Professional employer organizations

Current law defines a temporary help company as an entity that contracts with a client to supply individuals to perform services for the client on a temporary basis to support or supplement the workforce of the client in situations such as personnel absences, temporary personnel shortages, and workload changes resulting from seasonal demands or special assignments or projects, and that hires and terminates the employment of, sets the rate of pay of, and pays the individuals.

This bill modifies the definition of PEO to explicitly exclude from the definition both a temporary help agency and a temporary help company.

PEO and PEG small operations registration Currently, a PEO or PEG that has no more than 50 employees performing services for clients in Wisconsin and that is registered or licensed in another state, domiciled in another state, and does not maintain an office in Wisconsin or directly solicit clients that are located or domiciled in Wisconsin may apply for limited registration. This bill changes the name of such registration from limited to small operations.

Currently, an application for PEO or PEG registration or the renewal of registration must be accompanied by a financial statement that sets forth the financial condition of the applicant. This bill exempts a PEO or PEG seeking small operations registration or the renewal of small operations registration from the requirement to provide a financial statement to the department.

Treatment of tax credits and economic development incentives for providing employment and payment of taxes, assessments, expenditures, and benefits of employees Current law provides that, in the event a client of a PEO or PEG is entitled to obtain tax credits or other economic development incentives from the state as a result of that client providing employment, the employees of a PEO or PEG who are providing services for that client are to be considered the employees of the client for purposes of determining the value of such tax credits or economic development incentives. This bill provides that the employees of a PEO or PEG who are providing services for the client will also be considered the employees of the client for the purposes of determining the value of any tax credits or economic development incentives that may be provided by a local governmental unit to a client who provides employment. The bill defines a local governmental unit as a political subdivision of or special purpose district in this state; an instrumentality or corporation of such a political subdivision or special purpose district; a combination or subunit of a political subdivision, special purpose district, instrumentality, or corporation; or an instrumentality of the state and any of the foregoing.

The bill also requires that any taxes, assessments, expenditures, or benefits required by the state or a local governmental unit to be paid by an employer on a per employee basis is to be paid by the client of the PEO or PEG if the employee is performing services for that client, or by the PEO or PEG if the employee is not assigned to or providing services for a client. If a PEO or PEG pays any benefits or monetary consideration to its employees and the benefits or monetary consideration satisfy the requirements imposed by the state or local government unit, the amount of the benefits or monetary consideration are to be applied to any obligations required to be paid by, assessed against, or charged to a client.

Database of registrants Currently, the department must maintain a list of registered PEOs and PEGs.

This bill provides that the department must periodically update the list and make the list available on the department's Internet Web site, and that the list must include the address of each registrant.