§ 27-3-507 — Person acquiring trade of employing unit; transfer of experience and assignment of rates

(a) A person acquiring the trade, organization, business
or substantially all the assets of an employer subject to this
act shall assume the employer's account, benefit experience and
contribution rate. If the acquiring person is an employer
subject to this act, the department shall consolidate the
separate accounts and benefit experience and shall determine the
contribution rate of the acquiring person effective the first
day of the calendar quarter following the date of acquisition.
A delinquency rate shall be assumed by the acquiring person as
provided in W.S. 27-3-503(b) when the acquiring person owned or
controlled an interest in the transferring employer or if the
acquiring person is a member of the immediate family of the
transferring employer.
(b) The transfer of some or all of an employer's workforce
to another person shall be considered a transfer of trade or
business when, as a result of the transfer, the transferring
employer no longer performs trade or business with respect to
the transferred workforce, and the trade or business is
performed by the person to whom the workforce is transferred.
(c) If an employer transfers all or a portion of its trade
or business to another employer and, at the time of the
transfer, there is substantially common ownership, management or
control of the two (2) employers, then the unemployment
insurance experience attributable to the transferred trade or
business shall be transferred to the employer to whom the
business is transferred. The rates of both employers shall be
recalculated and made effective the first day of the calendar
quarter immediately following the date of the transfer of trade
or business. Both employers may be given a delinquency rate as
provided in W.S. 27-3-503(b) if applicable.
(d) If, following a transfer of experience under this
section, the department determines that a substantial purpose of
the transfer of the trade or business was to obtain a reduced
liability for contributions, then the accounts of the employers
involved shall be combined into a single account and a single
rate assigned to the account.
(e) If a person is not an employer under this section at
the time the person acquires the trade or business of an
employer, the unemployment insurance experience of the acquired
employer shall not be transferred to the person if the
department finds that the person acquired the trade or business
of the employer solely or primarily for the purpose of obtaining
a lower rate of contributions. Instead, the person shall be
assigned the applicable new employer rate under W.S.
27-3-503(b). In determining whether the trade or business was
acquired solely or primarily for the purpose of obtaining a
lower rate of contributions, the department shall use objective
factors which may include the cost of acquiring the business,
whether the person continued the business enterprise of the
acquired business, how long the business enterprise was
continued, or whether a substantial number of new employees were
hired for performance of duties unrelated to the business
activity conducted prior to acquisition.
(f) The department shall establish procedures to identify
the transfer or acquisition of a business for purposes of this
section and W.S. 27-3-706.