Unreported Income While on Unemployment

[4Samsonite]

My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: VA
I have income from freelance work that I was getting while on unemployment. None of it was intentional btw. I didn't think freelance work counted for anything. It's too late to do anything about it now but
1. what are the chances of them asking for all of it back?
2. Do they just randomly audit people or do they always get you?
3. Is it possible to have a lawyer fight it or would be a waste of time because it would be a slam dunk case in favor of the unemployment office?

[cbg]

1.) Excellent, assuming that anything is owed. You are allowed to earn a certain amount without it affecting your benefits but I don't know how much that is in your state.
2.) They do randomly audit people but they also cross reference information about W-2s and 1099's with who has been receiving UI. So you can't count on it simply being missed in a random audit.
3.) The best possible outcome for you would be if you self-reported. The UI office is much more concerned with getting their money back than they are with prosecuting or taking other action; they're going to be more lenient with people who self-report than they will with people who are less cooperative.

[4Samsonite]

What are all of the methods available to the unemployment office for collecting money owed to them? Wage garnishment? filing negative report with credit bureaus? What are all of the tools available to the unemployment office for getting their money back?

[Beth3]

The same tools available to any other entity to whom you owe money. In the case of the State UC's Division however, they can also pursue criminal charges against a claimant who has engaged in UC fraud.

3. Is it possible to have a lawyer fight it or would be a waste of time because it would be a slam dunk case in favor of the unemployment office? There's nothing for a lawyer to fight. If you didn't report your earnings to the UC Division while receiving UC benefits, there's no "legal magic" an attorney can do for you. It's an open and shut issue. Under the law, you are REQUIRED to report any income. You're much better off self-reporting to the UC Division and paying them back any benefits you incorrectly received than having them pursue you for UC fraud down the road.

[4Samsonite]

It was implied somewhere that if your small business made less than X amount, that it wasn't enough to affect UI. Lets say that amount is 5k.
1. If your business made 6k that year, how were you supposed to know that AHEAD of time? In other words, what option did you have other than to claim weeks as usual and file taxes at the end of the year?

2. If you pay taxes at the end of the year on UI, then, later, they ask for all of it beck, shouldn't they deduct for the amount you had to pay in taxes? Shouldn't they also calculate how much UI you should've received and only ask for the difference?

[cbg]

The thing is, you don't go by how much the business makes in a year. You go by how much YOU make in a WEEK. Or, in some states, bi-weekly period.

You don't report your small business's income. You report YOUR income and you do it EVERY TIME YOU FILE FOR BENEFITS. If you are filing a claim unemployment for the week of March 18 through March 24, then WHEN YOU FILE THE CLAIM you ALSO report all the income that you earned during the week of March 18 through March 24.

[4Samsonite]

If you pay taxes at the end of the year on UI, then, later, they ask for all of it back, shouldn't they deduct for the amount you had to pay in taxes? Shouldn't they also calculate how much UI you should've received and only ask for the difference?

[cbg]

It depends on how much you should have received in any given week. If you didn't make enough in that week to matter, they won't ask for any back. If you made so much in one week that you shouldn't have received any benefits, then for that week they'll want all of it back. And if you would have gotten some benefits but not all, then yes, they'll ask for the difference back. But WE DON'T KNOW what they will or won't want back because WE DON'T HAVE the information about your claim or your wages.

But instead of getting all bent out of shape about what they might do, why don't you pick up the phone, call them, and find out what they WILL do?

[4Samsonite]

Because I would be incriminating myself. I would be eliminating any chance of them not noticing it.

Going back to what you were talking about, there's no way to know what was made in what week. There is no information about my claim or my wages. There are no wages. Only business income. Here's another interesting point, lets say a person was crazy enough to somehow try to calculate what they made each day and reported it in some nonexistent field or checkbox. How would the Unemployment office know whether or not the info was correct? Well, they wouldn't. You see how sloppy all of this is?

[jk]

If you pay taxes at the end of the year on UI, then, later, they ask for all of it back, shouldn't they deduct for the amount you had to pay in taxes?

No, that is your problem. You would owe to them what you owe to them and they are entitled to receive it. What you paid in taxes due to the subterfuge is your problem, not theirs.

Shouldn't they also calculate how much UI you should've received and only ask for the difference?

that is what they do but there can be penalties as well.