Bill Text: TX HB1251 | 2015-2016 | 84th Legislature | Comm Sub
NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft
Bill Title: Relating to the transfer of compensation experience for purposes of the Texas Unemployment Compensation Act.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2015-06-16 - Effective on 9/1/15 [HB1251 Detail]
Download: Texas-2015-HB1251-Comm_Sub.html
Bill Title: Relating to the transfer of compensation experience for purposes of the Texas Unemployment Compensation Act.
Spectrum: Bipartisan Bill
Status: (Passed) 2015-06-16 - Effective on 9/1/15 [HB1251 Detail]
Download: Texas-2015-HB1251-Comm_Sub.html
By: Alvarado, Geren, Thompson of Harris | H.B. No. 1251 | |
(Senate Sponsor - West) | ||
(In the Senate - Received from the House May 6, 2015; | ||
May 6, 2015, read first time and referred to Committee on Natural | ||
Resources and Economic Development; May 14, 2015, reported | ||
adversely, with favorable Committee Substitute by the following | ||
vote: Yeas 9, Nays 0; May 14, 2015, sent to printer.) | ||
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR H.B. No. 1251 | By: Estes |
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relating to the transfer of compensation experience for purposes of | ||
the Texas Unemployment Compensation Act. | ||
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS: | ||
SECTION 1. Section 204.081, Labor Code, is amended to read | ||
as follows: | ||
Sec. 204.081. DEFINITIONS. (a) In this subchapter: | ||
(1) "Compensation experience" includes the period | ||
that benefit wage credits or benefits have been chargeable and any | ||
other factor under Subchapter A, B, C, or D necessary to the | ||
computation of experience rating under those subchapters. | ||
(2) "Person" means an individual, trust, estate, | ||
partnership, association, company, or corporation. | ||
(3) "Substantially common management or control" | ||
exists if, after the acquisition of the organization, trade, or | ||
business of an employing unit, the predecessor employing unit | ||
continues to: | ||
(A) own or manage the organization that conducts | ||
the organization, trade, or business; | ||
(B) own or manage the assets necessary to conduct | ||
the organization, trade, or business; | ||
(C) control through security or lease | ||
arrangements the assets necessary to conduct the organization, | ||
trade, or business; or | ||
(D) direct the internal affairs or conduct of the | ||
organization, trade, or business. | ||
(4) "Substantially common ownership" exists if, on the | ||
date of an acquisition of the organization, trade, or business of an | ||
employing unit, a shareholder, officer, or other owner of a legal or | ||
equitable interest in the predecessor employing unit, or the spouse | ||
or a person within the first degree of consanguinity or affinity, as | ||
determined under Chapter 573, Government Code, of the shareholder, | ||
officer, or other owner: | ||
(A) is a shareholder, officer, or other owner of | ||
a legal or equitable interest in the successor employing unit; or | ||
(B) holds an option to purchase a legal or | ||
equitable interest in the successor employing unit. | ||
(5) "Transfer of trade or business" includes the | ||
transfer of part or all of an employer's workforce to another | ||
employer if, as the result of the transfer, the transferring | ||
employer no longer performs trade or business with respect to the | ||
transferred workforce and the employer to whom the workforce is | ||
transferred performs trade or business with respect to the | ||
workforce. | ||
(6) "Knowingly" means having actual knowledge of or | ||
acting with deliberate ignorance of or reckless disregard for the | ||
prohibition involved. | ||
(b) For purposes of Subsection (a)(4), following a partial | ||
acquisition of an organization, trade, or business of an employing | ||
unit, substantially common ownership does not exist solely because | ||
the predecessor employing unit has the right to repossess the part | ||
acquired by the successor employing unit in the event of the | ||
successor's failure to complete a condition of the acquisition. | ||
SECTION 2. Section 204.085, Labor Code, is amended by | ||
adding Subsections (a-1) and (e) to read as follows: | ||
(a-1) In the case of a partial acquisition for which the | ||
transfer of compensation experience is required under Section | ||
204.083, the predecessor employer and successor employer may | ||
jointly submit, not later than the second anniversary of the date | ||
the partial acquisition was completed, information necessary for | ||
making the determination described by Subsection (a). The period | ||
for which the information is submitted must be the lesser of: | ||
(1) four years; or | ||
(2) the length of time the predecessor employer was | ||
liable for the payment of a tax under this subtitle. | ||
(e) The commission shall include information about the | ||
availability of a partial transfer of compensation experience under | ||
this subchapter: | ||
(1) with the information provided by the commission to | ||
each new employer; and | ||
(2) on any form, including in electronic format, | ||
required to be submitted by an employer to report a change of | ||
status. | ||
SECTION 3. Sections 204.081(b) and 204.085(a-1), Labor | ||
Code, as added by this Act, apply only to a partial acquisition of | ||
an organization, trade, or business of an employing unit that | ||
occurs on or after the effective date of this Act. An acquisition | ||
that occurs before the effective date of this Act is governed by the | ||
law in effect on the date the acquisition occurred, and the former | ||
law is continued in effect for that purpose. | ||
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2015. | ||
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