Can any self employed folks help with EDD question?

[BamaRefugee]

I filed for UI based on my NET, per my accountant, and my payments are pitiful because due to Covid I couldn't do my 2019 taxes til July, so I had to use my 2018 net, (I filed late March when I had to close my business) and in 2018 I had 2 major surgeries and lost lots of working time because I had to stay home and recover from each of them.
Lost a TON of income. I've done 2019 taxes now.

1. So how do I get them to now base my UI on 2019? Is there a place online I can put in new numbers? I can't find it.

2. Most importantly, they say that if I work, I have to put in the amount I made *when I get paid*, and they subtract that from my UI payment. But the amount I get paid would be GROSS income. I have no idea what my net would be until the end of the year...so if they subtract gross from my tiny payment I am screwed...anyone know how to proceed with this?
Thanks for any help!

[stopbush]

1. What is your weekly unemployment benefit in dollars?

If you are earning double that amount or more in a week, you will not qualify for UI benefits that week.

[BamaRefugee]

2. $167! And I have to keep paying my freaking $1.25MILLION business insurance policy every month so I

get back to work when I can open my business again!

[stopbush]

5. Yep. Same as me. $167. CA EDD had said they would be raising that weekly benefit

for self-employed to as high as $450 a week based on earnings, but it hasn’t happened on the PUA extension from what I can figure.

Basically, if you earn a gross over $336 a week, you won't get any unemployment due to “excessive earnings.” I know, as my wife has been dealing with that. Her weekly benefit is $256.

[BamaRefugee]

7. Several guys who do the same work as me put their gross and are getting $450 a week, don't know if

that's gonna pass muster later. My ex is also getting $450 after being laid off from her corporate job.

I'm wondering as a sole proprietor if getting paid by a client isn't INCOME for me until I do final accounting at the end of the year. Sole proprietor basically gets year end profit as pay, not a weekly or monthly check. So maybe I just don't report any income at all til the year is up?

Confusing.

[stopbush]

11. I have no idea how EDD figures out what to pay in benefits.

I filed at the end of April based on 2019 self-employment earnings of only $24,000. My weekly rate was set at $167. I was then backpaid to March 1, the last day I was paid for self employment. A few weeks later and with no explanation, my weekly rate went up to $252, and I received checks to cover the difference between $252 and $167 over those weeks that had been paid. THEN, CA EDD went back and “extended” an old claim I had filed in August 2018 on a W2. That claim paid $450 a week, and was exhausted after one week into 2019. I then received payments covering the difference between $450 and $252. All the while I was also receiving the $600 a week in Fed money, so at one point, I was getting $1050 a week.

That lasted through May. The 2018-19 claim extension exhausted at the beginning of June, at which point I was out on a PUA extension at $167 a week.

My problem now is that for some unknown reason, CA EDD has my work week listed as Sat - Fri, rather than Sun- Sat, and THAT causes their system to not even allow me to certify because “a full week is not being reported” as they have my week ending on Fri, rather than Sat. Very frustrsting.

[BamaRefugee]

12. So frustrating but thank God they let self employed get UI for the first time!

[BamaRefugee]

9. Also it appears that if I made say $168 in a week, I would lose any Fed assistance, you have to be

receiving at least $1 a week from state EDD to qualify for Fed.

So making a crummy 200 bucks , say, would basically just send me into poverty, without the Fed assistance.

[stopbush]

10. Yep. It really sucks. Unless you are totally unemployed, it doesn't pan out.

[PoliWrangler]

3. Percentage of

Percentage of 2018/2019 net vs gross, apply that ratio to any dollars coming in now? IANAA, but that seems an arguably rational approach.

[BamaRefugee]

4. Possibly, and thanks. I just don't know if that makes sense to THEM, and no way can I afford getting

penalties and repayment claims against me like a year from now!

The problem is they tell you to state the AMOUNT YOU GOT PAID by a client, they say nothing about it being net or gross, and that makes a HUGE difference.

[PoliWrangler]

6. MN is a bit different

Says to report net, whether or not you actually get paid. Service biz so its hours/fees you can charge, dont see any other way to do it.

[BamaRefugee]

8. In my business there's a chance that you WON'T BE PAID even though you worked! So reporting it that

way would be suicidal!

i have to take people to court to get my money sometimes.