The purpose of this article is to provide information on the WA Cares Fund tax and the method for adding exemptions to the tax within iSolved.

WA CARES Fund

The state of Washington has implemented the WA Cares Fund program to provide long-term care benefits to all workers in the state.  This program was originally scheduled to go into effect on January 1st of 2023 but was delayed due to legislative changes. isolved has been updated to include this new program and contributions for all WA EE's will begin July 1, 2023. 

Program Highlights:

• The WA Cares premium is paid by the employee. Employers won’t pay any share of premiums for their employees.
• The WA Cares premium rate is 0.58 percent of each employee’s gross wages— there is no Social Security cap.
• Some employees may be exempt from contributing WA Cares premiums. It is the employee’s responsibility to formally notify their employer of their exemption:
  • Workers who live out of state, workers on non-immigrant visas and military spouses can opt out. These groups will be able to apply for a voluntary exemption starting January 1, 2023. Workers with these exemptions will begin contributing if their situation changes and they no longer qualify for an exemption.
  • Veterans with a 70% or higher service-connected disability can opt out. These workers have access to some long-term care benefits through the VA and may choose to apply for a permanent exemption from WA Cares Fund starting January 1, 2023.

Exemptions:

All employers must collect WA Cares premiums or pay employee premiums on their behalf unless the EE has presented an Approved Exemption from the agency.  Follow the steps below to enter an exemption into isolved for individual EE's:

• Within isolved navigate Employee Management / Employee Pay / Tax Information and search for the EE.
• On the Tax Information Screen, under Tax Exemption select: WA Cares Exempt and Save.
• Please note: if the EE already has an exemption in this field, please contact support for assistance.