Those who received unemployment benefits in 2020 will not have to report those benefits as income on state income taxes.
Gov. John Carney (D) signed the bill waiving state taxes on unemployment benefits paid during the pandemic. But those benefits still have to be reported for federal taxes.
State Rep. Ed Osienski (D-Newark) sponsored the measure and says it will save Delawareans lots of money.
"Exempting unemployment benefits from the state taxes would keep approximately 21 million dollars in the hands of more than the 100,000 Delawareans who filed for unemployment last year allowing them additional money to pay for their rent, utilities, and buy groceries," said Osienski during Monday's bill signing,
And Carney says helping residents and businesses is important during tax time.
"This tax relief comes at a really important time and again just to re-emphasize our focus which has been since the beginning to protect workers as they experienced unemployment just for a short period of time as well as support for all our businesses particularly small businesses," Carney said,
State Senator Jack Walsh (D-Stanton) says businesses also get relief.
"It freezes Employer assessment rates at the 2020 levels saving thousands of businesses from sudden rises and their own obligations,' said Walsh. "These kinds of straightforward relief measures are exactly what we need right now. Too many Delawareans are looking down the barrel of an incredibly difficult tax year and they definitely need our help."
State officials say 2000 businesses will avoid increases in assessments they faced because of the rise in unemployment claims due to COVID.
