A claimstaker obtains wage information from the claimant. A wage and employer search is performed, and if the claimstaker is unable to locate the wages under a specific employer's account, a "Not Liable" account is assigned to the employer. The disagreement is keyed in the Telecenter and an electronic assignment is generated to the Tax Department for investigation. There are various reasons why wages may be omitted, underreported, or reported correctly but do not appear on benefit screens. The Accounts Examiner will investigate the entire base period for the claimant to ensure that wages are correctly awarded to the claimant. This may result in adding another quarter of base period wages that was not originally requested on the assignment.

Alternate Base Periods: Some states may have a different base periods then Texas.

Some of the most common reasons for wages omissions are listed below.

The employer may have classified the claimant as temporary or casual labor, contract labor, or provisional employment. The employer may have used a staff leasing company, temporary service, or may be payrolling. There may be no wages list on file for the quarter(s) requested, the wages may be reported under an incorrect social security number, or the wages may have been reported but either not keyed or incorrectly keyed into the system.

The employer may have resumed employment and failed to complete information to reopen the account and/or submit the required quarterly reports.

The employer may not have registered with the Commission or a duplicate account may have been established. The assignment requires that an investigation be conducted to determine the employer's liability. The claimant's wages as well as all other employees will be used to determine liability.

DO NOT COMPLETE A B-27 THAT WILL BE TRANSFERRED.

When a B-27 assignment is received, the receiving Accounts Examiner should make contact with the authorized representative or responsible party and if necessary, the claimant, and attempt to work the assignment as expeditiously as possible. This action provides quality service to the claimant.


In some situations, however, it is necessary to transfer the assignment to another tax area within the region or outside of the region. Occasionally the employer is not located within the receiving tax area and is either uncooperative, or a liability investigation is required in another tax area.

The examiner will document the FTC screen with the results of the investigation. The FTC screen will also include the name of the authorized representative or responsible party who provided the information, the contact's title except when the title is documented elsewhere, the contact's telephone number, or, show all attempted contacts and efforts to obtain the wages.

The Regional Tax Manager is responsible for transferring a B-27 assignment between tax areas within the region. If the Accounts Examiner determines that a B-27 assignment should be transferred within the region, the examiner will notify their immediate supervisor.

The Field Tax Operations Section is responsible for transferring a B-27 assignment from one region to another. An attempt will be made to resolve the B-27 by contacting the employer wherever they are located. Once the correct account number is determined the Accounts Examiner will:

• Document the FTC screen under the incorrect account with a statement indicating the B-27 for the claimant is being transferred to TWC #00-000000-0 (which is the correct account number).
  
  
• If necessary, create a pending account number for the correct employer.
  
  
• Document the FTC screen under the correct tax account with efforts made in the investigation. Comments will include the name, title and phone number of any person contacted (employer or claimant) or attempted to contact, along with any business information obtained. Include the physical address and address where payroll records are located if different from physical address.
  
  
• Call the TEU resource person to request that the assignment be moved.
  
  
• Fax any documents (W-2, 1099, etc.) from the claimant to the receiving examiner.

Comment: The assignment release date will be updated to the current date. If a B-27 transfer request is received in TEU after twelve noon the B-27 transfer will take place early the next business day.

A B-27 assignment on an account domiciled out-of-state is routinely issued to an Accounts Examiner in State Office Tax for completion. If an assignment is erroneously issued to the Field, the Accounts Examiner should make contact with the employer and, if necessary, the claimant and attempt to work the assignment as expeditiously as possible in order to provide quality customer service to the claimant.