DENVER — The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE estimates more than 11,630 initial Unemployment Insurance (UI) claims were filed in Colorado after adjusting for fraud.
The Colorado Department of Revenue (CDR) also announced Thursday that the income tax payment and filing deadline has been extended for individuals and families
> Video above: What to do if you become a victim of unemployment fraud.
Individuals will have the option to pay any 2020 income tax payments by May 17, 2021 instead of the normal due date of April 15, 2021 without any penalties or interest.
The extension only applies to money owed by taxpayers for the 2020 income year. It does not apply to estimated payments for the 2021 income tax year due from individuals and cooperation's on April 15, 2021.
The extension does not apply to returns and payments for other tax types and taxpayers, CDR said, including C corporations, partnerships, S corporations, and fiduciaries, and severance tax.
The extension is automatic, and taxpayers who qualify do not need to call or file and additional forms.
Taxpayers who need additional time to file are automatically granted a filing extension until Oct. 15, but CDR recommends paying by May 17 to avoid interest and penalties.
CDR said the extension is similar to a one month extension recently announced by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
Latest Colorado unemployment benefits data
CDLE estimated that 11,633 regular UI claims were filed for the week ending March 13, and $31.3 million in regular UI benefits were paid out.
There were also 1,473 Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) claims were filed the same week.
For the week ending March 6, CDLE said 257,881 continued claims were filed including 90,965 for regular UI, 52,109 for PUA and 114,807 for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC).
CDLE estimates the continued claims were filed by roughly 210,799 individuals.
Since mid-March of 2020, and estimated 896,593 regular unemployment claims have been filed, and 1,127,465 unemployment in total have been filed including the PUA program.
Unemployment benefits paid by Colorado between March 29,2020 and March 13, 2021
- Regular UI: $2.79 Billion
- PUA (gig workers/self-employed): $1.20 Billion
- Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation ($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants): $3.10 Billion
- PEUC (extends unemployment benefits 21 additional weeks): $636.3 Million
- State Extended Benefits (extends unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks): $31.1 Million
- Lost Wages Assistance ($300/weekly UI benefits to eligible claimants, fall 2020): $389.2 Million
- Total: $8.13 Billion
Stimulus Check deposits begin
The United States Department of the Treasury says it has sent out 90 million economic impact payments totaling $242 billion since President Joe Biden signed a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan last week.
The bulk of those payments were made by the IRS as direct deposits, which recipients starting seeing in their bank accounts last weekend, officials said Wednesday.
In addition, Treasury has mailed out roughly 150,000 checks worth about $442 million.
Processing of the payments began last Friday, the day after Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, which authorized direct payments of up to $1,400 to qualifying individuals.
Treasury said the first batch of payments went to eligible taxpayers who provided direct-deposit information on their 2019 or 2020 tax returns. Included were people who don't typically file a return but who used a non-filers tool at IRS.gov last year to be included in two earlier rounds of COVID-19 relief payments.
Latest U.S. unemployment data
The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week to 770,000, a sign that layoffs remain high even as much of the U.S. economy is steadily recovering from the coronavirus recession.
Thursday's report from the United States Department of Labor showed that jobless claims climbed from 725,000 the week before. The numbers have dropped sharply since the depths of the recession last spring but still show that employers in some industries continue to lay off workers. Before the pandemic struck, applications for unemployment aid had never topped 700,000 in any one week.
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