Connecticut Department of Labor
Tax Automation and Wage Processing Unit
200 Folly Brook Boulevard
Wethersfield, Connecticut 06109-1114
(860) 263-6375
E-mail: dol.tawp@po.state.ct.us

I. MAGNETIC MEDIA WAGE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS and PROCEDURES

• Introduction

• Legal Requirement

A. REGISTRATION FOR MEDIA SUBMISSION

• Registering an Employer

• Registering an Agent

B. SUBMITTING MEDIA

• Test Submissions

• Media Types Accepted

• Special Filing Requirements for Employers

• Special Filing Requirements for Agents

• Transmittals for Employers

• Transmittals for Agents

• Filing Deadlines

• Retention Responsibilities

• Media Rejection

• Correction to Magnetic Media

II. DATA RECORD DESCRIPTIONS

• ‘E’ Record (EMPLOYER)

• ‘S’ Record (EMPLOYEE)

• ‘F’ Record (FINAL)

III. FTP – TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS

• General Prerequisites

• Records

IV. MAGNETIC RECORD FORMAT

• Record Format Table

• Acceptable Character Sets

V. APPLICATIONS and FORMS

• Employer Application and Instructions

• Agent Application and Instructions

• Agent Contribution Voucher (PDF, 133KB)

I. MAGNETIC MEDIA WAGE REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AND PROCEDURES

This booklet contains the specifications and instructions for reporting Connecticut Unemployment Compensation Insurance Wage and Tax Reports by magnetic media (i.e. FTP (File Transfer Protocol). 

LEGAL REQUIREMENT

Section 31-225a(j)(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes requires each employer or employer agent who reports tax and wage earning information for a total of two hundred fifty (250) or more Connecticut employees to submit such required reports by magnetic media.

REGISTRATION FOR MEDIA SUBMISSION

REGISTERING EMPLOYERS & AGENTS

We require that each employer or agent reporting tax and wage information via magnetic media complete and return the appropriate application form – (see the application forms at the end of this booklet). There is one for employers and another for agents. The reason we require you to register is so that we have the name and address of a person we can contact if any problems arise with regard to your magnetic submission of tax and wage information.

If there is a change to your application information please resubmit an application form to update it. You must submit your application and satisfactory test media before you send in your first production media.

AGENTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE. Before an agent may file magnetic media, they must complete a Memorandum of Understanding with the Connecticut Department of Labor. This is in addition to registering with us. The Memorandum of Understanding will be mailed to you after we receive your application for registration.

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SUBMITTING MEDIA

TEST SUBMISSIONS

An employer newly registered to submit tax and wage information magnetically may submit a test media first.   A test assures both parties that you can properly format your submission and it allows us a vehicle for spotting any problems and correcting them before your first production submission is due. Media used for testing purposes only must be correctly identified. Your FTP (File Transfer Protocol) test file should be named as follows: start with the quarter (1,2,3 or 4) and a two digit year (e.g.01 for 2001) followed by letter "t". Thus a file named 101t9999999 will designate test file for 1st quarter 2001 for registration 99-999-99. 

AGENTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE.  A newly registered agent must submit a test media before we will process its first returns.

MEDIA TYPES ACCEPTED

The following type of media is acceptable as a means of submitting Unemployment Compensation Reports: FTP (File Transfer Protocol).

*All employers must file via FTP. We will not accept any files on diskettes or cartridges. The file must be transmitted via FTP. Please go to http//www.ctdol.state.ct.us/uitax/ftp_form1.htm to register for FTP filing. For more information on FTP, please go to http//www.ctdol.state.ct.us/uitax/ftpFAQ.htm. 

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR EMPLOYERS REPORTING FOR MULTIPLE EMPLOYERS

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS FOR AGENTS

FILING DEADLINE

All media that includes data for TAXABLE METHOD EMPLOYERS must be forwarded on or before the last day of the month following the end of the calendar quarterly period. All media that contains only data for REIMBURSABLE METHOD EMPLOYERS must be forwarded on or before the 15^th day of the second month following the end of the calendar quarterly period.
 

RETENTION RESPONSIBILITIES

CT-DOL requires each agent and employer who files magnetically to retain copies of all of their submitted magnetic data, or to be able to reconstruct the magnetic data, for at least three years after the due dates of the report. An agent or employer who files magnetically must be able to recreate, and to correct as necessary, magnetic data for submission of both a complete duplication of all required media data and for a specific selection of any employer or individual record data.

MEDIA REJECTION

If CT-DOL is unable to process magnetic file, a magnetic file segment, the FTP filers will be notified via email along with an explanation, identifying the problem(s) that were encountered.

Rejections will require the employer or agent to correct the errors and resubmit the corrected magnetic media. NOTE: Rejected media does not extend any legal due dates.

CORRECTION TO MAGNETIC MEDIA

Correcting Tax Information

Whenever an employer or its agent is correcting tax information, the employer or the agent must submit our form UC2-CORR. This form is available on our web site: www.ctdol.state.ct.us/uitax/cashiers-forms.htm

Correcting Wage Detail

Whenever an employer or its agent is correcting wage information for individual employees (i.e., correcting the reporting of particular individuals who were unreported or misreported), the employer or the agent must submit our form UC5A-CORR This is the top half of the UC2/5A-CORR. This form is available on our web site: www.ctdol.state.ct.us/uitax/cashiers-forms.htm.

