Federal unemployment tax or FUTA is a payroll tax that is paid by the employer only. In other words the payroll tax is based on employee wages but is not withheld from employee pay but taken form the employer. Employer only payroll taxes are often less understood because most people have less experience with them as employees. FUTA payroll tax can also be confusing because it has a low cap of $7,000 at this time. In other words the employer pays FUTA tax on the first $7,000 of each employee earning and then stops paying FUTA after the employee has reached the 7,000 cap. The other confusing thing about FUTA is that the rate is tied to Statue Unemployment Tax or SUTA. In other words, the FUTA tax rate is less if the state has SUTA that the employer must pay. Just about every state does have SUTS so companies generally pay the lower FUTA rate. The FUTA tax is a kind of flat tax, or even rate up to the 7,000 cap. For more accounting information see website. http://accountinginstruction.info/cou…