				balance on deposit with the U.S. treasury in the state's account as of June 30
				that includes only funds that will be used for payments of benefits to
				claimants.
JJ. "Violates or
				attempts to violate" means intent to evade, a misrepresentation or a willful
				nondisclosure.
KK. "Wages" means
				all remuneration for services, including commissions, bonuses or unpaid loans
				to employees and the cash value of all remuneration in any medium other than
				cash.