Only a few states have electronic filing systems for businesses to certify employees under the federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit. Good news for employers in New Jersey — your state has now joined the ranks!

“Employers or tax credit consultants that represent employers may use the WOTC electronic filing system,” said Anthony Ferrera, director of the [New Jersey] Labor Department’s Workforce Portfolio and Contract Management. “The new electronic online system offers more flexibility and control over the application process, which is available 24 hours. The online system not only minimizes errors, but it also moves the process along more quickly so we may promptly validate a business’s tax credit certification.”

My contacts in California tell me The Golden State could be next.   California’s Employment Development Department is working on it and has tentatively set the time table to roll out electronic WOTC filing by the end of 2011.
This might provide relief to the heavy backlog of WOTC applications currently stuck in the CA WOTC Center.  Employers are only now (in the middle of August 2011) receiving WOTC certifications for CA employees hired in November of last year.
See the article today by Tom Hester, Sr. of NewJerseyNewsRoom.com