X12 153 — Unemployment Insurance Tax Claim or Charge Information

Employer or Third Party Administrator transmits to the State SUTA agency the information on an unemployment-insurance claim or charge.

Purpose

The 153 supports the US SUTA (State Unemployment Tax) information cycle. When a laid-off employee files a claim, the State queries the employer (notice of claim). The employer responds with the 153 (contesting or not, providing employment history). The 153 is also used to transmit periodic charges (statement of charges) to adjust the employer tax rate.

Envelope structure

The 153 travels inside the three X12 envelope levels (ISA/IEA, GS/GE with functional group UI, and ST/SE). Didactic example in 004010:

ISA*00*          *00*          *ZZ*EMPLOYER01    *ZZ*STATESUTA     *260516*1800*U*00401*000000153*0*P*>~
GS*UI*EMPLOYER01*STATESUTA*20260516*1800*1*X*004010~
ST*153*0001~
BAL*CL*CLM-2026-001*20260516~
NM1*IL*1*DOE*JOHN****34*123-45-6789~
NM1*36*2*ACME CORP*****FI*12-3456789~
REF*EM*EMP-001~
DTM*036*20240115~
DTM*037*20260430~
AMT*GO*45000.00~
SE*9*0001~
GE*1*1~
IEA*1*000000153~

Common segments

• Header — ST, BAL Beginning of Account Listing.
• Claimant — NM1*IL.
• Employer — NM1*36 + FEIN.
• Claim detail — REF, DTM, AMT.
• Reason / contest — NTE notes.
• Summary — SE.

Common pitfalls

• State response deadline: often 10 days. Beyond, the employer loses the right to contest.
• Wrong FEIN: the FEIN/State Account number pair must match the employer registration State-side.
• No separation reason: layoff, fired, quit — each code drives claimant eligibility.

Related transactions

• X12 — Hub

Documentation

The 153 code and the Unemployment Insurance Tax Claim or Charge Information name are public and listed at x12.org/products/transaction-sets. The full loops/qualifiers/code-lists structure is distributed by DISA via proprietary Implementation Guides (TR3). ediverse.io covers only public concepts, the envelope and didactic examples.