(A) Whenever any person or other legal entity has in any manner succeeded to or has acquired substantially all or a distinct and severable portion of the business of another, as provided in Sections 41-31-100 and 41-31-120, the base rates of contributions are computed as follows:

(1) If the successor is not already an employer at the time of the acquisition, the base rate of contributions applicable to the predecessor employer with respect to the period immediately preceding the date of acquisition, if there is only one predecessor employer, shall apply to the successor employer for the remainder of the calendar year.

(2) If the successor is not already an employer at the time of the acquisition and there is more than one transferring employer with a different base rate, the successor employer is assigned the base rate of that transferring employer who has the highest base rate.

(3) If the successor is already an employer at the time of the acquisition, the base rate of contributions applicable at the time of the acquisition to the successor employer shall continue to be the applicable base rate.

(B) For the purposes of items (1), (2), and (3) in subsection (A), the base rate as assigned continues in effect for the remainder of the calendar year and until the time the combined employment benefit experience record meets the requirements as provided in Section 41-31-40.

HISTORY: 1962 Code Section 68-179; 1952 Code Section 68-179; 1942 (42) 1691; 1943 (43) 318; 1944 (43) 1296; 1966 (54) 2640; 1981 Act No. 108 Section 7; 1986 Act No. 361, Section 2, eff April 3, 1986; 1999 Act No. 37, Section 7, eff June 1, 1999; 2002 Act No. 306, Section 6, eff June 5, 2002; 2010 Act No. 234, Section 1, eff January 1, 2011.

Effect of Amendment

The 1986 amendment made grammatical changes in this section; substituted "for the remainder of the calendar year" for "until the next computation date" and added the provision relative to computation of the rate for the subsequent calendar year in item (a); and, in the last paragraph, substituted "for the remainder of the calendar year" for "until the next computation date under Section 41-31-50", added provisions relative to computation of the rate for the subsequent calendar year, and added "and at such time as provided in Section 41-31-40".

The 1999 amendment substituted "base rate" for "rate" throughout, and made other minor changes.

The 2002 amendment, in paragraph (a), deleted the last sentence which formerly read, "The base rate for the subsequent calendar year is computed based upon the employment benefit experience record of the predecessor or upon the combined employment benefit experience record of the predecessor and the successor, if applicable, as of June thirtieth of the year in which the acquisition occurred."; in paragraphs (b) and (c), substituted "for the remainder of the year" for "until the end of the quarter in which the succession occurs"; and rewrote the last undesignated paragraph.

The 2010 amendment added the subsection (A) and (B) identifiers; changed the paragraph (a), (b), and (c) identifiers to (1), (2), and (3); in subsection (A)(2) deleted at the end text relating to the applicability of the base rate for the remainder of the year; and in subsection (A)(2) substituted "base rate." for "for the remainder of the year.".