Unemployment benefits are taxable under both federal and Minnesota law. If you received an unemployment benefit payment at any point in 2023, we will provide you a tax document called the “1099-G”.
Your 1099-G will give you the information you need to accurately report your unemployment benefits on your state and federal tax returns, including:
The total amount of unemployment benefits you were paid
The amount of federal and Minnesota state taxes we withheld on your behalf
Information on any overpayments you repaid
Where to find your 1099-G forms
We will mail a paper copy of your 1099-G to the address we had on file for you on December 31, 2023.
We will start to mail out 1099-Gs in mid-January and will complete all mailings by January 31, 2024.
It is too late to change your address for the 1099-G mailing, but you can access your 1099-G online.
Select My 1099-G.
(If this link is not available yet, check back in a few days. If any 1099-G forms are available for you, you will see the link My 1099-G.)
On the My 1099-G page, you will see one of two possible options:
A message “2023 will display once it has been mailed.” If you see this message, check back in a few days.
A link to view your 2023 1099-G. This means your 1099-G form has been mailed. This is how your 2023 1099-G form will look:
Your 1099-G will be viewable as a PDF file, which is formatted so you can easily print it yourself. If you received unemployment benefits in Minnesota before 2023, you can also view your previous 1099-G forms.
The IRS tells us what to include on Line 1 of your 1099-G. It MUST include the total/GROSS amount of ALL payments that were made to you during the year. Here are detailed instructions on how you can reproduce this calculation.
The IRS requires that we include all the following in your TOTAL, GROSS payments:
Federal tax withholding: federal tax withholding is optional. If we withheld any federal taxes on your behalf, it is because you elected to have us to do so.
Minnesota state tax withholding: Minnesota state tax withholding is optional. If we withheld any Minnesota state income taxes on your behalf, it is because you elected to have us to do so.
Child support payments: if you have a child support enforcement order, we are legally required to redirect a portion of your benefits toward child support payments.
Overpayment offsets: if you have an overpayment on your account, we may have offset some or all your unemployment benefits to repay that overpayment. We may have done this at your direction or because it was legally required.
When you were adding up all your payments, if you saw amounts in the Other Distributions column, you could click on the dollar amounts to see what kinds of distributions took place. Child Support and Overpayment Offsets are required by law. Unemployment benefits are taxable under federal and state laws, but you decide whether you want any withholding done.
Unemployment benefits are considered taxable income under federal and Minnesota state law. When you applied for your unemployment benefit account, we gave you three options for tax withholding:
15% (federal and Minnesota state taxes)
10% (federal tax only)
0% (no tax withholding)
You also had the option to change your tax withholding preferences within your online account.
If you chose to have us withhold taxes from your benefit payments, we withheld taxes from any benefit payments you received.
1099-Gs are mailed in batches, so some people will receive their 1099-Gs before others. If your 1099-G is not posted within your online account by January 31, 2024, you can call Customer Service.
Both the IRS and Minnesota Department of Revenue provide specific instructions on how to report income from unemployment insurance on your personal income tax returns.
If you use tax filing software, it will walk you through how to report unemployment insurance benefits.
We cannot give you tax advice. You can contact the agencies below with your tax questions:
Federal income tax related questions: contact the Internal Revenue Service at www.irs.gov or 1-800-829-1040.
Minnesota state income tax related questions: contact the Minnesota Department of Revenue at www.revenue.state.mn.us
or 651-296-3781.
Line 1 of your 1099-G is a total of all unemployment benefit payments made to you. If you repaid benefits you previously received, the amount you repaid will NOT be subtracted from Line 1.
However, you will need to report your repayments on your taxes. We will give you a summary of your repayments on your 1099-G form. That section of the 1099-G form reads:
Repayment of benefits
In 2023 you repaid benefits that you had been overpaid. The amount you repaid has not been deducted from your total Unemployment Compensation (Box 1).
See your federal tax form instructions for how to report repayments. Here is a summary of the amounts you repaid in 2023.
$0.00 was applied to your 2023 overpayment balance.
You can find the latest instructions on how to adjust your taxes to reflect repayments through IRS Publication 525. On that page, look for the section regarding “repayment of unemployment compensation”.
If you believe you may have been a victim of identity theft, you can report that to us online. Make sure that you include in your report that you received an incorrect 1099-G form.
If we verify that someone else applied for unemployment benefits using your information, we will issue a corrected 1099-G form to you.
