Mississippi SUTA Tax Calculator
Figure basis: Official U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment InsuranceState Unemployment Tax Act (SUTA) tax is the state unemployment insurance tax that employers pay to fund unemployment benefits in Mississippi. This calculator estimates your Mississippi SUTA liability for the 2026 tax year. Enter the average annual wages per employee, your number of employees, and your assigned SUTA rate to see the taxable wages, tax per employee, and total tax. SUTA is charged only on the first $14,000 of each employee's wages (the 2026 Mississippi taxable wage base); wages above that per employee are not taxed. Your rate is set by the state based on your business's unemployment claim history (your "experience rating"); a new employer pays 1%. SUTA is separate from the federal FUTA tax and, in most states, is paid entirely by the employer and never deducted from employee wages. All wage-base and rate figures are sourced from U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance and verified for 2026. Replace the default rate with the rate on your state tax-rate notice for an exact figure.
In Mississippi, employers pay SUTA on the first $14,000 of each employee's wages for 2026, and a new employer pays 1%. For 5 employees earning $50,000 each at 1%, the estimated annual SUTA tax is $700.00 ($140.00 per employee).
How Mississippi SUTA tax works
Mississippi charges state unemployment tax on each employee's wages up to the taxable wage base of $14,000 for 2026. Once an employee has earned that much in the year, no further SUTA is due on that employee. Your rate is assigned by the state from your experience rating; a new employer pays 1%.
taxable wages per employee = min(annual wages, $14,000)
SUTA tax per employee = taxable wages per employee x rate / 100
total SUTA tax = SUTA tax per employee x number of employees
Worked example: 5 employees each earning $50,000 in Mississippi at 1%. Each employee's taxable wages are capped at $14,000, so the tax per employee is $140.00 and the total is $700.00.
Mississippi SUTA figures (2026)
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Taxable wage base | $14,000 | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
| New employer rate | 1% | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
| Experience rate range | 0% to 5.4% | U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance |
The experience-rate range shown is the base statutory range. Most states add mandatory assessments on top (for example a fund-building, solvency, or administrative surcharge), so an employer's effective rate can be higher than the range shown, and the new-employer rate may exclude those add-ons. Your exact assigned rate is on your annual state tax-rate notice.
What a new Mississippi employer should expect
Mississippi keeps its unemployment tax comparatively light for new businesses. The taxable wage base is $14,000 per employee for 2026, and a brand-new employer pays a low 1% rate, among the more modest new-employer rates in the country. On that $14,000 base, 1% comes to just $140.00 per employee per year, a small fixed cost that makes the state's payroll tax easy to budget for in a company's first years.
The experience-rate range runs from 0% at the floor to 5.4% at the ceiling. That 5.4% cap is no accident: it lines up with the standard maximum credit against the federal FUTA tax, so Mississippi employers who pay their state tax in full and on time preserve the full federal offset. An employer at the very bottom of the range with no recent claims can owe nothing at all, while one with heavy layoff activity pays the full 5.4%, or $756.00 per employee on the $14,000 base.
New employers should expect to hold near that 1% starting rate while the Mississippi Department of Employment Security builds an experience history, generally over the first few years, before an experience-based rate takes over. The 1% shown here is the statutory new-employer figure; replace it with the rate on your annual tax-rate notice once assigned for an exact liability.
Mississippi SUTA tax: frequently asked questions
What is the Mississippi unemployment (SUTA) taxable wage base for 2026?
For 2026, Mississippi employers pay state unemployment tax on the first $14,000 of each employee's wages. Wages above $14,000 per employee are not subject to SUTA.
What is the Mississippi new employer SUTA rate?
New employers in Mississippi pay a SUTA rate of 1% until they have enough history to be experience-rated. On the $14,000 wage base that is up to $140.00 per employee per year.
How is Mississippi SUTA tax calculated?
Multiply each employee's wages, capped at the $14,000 taxable wage base, by your assigned experience rate, then add up across employees. SUTA is primarily an employer-paid tax and is not deducted from employee pay.
Is the Mississippi SUTA rate the same for every employer?
No. After the new-employer period, Mississippi assigns each employer an experience rate based on its history of layoffs and claims, generally ranging from about 0% to 5.4% for experience-rated employers before any state add-on surcharges. The rate field above defaults to the new-employer rate; replace it with the rate on your state tax notice for an exact figure.
Official sources
- Mississippi unemployment taxable wage base and rates (tax year 2026): U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Unemployment Insurance, as at Jul 15, 2026.
Reviewed by the CalculatorHub team, edited by James Graham, 15 July 2026. See our methodology. General information, not tax or legal advice.