Virginia Form FC-20: Filing, Deadlines, and Corrections

Virginia Form FC-20 is the Employer’s Quarterly Tax Report filed with the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) to report total wages paid during a calendar quarter and calculate the unemployment insurance tax owed. Every employer covered under the Virginia Unemployment Compensation Act must file it each quarter, even for quarters with no wages paid, and it goes in alongside Form FC-21, the companion payroll report.¹

How the FC-20 Fits With the FC-21

The two forms are a pair. The FC-21 is the detail sheet: every employee’s Social Security number, name, and total wages, tips, and other compensation paid during the quarter before any deductions. The FC-20 is the summary that pulls those individual wages into aggregate figures and applies your assigned tax rate to work out what you owe.¹ You submit both together in the same filing.

Who Has to File

Any business registered with the VEC as a covered employer files an FC-20/FC-21 every quarter. State and political subdivision employers are also required to file and face the same late-filing penalties as private employers.¹ Employers become subject once they meet certain payroll or employment thresholds, at which point they register and receive an account number and assigned tax rate.²

The Tax Rate and the $8,000 Wage Base

Virginia assigns each employer an unemployment insurance tax rate on a calendar-year basis. Base rates run from a minimum of 0.1% to a maximum of 6.2% depending on your experience rating. New employers with no claims history start at a 2.5% base rate, plus any applicable add-on taxes.³ Your rate notice arrives before the start of each calendar year, and you use that rate on every FC-20 filed during the year.

Only the first $8,000 in wages paid to each employee during the calendar year is subject to unemployment tax. Anything above that for a given employee is excess wages and gets subtracted before the tax calculation.¹ Most employees hit the $8,000 cap early in the year, so taxable wages and tax due tend to be heaviest in the first quarter and taper off from there.

Filling Out the FC-20 Line by Line

The FC-20 has eight numbered lines. The first three handle wage figures; the rest handle money.⁴

Line 1, Total Wages. The sum of all wages you reported on the FC-21 for the quarter. Every dollar paid to every employee before deductions.
Line 2, Excess Wages. For each employee, calculate how much of that quarter’s wages pushed their calendar-year total past $8,000. Add those amounts together. This figure can equal but never exceed Line 1.
Line 3, Wages Subject to Tax. Line 1 minus Line 2. Electronic filers see this calculated automatically.
Line 4, Tax Due. Line 3 multiplied by your assigned tax rate for the year.
Line 5, Interest. If you are paying after the quarterly due date, enter interest at 1.5% per month. Any partial month counts as a full month.
Line 6, Penalty. Any late-filing penalty assessed.
Line 7, Other Dues or Credits. Adjustments, prior balances, or credits.
Line 8, Total Due. Lines 4 through 7 added together. This is what you remit.

Line 2 is where most errors happen. You have to track each employee’s cumulative wages across the entire calendar year, not just the current quarter. If an employee earned $6,000 in Q1 and $5,000 in Q2, only $2,000 of the Q2 wages are taxable because the $8,000 cap was reached mid-quarter; the remaining $3,000 is excess.¹

How to File

The VEC offers three electronic filing methods sized to the employer:⁵

The eForms portal is designed for employers with up to 25 employees. No portal account is required, you get an immediate filing confirmation, and you can pay online with no additional fees.
Business iFile suits businesses with up to 99 employees and lets you key in payroll data online and view account status and VEC communications in real time.
Web Upload has no employee limit. You save all report and payment data into a single file and upload it, which works best for multiple companies or large workforces.

If you file on paper, make the payment payable to the Virginia Employment Commission and write your VEC account number on the check. Do not staple the check to the form. Mail the FC-20, FC-21, and payment together to the address listed on the form.

When It’s Due and What Late Costs

The FC-20 and FC-21 are due by the last day of the month following the close of each calendar quarter: roughly April 30 for Q1, July 31 for Q2, October 31 for Q3, and January 31 for Q4. Electronic filers can schedule a payment up to the due date.²

Filing late triggers a flat $100 penalty per report, and it applies to state and political subdivision employers too. No penalty is assessed for a quarter in which you paid no wages. Newly covered employers owe the $100 penalty for each overdue report if they fail to file by the due date of the quarter in which they became subject to the law.⁶

Unpaid tax accrues interest at 1.5% per month, an 18% annual rate. One day into a new month counts as a full month, so waiting has a real cost.¹

Fixing a Mistake on a Filed FC-20

If you find errors after submitting, use Form FC-34, the Combined Amended Quarterly Tax and Wage Report. For each affected line, you enter the originally reported amount, the correct amount, and the difference. If the correction produces additional tax, multiply the difference by your tax rate for the year being amended and add interest at 1.5% per month from the original due date.⁷

If the amendment creates a credit, you can apply it against current or future amounts owed. An actual refund requires a separate written request with an authorized signature. For corrections that only involve Social Security numbers, use Form FC-34SN instead. Mail an amended return with payment to VEC, Cashiers Unit, P.O. Box 27592, Richmond, VA 23261-7592. Without payment, send it to VEC, Auditing Unit, P.O. Box 26441, Richmond, VA 23261-6441.⁷

1
Virginia Employment Commission. eForms FC-20/FC-21 Quarterly Payroll and Tax Report Instructions
2
Virginia Employment Commission. Filing Unemployment Taxes
3
Virginia Employment Commission. VEC Employers
4
Virginia Employment Commission. Form FC-20/FC-21 Employer’s Quarterly Tax and Payroll Report
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Virginia Employment Commission. Employer Quarterly FC-20/FC-21 eForm
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Virginia Code Commission. Virginia Code 60.2-513 – Failure of Employing Unit to File Reports
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Virginia Employment Commission. Combined Amended Quarterly Tax and Wage Reports (VEC FC-34) Instructions