QuickBooks and South Dakota Form 21: Reemployment Assistance Reporting
QuickBooks prefills most of South Dakota's quarterly Reemployment Assistance report, but employers must verify rates, wage bases, and manual adjustment entries.
QuickBooks Desktop handles South Dakota’s Form 21 — the Employer’s Reemployment Assistance Quarterly Report — by pulling wage and tax data directly from the company file. The form calculates the RA tax owed on total gross wages paid during the quarter, and most fields populate automatically. Employers are responsible for reviewing the return before filing, particularly the rates and any fields the software flags for manual entry.
What QuickBooks Fills Automatically
Several core fields on Form 21 draw directly from the data already entered in QuickBooks. The account number, quarter and year ending, and the return due date all populate based on company setup and payroll processing records. Total gross wages paid during the quarter and wages in excess of the annual taxable wage base are also calculated and entered automatically across all pages of the form.
Covered Worker Counts
One section requires a headcount for each month of the quarter being reported. The count should include all full-time and part-time workers who worked during — or received pay subject to unemployment insurance wages for — the payroll period that includes the 12th of that month. If no employees were on the payroll for a given month, QuickBooks enters a zero in that field.
Multi-Location Indicator
The form asks whether the account operates in more than one location within South Dakota. This question must be answered: check “Yes” if the business has multiple locations, or “No” if it operates from a single site.
Annual Taxable Wage Base
South Dakota’s annual taxable wage base per employee has increased over time. The thresholds QuickBooks applies are:
- 2010: $10,000
- 2011: $11,000
- 2012: $12,000
- 2013: $13,000
- 2014: $14,000
- 2015 and after: $15,000
Wages paid to an individual above these caps in a given year are treated as excess wages and reported accordingly on the form.
Rates to Verify
Three rate fields pull from the values stored in QuickBooks, and each should be checked against the employer’s official correspondence from South Dakota Unemployment Insurance:
UI Contribution Rate
QuickBooks enters the unemployment insurance contribution rate that was set up in the company file. Confirm this matches the rate on record with the state.
Administrative Fee Rate
Similarly, the administrative fee rate populates from QuickBooks payroll setup. Verify it against state records.
Investment Fee Rate
The investment fee rate also comes from the company file and should be cross-checked for accuracy before the return is filed.
Manual Entries and Adjustments
QuickBooks flags specific lines that require manual input. Two areas commonly need attention:
Adjustments from prior quarters. If the employer received a debit or credit notice from the South Dakota Department of Labor — or discovered an error from a previous filing — the adjustment amount should be entered on the appropriate line, along with an explanation on page 2 of the form.
Interest. If the quarterly report is filed late, any interest owed for the calendar quarter must be entered manually.
The Bottom Line for Employers
In practice, companies that keep their payroll and employee data current in QuickBooks will find that Form 21 requires little manual data entry. The main task is verification: confirming that the contribution, administrative, and investment fee rates match state records, answering the multi-location question, and entering any adjustments or interest that fall outside what the software calculates automatically. For broader guidance on payroll tax forms and QuickBooks Desktop troubleshooting, the core principle remains the same — the software does the math, but the employer owns the filing.