Employment Benefits

by brandy
(oregon)

If you are an LLC and pay into unemployment benefits, can you lay yourself off and collect employment benefits?

Answer

If an LLC pays an employee, and thereby pays unemployment insurance, then a laid-off employee can collect unemployment benefits (provided all the other requirements are met).

Your question seems to be, can a member of an LLC pay him/her self a W-2 wage and then lay themself off for unemployment benefits? No. The unemployment statutes usually prohibit the owner of the business from laying him/her self off and collecting unemployment.