There’s precious little time, but the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) has given employers a deadline of tomorrow, August 15, 2020 to fill out and submit Form UCB-18823-E for employees who filed their initial COVID-19 related unemployment claims for weeks after May 15, 2020. The department recently announced that employers must move quickly to ensure that initial COVID-19 related unemployment benefits are not charged to their UI accounts. Act 185, enacted by the Wisconsin legislature in April, directed the DWD to determine whether UI claims were related to the COVID-19 public health emergency (declared by the Governor on March 12) and if so, mandated that benefits are chargeable to the state UI fund balancing account- but only if the employer affirmatively asserts that any initial unemployment claims occurring between May 16 and June 30, 2020 were related to COVID-19.  Again, employers will only receive benefit charge relief for initial unemployment claims occurring between May 16 – June 30 if they complete and file Form UCB-18823-E by August 15, 2020!