{ "_meta": { "purpose": "What a business must register for when it hires someone in another state or sells into one. Deliberately excludes entity FORMATION, which llcCosts.js and the 51 how-to-start-an-llc pages already cover.", "contract": "docs/datasets/state-compliance-contract.md", "reviewed": "2026-09-08", "status": "17 of 51 states.", "schemaVersion": 2, "schemaNote": "v2 after the pilot. v1 could not express: a state with one combined payroll account (CA), workers comp being optional rather than threshold-based (TX), gross receipts tax in place of sales tax (DE), state paid leave keyed to headcount (DE), fees that differ by entity type (CA, DE), or nexus that ends only when you file to end it (TX).", "staleness": "Every state resets its unemployment rate and taxable wage base annually, so this file is materially wrong within twelve months. Re-collect each January." }, "states": { "california": { "state": "California", "abbr": "CA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "unemployment insurance", "employment training tax", "state disability insurance", "personal income tax withholding" ], "note": "California does not have a separate income tax withholding account. One EDD payroll tax account number covers all four state payroll taxes at once, so you register once rather than opening several accounts." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "California Employment Development Department (EDD)", "url": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/step-1-register-as-an-employer", "registerWhen": "Within 15 days after you pay more than $100 in wages in a calendar quarter", "note": "The trap is the trigger amount. It is $100 in wages in a calendar quarter, not $100 per employee and not an annual figure, so almost any real hire crosses it in the first pay period and starts the 15 day clock. Household employers get a higher trigger of $750 in cash wages in a quarter.", "source": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/step-1-register-as-an-employer", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "California Employment Development Department (EDD)", "url": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/rates_and_withholding/", "newEmployerRate": 0.034, "wageBase": 7000, "year": "2026", "note": "New employers pay 3.4% for the first two to three years, charged only on the first $7,000 of each employee's wages a year. After that you move to an experience rate based on your own layoff history, and for 2026 California is on Schedule F+, running 1.5% to 6.2%. An Employment Training Tax of 0.1% sits on top of the same first $7,000.", "source": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/rates_and_withholding/", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "California Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/faqs.html", "note": "Required from your very first employee, with no small employer exemption. Going without it is not just a fine: it is a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail and up to $10,000, the state can add penalties up to $100,000, and it can issue a stop order that legally bars you from using any employee labor until you are covered. Buy the policy before the first day worked.", "source": "https://www.dir.ca.gov/dwc/faqs.html", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 calendar days of the employee's start-of-work date", "agency": "California Employment Development Department, New Employee Registry", "url": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/new_hire_reporting/", "note": "The clock runs from the first day they actually performed services for wages, not the day they signed the offer letter. A rehire counts as a new hire and must be reported again if the worker was off your payroll for at least 60 consecutive days.", "source": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/new_hire_reporting/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": 0.013, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "California Employment Development Department (EDD)", "url": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/rates_and_withholding/", "note": "State Disability Insurance is withheld from the employee at 1.3% for 2026 and, unusually, has no wage cap at all, so it applies to every dollar of a high earner's pay. It was 1.2% in 2025, so it moves annually. There is no employee-count threshold: it applies from the first employee.", "source": "https://edd.ca.gov/en/payroll_taxes/rates_and_withholding/", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA)", "url": "https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/taxes-and-fees/faqseller.htm", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "CDTFA can require a security deposit at registration to cover tax that would go unpaid if the business later closed. The amount is set case by case during the application, so there is no fixed figure to plan around.", "registerBy": "Before you begin making retail sales in California", "note": "The permit itself is free and you apply online. Register before your first sale rather than after, because the statute requires anyone who wants to conduct business as a seller to file the application first, and selling without a permit exposes you to fines and penalties.", "source": "https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/taxes-and-fees/faqseller.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "In force since October 2019. If you sell only through a registered marketplace, the platform is treated as the retailer and you do not register for those sales. The catch is the word only: the moment you also sell direct, through your own website or in person, you are the retailer on those sales and your own duties come back. Keep written confirmation that your marketplace is actually CDTFA registered.", "source": "https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/industry/MPFAct.