TITLE 23. LABOR AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION
CHAPTER 11. UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
PART I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
23:1473 Concurrent employment by two or more corporations
A. For purposes of this Chapter, if two or more related corporations concurrently employ the same individual and compensate such individual through a common paymaster which is one of such corporations, each such corporation shall be considered to have paid as wages to such individual only the amounts actually disbursed by it to such individual and shall not be considered to have paid as wages to such individual any amounts actually disbursed to such individual by another of such corporations.
B. (1) A common paymaster of a group of related corporations is any member thereof that disburses wages to employees of two or more of those corporations on their behalf and that is :responsible for keeping books and records for the payroll with respect to those employees. The common paymaster is not required to disburse wages to all the employees of those two or more related corporations, but the provisions of this Section shall not apply to any wages to employees that are not disbursed through a common paymaster. The common paymaster may pay concurrently employed individuals under this Section by one combined paycheck, drawn on a single bank account, or by separate paychecks, drawn by the common paymaster on the accounts of one or more employing corporations.
(2) A group of related corporations may have more than one common paymaster. Some of the related corporations may use one common paymaster and others of the related corporations may use another common paymaster with respect to a certain class of employees. A corporation that uses a common paymaster to disburse wages to certain of its employees may use a different common paymaster to disburse wages to other employees.
C. For purposes of this Section, the term "concurrent employment" means the contemporaneous existence of an employment relationship, as defined in R.S. 23:1472(12), between an individual and two or more corporations. Such a relationship contemplates the performance of services by the employee for the benefit of the employing corporation, not merely for the benefit of the group of corporations, in exchange for wages which, if deductible for the purposes of federal income tax, would be deductible by the employing corporation.
D. Corporations shall be considered related corporations for an entire calendar quarter, as defined in R.S. 23:1472(7), if they satisfy any one of the following four tests at any time during that calendar quarter:
(1) The corporations are members of a "controlled group of corporations", as defined in Section 1563 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or would be members if Section 1563(a)(4) and (b) of said code did not apply and if the phrase "more than fifty percent" were substituted for the phrase "at least eighty percent" wherever it appears in Section 1563(a) of said code.
(2) In the case of a corporation that does not issue stock, either fifty percent or more of the members of the board of directors or the other governing body of one corporation are members of the board of directors or other governing body of the other corporation, or the holders of fifty percent or more of the voting power to select such members are concurrently the holders of more than fifty percent of that power with respect to the other corporation.
(3) Fifty percent or more of the officers of one corporation are concurrently officers of the other corporation.
(4) Thirty percent or more of the employees of one corporation are concurrently employees of the other corporation.
E. If the requirements of this Section are met, the common paymaster shall have the primary responsibility for remitting contributions due under this Chapter with respect to the wages it disburses as the common paymaster. The common paymaster shall compute these contributions as though it were the sole employer of the concurrently employed individuals. If the common paymaster fails to remit these contributions, in whole or in part, it shall remain liable for the full amount of the unpaid portion of these taxes. In addition, each of the other related corporations using the common paymaster shall be jointly and severally liable for its appropriate share of these contributions. Such share shall be an amount equal to the lesser of the following:
(1) The amount of the liability of the common paymaster under this Chapter, after taking into account any contributions made.
(2) The amount of the liability under this Chapter which, but for this Section, would have existed with respect to the wages from such other related corporation, reduced by an allocable portion of any contributions previously paid by the common paymaster with respect to those wages.
Added by Acts 1993, No. 617, ยง 1.