STATE OF WISCONSIN
LABOR AND INDUSTRY REVIEW COMMISSION
P O BOX 8126, MADISON, WI 53708-8126 (608/266-9850)

TOM L BURSE, Employee

TOM L BURSE, Employer

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE DECISION
Hearing No. 11611928MW


An administrative law judge (ALJ) for the Division of Unemployment Insurance of the Department of Workforce Development issued a decision in this matter. A timely petition for review was filed.

The commission has considered the petition and the positions of the parties, and it has reviewed the evidence submitted to the ALJ. Based on its review, the commission agrees with the decision of the ALJ, and it adopts the findings and conclusion in that decision as its own.

DECISION

The decision of the administrative law judge is affirmed. Accordingly, the employee is not eligible for benefits beginning in week 47 of 2011.

Dated and mailed March 29, 2012
burseto : 105 : 7

BY THE COMMISSION:

/s/ Robert Glaser, Chairperson

/s/ Ann L. Crump, Commissioner

/s/ Laurie R. McCallum, Commissioner

MEMORANDUM OPINION

The appellant asserts in his petition for review that he was an employee of the limited liability company and that the company was set up in order for him to be able to draw unemployment if the company closed. Unfortunately, each of these assertions is incorrect. The appellant was 100% owner of the company and the company had not elected to have the Internal Revenue Service treat the company as a corporation. Absent that election, though, Wis. Stat. § 108.068 requires that single-member limited liability companies be treated under Chapter 108 as sole proprietorships. Pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 108.02(12)(dm), an individual who owns a business that operates as a sole proprietorship, when performing services for that business, does not do so as an employee. Thus, regardless of how the appellant believed the company was set up, it was not set up in a way that would gain the appellant eligibility for unemployment insurance based upon services the appellant performed for the company.

For these reasons, and for those stated in the appeal tribunal decision, the commission has affirmed that decision.



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