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "California does not publish a rule it calls trailing nexus, but its statute produces the same effect for a full year. You must register and collect once deliveries into California pass the threshold during the preceding or current calendar year. Because the prior year counts, a big year followed by a quiet one still leaves you collecting through all of that quiet year. Do not close a permit the moment sales drop off.", "source": "https://www.cdtfa.ca.gov/industry/wayfair.htm", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "California has no gross receipts tax at state level. Some cities, notably San Francisco and Los Angeles, levy their own local gross receipts taxes, so check the city you are actually operating in.", "source": null, "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "California Secretary of State, Business Programs Division", "url": "https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/forms", "feeLLC": 70, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "$70 to register a foreign LLC on form LLC-5, $100 for a foreign stock corporation, $30 for a foreign nonprofit.", "note": "An out-of-state business transacting intrastate business in California must register before operating. Registering is only the entry ticket: it also pulls you into California's annual entity filing and franchise tax obligations, and you will need a California agent for service of process named on the form.", "source": "https://bpd.cdn.sos.ca.gov/pdf/be-fee-schedule-062018.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "texas": { "state": "Texas", "abbr": "TX", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [], "note": "Texas splits the work across three separate agencies with three separate logins: unemployment tax at the Workforce Commission, new hire reporting at the Attorney General, and sales tax at the Comptroller. There is no single business registration." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/", "registerWhen": null, "note": "Texas has no personal income tax, so there is no state withholding account to open and no state W-4. This is not a policy that could flip next session: voters put the ban in the state constitution in 2019. You still withhold federal income tax plus Social Security and Medicare as normal. The trap is assuming no state income tax means no state payroll registration at all, because you still owe unemployment tax to the Workforce Commission.", "source": "https://tlc.texas.gov/docs/legref/TxConst.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Texas Workforce Commission (TWC)", "url": "https://www.twc.texas.gov/programs/unemployment-tax", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 9000, "year": "2026", "note": "Texas law sets a new employer's rate at whichever is higher, its industry average or 2.7%, and for 2026 the entry level rate is 2.70% for all groups with no exceptions. You pay it only on the first $9,000 of each employee's wages, so the maximum first-year cost is about $243 per employee. Register within ten days of becoming liable, which happens as soon as you pay $1,500 or more in gross wages in a calendar quarter.", "source": "https://www.twc.texas.gov/programs/unemployment-tax/new-texas-employer-information", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": true, "employeeThreshold": null, "requiredFor": [ "building or construction employers contracting with a governmental entity, for every employee on that public project" ], "optOutFilings": "File a DWC Form-005 notice of no coverage after your first hire and again every year between February 1 and April 30, post a notice of no coverage in the workplace, give new hires written notice, and if you have five or more employees report work-related injuries with more than one day of lost time.", "agency": "Texas Department of Insurance, Division of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://www.tdi.texas.gov/wc/employer/index.html", "note": "Texas is the one state where workers compensation is optional for most private employers, so there is no employee count that triggers it. Opting out is not free of obligations, and it removes the liability limit that workers compensation gives an employer, so an injured worker can sue you directly for damages. Private clients also often require coverage in their contracts.", "source": "https://www.tdi.texas.gov/pubs/factsheets/employerrr.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 calendar days of the date the employee starts earning wages, or twice monthly 12 to 16 days apart if you report electronically", "agency": "Office of the Attorney General of Texas, Child Support Division", "url": "https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/child-support/employers/new-hire-reporting", "note": "The rule of thumb is that anyone who fills out a federal W-4 must be reported, and rehires count. Penalties are small but per-employee: $25 each time you fail to report, and $500 if you conspire with an employee to skip or falsify one. Note this goes to the Attorney General, not the Workforce Commission where your unemployment reports go, so it is a separate account and a separate login.", "source": "https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/child-support/employers/new-hire-reporting", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Texas has no state paid family leave or state disability insurance program, so there is no payroll deduction for one. Any paid leave you offer is voluntary or contractual.", "source": "https://www.twc.texas.gov/programs/unemployment-tax", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts", "url": "https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/permit/", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "You may be required to post a security bond if the Comptroller thinks the tax you will owe is at risk of going unpaid.", "registerBy": "A remote seller that crosses the threshold must hold a permit and start collecting by the first day of the fourth month after the month it crossed. No numeric deadline is published for in-state sellers, who simply must hold a permit to sell taxable items.", "note": "Allow two to three weeks to receive the permit, and note you need a separate permit for each active place of business. The