108.21 Record and audit of payrolls.

(1) Every employing unit which employs one or more individuals to perform work in this state shall keep an accurate work record for each individual employed by it, including full name, address and social security number, which will permit determination of the weekly wages earned by each such individual, the wages paid within each quarter to that individual and the salary reduction amounts that are not wages and that would have been paid by the employing unit to that individual as salary but for a salary reduction agreement under a cafeteria plan, within the meaning of 26 USC 125. Each such employing unit shall permit any authorized representative of the department to examine, at any reasonable time, the work record and any other records which may show any wages paid by the employing unit, or any salary reduction amounts that are not wages and that would have been paid by the employing unit as salary but for a salary reduction agreement under a cafeteria plan, within the meaning of 26 USC 125, regardless of the format in which such a record is maintained. If such a record is maintained by an employing unit in machine-readable format, the employing unit shall provide the department with information necessary to retrieve the record. If the department determines that the employing unit is unable to provide access to such a record or that the retrieval capability at the site where the record is maintained is not adequate for efficient examination, the employing unit shall provide a copy of the record to the department and shall allow the department to remove the copy from that site for such period as will permit examination at another location. Each such employing unit shall furnish to the department upon demand a sworn statement of the information contained in any such record.

(2) The findings of an authorized representative of the department, based on examination of the records of any such employing unit under sub. (1) and embodied in an audit report issued to the employing unit, are a determination under s. 108.10.

(3) If any such employing unit fails to keep adequate work records under this section or fails to file the reports required by this chapter or required by the department under this chapter, the employing unit's contribution liability with respect to the period for which such records are lacking or deficient or for which such reports have not been filed may be estimated by the department in a determination made under s. 108.10.

History: 1987 a. 38; 1993 a. 373; 1997 a. 39; 2017 a. 157.