Unemployment tax is a company cost. It is not withheld from the employee in the same way federal income tax is withheld. Two names appear in almost every U.S. conversation about it: FUTA and SUTA. FUTA is the federal unemployment tax. SUTA, sometimes labeled SUI, is the state unemployment tax on the notice your state workforce agency sends.
Why this lab does not guess a jurisdiction
State wage bases and experience rates differ. A shop in one state can owe a different SUTA percentage from a shop next door, even at the same salary. Coding “all fifty states” as if they were one slider would be a guess dressed as a table. The calculators leave those fields blank of invented rates. You type the percent or the annual dollar amount you already have.
If you do not want unemployment tax in a first look, enter 0. The employer FICA lines still use the 2026 Publication 15 rates. The total then omits FUTA and SUTA on purpose, and the sentence on the result sheet says those extras are the amounts you entered.
FUTA and the credit you may already know
Many guides mention a statutory FUTA rate on the first $7,000 of wages and a credit for state unemployment tax that can bring the effective federal rate to 0.6% when the credit is fully available. This site will not apply that credit automatically. If 0.6% of the first $7,000 is the effective figure you use in your own workbook, choose “% of the first $7,000” and enter 0.6. On $52,000 of wages that entry is $42.00.
If you already know the annual FUTA dollars from last year’s return, choose “Annual dollars” and type that amount. The calculator will not then also apply a percentage. One entry method is enough.
SUTA is the rate on your notice
SUTA is the percentage or the dollar figure from the state. Some states use a wage base that is not $7,000. This lab does not keep those bases. If your notice is a percent of total wages, use “% of the wage figure.” If your accountant gave you an annual dollar estimate, use “Annual dollars.”
On the sample $52,000 salary, a 2% SUTA entry is $1,040.00. Together with $42.00 of FUTA and $3,978.00 of employer FICA, the add-on is $5,060.00 and the employer cost is $57,060.00. Those dollars appear on the cost of one employee page when the same rates are typed there.
What still belongs with an agency or a CPA
Filing Form 940, paying a state unemployment account, and applying for a credit are not features of this site. If your rate changed after a claim, update the field. The calculator will not notice a letter you did not type. Publication 15 and your state workforce agency remain the documents for the legal tax, not the estimate on the blotter.