trap once you hold one is that returns become mandatory: you must file every period even with zero taxable sales, and the filing duty continues until you formally close the location and return the permit for cancellation.", "source": "https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/faq/permit.php", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A marketplace provider must collect and remit tax on everything sold through its marketplace and certify to its sellers that it is doing so. If no certification arrives, keep collecting until it does. The trap for Texas-based sellers is that certification does not release you from holding a permit: a seller located in Texas must still keep its permit and file on time even when every sale goes through a marketplace.", "source": "https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/marketplace-providers-sellers.php", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "affirmative-termination", "note": "Nexus and the duty to collect do not lapse on their own in Texas. A remote seller has to actively file a Remote Seller's Intent to Terminate Use Tax Responsibilities form to end its status, and any permit holder keeps owing returns, even zero-dollar ones, until the permit is closed and returned for cancellation. Treat stopping collection as something you file for, not something that happens automatically.", "source": "https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/sales/remote-sellers.php", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Texas has no gross receipts tax as such. Its franchise tax, often called the margin tax, is computed from revenue and functions similarly for many businesses, and it is covered on the Texas LLC page rather than here.", "source": null, "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Texas Secretary of State, Corporations Section", "url": "https://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/forms_boc.shtml", "feeLLC": 750, "feeCorp": 750, "feeNote": "$750 for a foreign for-profit corporation, LLC or limited partnership. Foreign nonprofit corporations pay $25.", "note": "Texas is one of the most expensive states in the country for this filing, so budget for it before you take on a Texas location or Texas employees. The expensive mistake is registering late: an entity that has transacted business for more than ninety days without registering owes a late fee equal to the registration fee for each full or partial calendar year it operated unregistered, so three years of activity means $750 in fees plus $2,250 in penalties.", "source": "https://direct.sos.state.tx.us/help/help-corp.asp?pg=fee", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "delaware": { "state": "Delaware", "abbr": "DE", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "gross receipts tax", "business license" ], "note": "Delaware's Combined Registration Application through One Stop opens your withholding account, your business license and your gross receipts tax account together. Unemployment insurance is separate, at the Department of Labor." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Delaware Division of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/employers-guide-withholding-regulations-employers-duties/", "registerWhen": "Before your first Delaware payroll, via the Combined Registration Application at One Stop", "note": "You need your federal EIN before you register, because Delaware assigns you the same number as your withholding account number. One thing that surprises new employers: every brand new withholding account starts out filing monthly, not quarterly, so the paperwork begins right away rather than at the end of the quarter. Delaware publishes no specific number of days to register, so treat your first payroll date as the real deadline.", "source": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/employers-guide-withholding-regulations-employers-duties/", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Unemployment Insurance", "url": "https://labor.delaware.gov/divisions/unemployment-insurance/employer-services/", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 14500, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new Delaware employer pays 1.0% on the first $14,500 of each employee's wages. Both numbers move every year and they move a lot: the wage base was $10,500 as recently as 2024 and the new employer rate was 1.8% in 2022. Delaware is also replacing its whole unemployment tax structure in 2027 with eight schedules plus add-on rates based on industry and headcount, so do not assume this year's rate carries forward.", "source": "https://labor.delaware.gov/divisions/unemployment-insurance/employer-services/", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Delaware Department of Labor, Division of Industrial Affairs", "url": "https://labor.delaware.gov/divisions/industrial-affairs/workers-comp/", "note": "Delaware gives you no free headcount: the law applies to any employment where one or more employees are engaged. A few narrow categories sit outside it, including farm labor, household workers earning under $750 in any three month period from one home, and genuinely casual work outside your regular trade. Sole proprietors and partners are not automatically covered but can elect in, while corporate officers and LLC members are covered unless they file a written exemption.", "source": "https://delcode.delaware.gov/title19/c023/sc01/index.html", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's date of hire", "agency": "Delaware Division of Child Support Services", "url": "https://dhss.delaware.gov/dcss/division-of-child-support-services/employers/", "note": "This is a separate filing from your withholding registration and it is easy to miss, because it goes to the Division of Child Support Services rather than the Division of Revenue. A copy of the W-4 is an accepted way to send it. Delaware moved this to a new reporting website in 2026, so bookmarks and vendor instructions from earlier years may point at a dead