Additional Requirement When Correcting One Hundred or More Employees

In addition to submitting the UC5A-CORR, an employer or its agent who is correcting one hundred or more unreported or misreported employees must also submit new media that corrects the errors of the original reporting and serves to replace that original. It must report all employees (correctly) for that employer for that quarter.

Correction files via FTP should be named as follows:  start with the quarter (1,2,3,4) and a two digit year ( e.g. 01 for 2001)  Thus a filed named “101R9999999” would designate first quarter 2001 correction for employer 99-999-99. 

With regard to correcting wage detail we can be flexible. There will be times when it will be best for us and the employer to accept magnetic media for less than one hundred corrections to wage detail, and there will be times when it will be best to accept a paper correction for more than one hundred employees. We will work with employers. Our goal is to get the tax and wage information reported properly as expeditiously as possible.

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II. DATA RECORD DESCRIPTIONS

The following describes the data records necessary to complete a magnetic report for Connecticut Unemployment Compensation. Use only the information provided in this booklet to prepare reports on magnetic media.

• Each media submission must present only one (1) calendar quarterly period.

• Files with signed fields cannot be processed.

• Financial data fields are numeric only – include dollar and cents with decimal point assumed.

• Identify all Connecticut employees with the state (FIPS) code, 09.

• Generate an employer file – only once – for each employer.

• Multiple employers may be included on the same media by maintaining a complete record sequence for each file segment.

• Negative Sums are not acceptable. (see correction procedures)

• Numeric fields are right justified with zero-fill.

• Use data fields only as identified herein – NO alterations or additions are acceptable.

Each employer file MUST maintain an ‘E-S-F’ record sequence. A correctly formatted single employer file will appear as an ‘E-S…..S-F’ sequence; while a multi-employer file would appear as ‘E-S…S-F – E-S…S-F – E-S…S-F’ etc.

EMPLOYER RECORD: CODE ‘E’

• Identifies the employer whose employee wage and tax information is being reported.

• Develop magnetic media only for employers with a valid ‘Unemployment Insurance Registration Number’.

• Generate an ‘E’ record only if at least one employee is reported for the subject quarterly period.

• Generate a new Code ‘E’ record each time it is necessary to identify a different employer.

EMPLOYEE RECORD: CODE ‘S’

• Used to report employee wage and other related personal data.

• At least one (1) ‘S’ record must follow its related ‘E’ record.

• Consolidate each employee’s earnings and report data for each employee only once per calendar quarterly period.

• Only generate an ‘S’ record for an individual who did receive wages for the subject period

• Report only Connecticut employees.

NAME FORMAT

1. Use UPPER CASE letters, only;

2. Submit only Surname and First-Name;

3. Separate name segments with one (1) blank-FILL field position;

4. Omit all titles;

5. Omit all middle names and initials;

6. Omit all punctuation;

7. Omit all sequential heredity identification

FINAL RECORD: CODE ‘F’

• Contains summary data of the ‘S’ records and research data.

• The last record of each file segment.

• It must be the last data record on each media.

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III. FTP – Technical Requirements

GENERAL PREREQUISITES

• Each file may contain data for only one (1) calendar quarterly period.

• File must be recorded in the ASCII-1 Character Set.

• Record data in UPPER case letters only.

• Naming Convention: It is imperative that you name the file you submit via FTP as follows: start with the quarter (1, 2, 3 or 4) and a two-digit year (e.g., 01 for 2001) followed by a letter identifying this as a first, second, or third submission for that quarter (e.g., an A designates a first submission) followed by the employer's registration. Thus, a file named "101A9999999" would designate the first submission (A) of the 1st quarter 2001 data (101) for employer 99-999-99 (9999999.) If you FTP a file not properly named as instructed, there is always a danger that it would be overlaid.

RECORDS

• Each logical record must be a uniform fixed length of 275 (or 276) characters, 275 is preferred.

• Compressed files are not acceptable.

• Record delimiters are required: a record delimiter must follow each record in the file. The record delimiter must consist of two characters and those two characters must be a ‘carriage return’ and ‘line feed’ (CR/LF). The ASCII-1 hexadecimal value for the ‘carriage return’ character is ‘0D’ (zero and letter D); the ASCII-1 hexadecimal value for the ‘line feed’ character is ‘0A’ (zero and letter A). A record delimiter should appear immediately after the last character position of each record; delimiters are not counted in determining record length.

• No field position should exist after the end of file.

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IV. MAGNETIC RECORD FORMAT

‘E’  EMPLOYER RECORD
 

‘S’ EMPLOYEE RECORD

‘F’ FINAL RECORD
 

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ACCEPTABLE CHARACTER SETS
 

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INSTRUCTIONS to complete EMPLOYER APPLICATION FORM

Employer Instructions

1. Employer’s Unemployment Compensation Number.

2. Employer’s Federal Identification Number.

3. Employer’s Name and Physical Address.

4. Person authorized to resolve magnetic media submission problems.

5. Phone Number.

6. E-Mail Address.

Get Employer Application Form Here!

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INSTRUCTIONS to complete AGENT APPLICATION FORM

Agent Instructions

1. Agent’s Name and Physical Address.

2. Person authorized to resolve magnetic media submission problems. Contact title, telephone number, e-mail address and fax number.

Get Agent Application Form Here!

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