page.", "source": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/employers-guide-withholding-regulations-employers-duties/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 10, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Delaware Department of Labor", "url": "https://labor.delaware.gov/", "note": "Delaware Paid Leave began payroll deductions in January 2025 and started paying benefits in January 2026. The obligation turns on headcount: employers with 9 or fewer Delaware employees are exempt, those with 10 to 24 owe parental leave coverage, and those with 25 or more owe full coverage. Hiring your tenth Delaware employee therefore crosses a real threshold. Contribution percentages are not recorded here because they could not be confirmed on a primary page.", "source": "https://labor.delaware.gov/", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": false, "permit": { "agency": null, "url": null, "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": null, "note": "There is no Delaware sales tax permit to apply for, because Delaware has no state or local sales tax. What catches people out is the gross receipts tax described below, which applies instead.", "source": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/frequently-asked-questions/business-licenses-faqs/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": false, "note": "A marketplace facilitator law exists to make platforms collect a sales tax, and Delaware has none to collect. If you sell into Delaware through a marketplace, no platform is collecting Delaware tax for you and you pick up no Delaware filing duty from those sales.", "source": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/frequently-asked-questions/business-licenses-faqs/", "confidence": "S" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "none", "note": "There is no sales tax and no economic nexus threshold to cross, so nothing trails. What can continue after you wind down is the Delaware side: a business license and gross receipts tax account stay open until you close them with the Division of Revenue, so tell them when you stop operating rather than just going quiet.", "source": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/frequently-asked-questions/business-licenses-faqs/", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Delaware gross receipts tax", "agency": "Delaware Division of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/frequently-asked-questions/business-licenses-faqs/", "rateRange": "0.0945% to 1.9914% depending on business activity, and up to 2.4218% on petroleum products", "exclusionThreshold": 100000, "note": "This is the trap in a state people choose for having no sales tax. It is paid by the seller rather than collected from the customer, and it is charged on total revenue with no deduction for cost of goods, labor or any other expense. You register by getting a Delaware business license through One Stop, generally $75 for a first location, obtained when business commences. Most businesses get a monthly exclusion starting around $100,000 of receipts and reaching $1,250,000, so smaller sellers often owe nothing while still being required to license and file.", "source": "https://revenue.delaware.gov/frequently-asked-questions/business-licenses-faqs/", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Delaware Division of Corporations", "url": "https://corp.delaware.gov/howtoform/", "feeLLC": 200, "feeCorp": null, "feeNote": "The Delaware Code fixes the foreign LLC registration fee at $200. Corporations pay a base amount plus fees that scale with authorized shares, so there is no single figure; check the Division of Corporations fee schedule.", "note": "Delaware also requires you to appoint and keep a registered agent with a real street address in the state, an ongoing annual cost separate from this filing fee. Registering with the Division of Corporations does not license you to operate: the business license and gross receipts tax account from the Division of Revenue are a separate step.", "source": "https://delcode.delaware.gov/title6/c018/sc11/index.html", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "north-carolina": { "state": "North Carolina", "abbr": "NC", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales and use tax" ], "note": "North Carolina gets you part of the way to one stop. The Department of Revenue's online business registration, and the paper Form NC-BR behind it, opens your withholding account and your sales and use tax certificate in the same free application. Unemployment insurance is not in that application: it is a separate registration with the Division of Employment Security, and workers compensation is a private insurance purchase rather than a state account at all. Treat North Carolina as two registrations plus an insurance policy, not one." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "North Carolina Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.ncdor.gov/registration", "registerWhen": "Before your first North Carolina payroll, using online business registration or Form NC-BR", "note": "Being an out of state employer does not excuse you: a nonresident employee is subject to North Carolina withholding on the part of their wages earned for work performed in the state. The reverse catches people too, because an employee who lives in North Carolina is subject to withholding on all wages even when the work happens elsewhere. Register electronically and you generally get the account number immediately, but a mailed NC-BR can take four weeks, so do not leave it until the week before payday.", "source": "https://www.ncdor.gov/withholding-tax-frequently-asked-questions", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "North Carolina Division of Employment Security", "url": "https://www.des.nc.gov/employers/tax-rate-information", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 34200, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new employer pays 1.0% on the first $34,200 of each employee's wages, and that beginning rate holds until you have enough history to be experience rated. You become liable once you have paid at least $1,500 in wages in any calendar quarter this year or last, or employed someone in 20 different weeks in a year. The wage base is reset by statute annually and has climbed steadily, from $26,000 in 2021 to $34,200 in 2026, so never reuse last year's figure.", "source": "https://www.des.nc.gov/employers/tax-rate-information", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 3, "requiredFor": [ "any employer with one or more employees whose work involves the use or presence of radiation", "agricultural employers with 10 or more full-time nonseasonal farm workers regularly employed" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "North Carolina Industrial Commission", "url": "https://www.ic.nc.gov/wcinsrqmt.html", "note": "The Act covers businesses that regularly employ three or more people, so hiring your third North Carolina worker switches the obligation on. Two things trip people up in the counting: corporate officers count toward the three even though they may then exclude themselves from the policy, so a corporation with two officers and one worker is already covered, while sole proprietors, partners and LLC members do not count automatically and must elect in for their own coverage. Radiation work has no free headcount at all, and one employee is enough.", "source": "https://www.ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/HTML/BySection/Chapter_97/GS_97-2.html", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's date of hire", "agency": "North Carolina New Hire Directory, Child Support Services", "url": "https://ncnewhires.ncdhhs.gov/", "note": "This report goes to the New Hire Directory run by Child Support Services, not to the Department of Revenue, so completing your tax registrations does not satisfy it. It applies to rehires as well as new employees. Employers reporting electronically may instead send two transmissions a month spaced no more than 16 days apart. The penalty is small per head but compounds: up to $25 per unreported employee, rising to $500 where employer and employee agreed not to report.", "source": "https://ncnewhires.ncdhhs.gov/law", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "North Carolina has no state paid family leave or disability insurance program, so there is no extra payroll deduction and no third agency to register with. Be careful with search results here, because bills to create one keep being filed and their text reads as though the program already exists. The most recent, Senate Bill 480 of the 2025 session, was referred to committee in March 2025 and went no further. The paid parental leave you may see described applies to state government employees as an employer policy, not to private employers.", "source": "https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2025/S480", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "North Carolina Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.ncdor.gov/registration", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before engaging in business as a retailer, wholesale merchant or liable facilitator in North Carolina", "note": "The Certificate of Registration is genuinely free, and so is the online registration system. You need one certificate per legal entity rather than per location, but you must post a copy at each place of business. One quiet trap sits at the other end: a certificate becomes void if for 18 months you file no returns or file returns showing no sales, so a dormant account can lapse without anyone telling you, and closing properly means filing Form NC-BN rather than simply going quiet.", "source": "https://www.ncdor.gov/taxes-forms/sales-and-use-tax/sales-and-use-tax-frequently-asked-questions", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A marketplace facilitator engaged in business in North Carolina is treated as the retailer of every sale it facilitates and must collect and remit the tax itself. For a small seller that is real relief: sell only through such a marketplace with no physical presence in the state and you generally have nothing to register for and nothing to file. Sell the same goods through your own website as well and that side is yours to handle, so mixed channel sellers still need their own certificate.", "source": "https://www.ncdor.gov/taxes-forms/sales-and-use-tax/marketplace-facilitators-and-marketplace-sellers/marketplace-facilitators-and-marketplace-sellers-frequently-asked-questions", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "North Carolina publishes no explicit trailing period, so this is recorded as unknown rather than guessed. What the Department does say is that a remote seller is engaged in business if its sales sourced to the state exceeded the threshold in the previous or current calendar year, which carries the obligation into the year after your last big year. One dated change is coming: from July 2026 a retailer whose only basis for nexus is the threshold becomes engaged on the first day of the first calendar month at least 60 days after crossing, which gives new crossers a genuine grace period.", "source": "https://www.ncdor.gov/taxes-forms/sales-and-use-tax/other-sales-and-use-tax-resources/remote-sales", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "North Carolina has no broad gross receipts tax of the kind Washington, Ohio, Oregon and Delaware impose, so your state level exposure is corporate income and franchise tax rather than a tax on top line sales. A handful of narrow activity taxes do work like gross receipts taxes and can surprise the businesses they touch, including the tax on ride hailing services and the dry cleaning solvent tax.", "source": "https://www.ncdor.gov/taxes-forms", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "North Carolina Secretary of State, Business Registration Division", "url": "https://www.sosnc.gov/manual/Register_A_Foreign_Business", "feeLLC": 250, "feeCorp": 250, "feeNote": "A flat $250 for the Application for Certificate of Authority, for both a foreign LLC and a foreign business corporation. Withdrawing later is cheap for an LLC at $10 but $25 for a corporation.", "note": "This is a separate step from your tax registrations and neither substitutes for the other: a Certificate of Authority does not register you for withholding or sales tax, and an NC-BR does not qualify your entity to transact business. You also need a registered agent with a real North Carolina street address, an ongoing yearly cost on top of the fee, and a qualified foreign entity owes the same annual report as a domestic one. At $250 the entry fee is high by national standards.", "source": "https://www.sosnc.gov/fees/by_title/_Business_Registration_Limited_Liability_Companies", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "illinois": { "state": "Illinois", "abbr": "IL", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Illinois Department of Revenue", "Illinois Department of Employment Security" ], "note": "Illinois runs one portal, MyTax Illinois, that serves both the Department of Revenue and the Department of Employment Security, so a single pass through Form REG-1 can open your withholding, sales tax and unemployment accounts. It is a shared front door, not one merged account: Revenue issues an Illinois Account ID and Employment Security issues a separate unemployment number with its own quarterly return. The trap is assuming the portal registered you for everything automatically. You have to tick the unemployment registration inside the application." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Illinois Department of Revenue", "url": "https://tax.illinois.gov/research/taxinformation/withholdingincometax.html", "registerWhen": "Before you hire an employee or make any sales in Illinois", "note": "If you must withhold federal income tax from someone's pay for work performed in Illinois, you must withhold Illinois income tax too, and you have to register in order to do it. Illinois uses a single flat rate rather than brackets, so there is no wage band table to interpret. Register before the first payday: a paper Form REG-1 takes four to eight weeks to process while the online route takes one to two business days.", "source": "https://tax.illinois.gov/research/taxinformation/withholdingincometax.html", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Illinois Department of Employment Security", "url": "https://ides.illinois.gov/employer-resources/taxes-reporting/rates.html", "newEmployerRate": 0.0335, "wageBase": 14250, "year": "2026", "note": "A new Illinois employer pays 3.35% on the first $14,250 of each worker's wages in 2026, and that entry rate already includes the 0.55% fund building rate, so do not add it a second time. Employers in administrative support and waste management pay a higher entry rate of 3.45%. You stay on the entry rate until you have three full calendar years of experience. Register within 30 days of starting up, which is a separate deadline from anything the Department of Revenue asks of you.", "source": "https://ides.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/ides/ides_forms_and_publications/EA-50_2026.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "almost all employers with one or more employees, including part-time employees", "anyone whose employment is localized in Illinois, or who is hired or injured in Illinois" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission", "url": "https://iwcc.illinois.gov/about/insurance.html", "note": "Illinois has no headcount grace period: one employee, even a part-time one, means you must carry coverage, and it reaches anyone hired in Illinois, injured in Illinois, or whose work is principally based there. Sole proprietors, partners, corporate officers and LLC members may exempt themselves, and the Commission confirms there is no opt-out form, so that is handled with your insurer rather than by a state filing. Going without is expensive in a way that scales: up to $500 for every day of noncompliance with a $10,000 minimum, personal liability for corporate officers, a work-stop order, and the loss of the Act's protection so an injured worker can sue you for unlimited damages.", "source": "https://iwcc.illinois.gov/about/insurance.html", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days after the date the employer hires the employee", "agency": "Illinois Department of Employment Security", "url": "https://ides.illinois.gov/employer-resources/taxes-reporting/new-hires.html", "note": "Every Illinois employer must report each new hire within 20 days. Independent contractors count as newly hired employees under the statutory definition, and so does anyone you rehire after a separation of at least 60 consecutive days, which is the part most employers miss. Electronic filers may instead submit twice a month, spaced 12 to 16 days apart. The penalty is $15 per unreported person and applies only once the agency has notified you and you fail to respond within 21 days.", "source": "https://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=082004050K1801.1", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://labor.illinois.gov/laws-rules/paidleave.html", "note": "Illinois has no state paid family leave or disability insurance fund, so there is no payroll contribution to withhold. What Illinois does have is the Paid Leave for All Workers Act, an employer-funded mandate: workers accrue one hour of paid leave for every 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours a year, usable for any reason without explanation. That is a cost on your own payroll rather than a tax. Watch the local layer too, because Chicago and Cook County run their own paid leave ordinances with more generous terms.", "source": "https://labor.illinois.gov/laws-rules/paidleave.html", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Illinois Department of Revenue", "url": "https://tax.illinois.gov/businesses/registration.html", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "The Department may demand a bond or other security before issuing the certificate, most often where an owner or officer was tied to another registrant that defaulted or was revoked in the past five years. It is capped by statute at the lower of three times your average monthly liability or $50,000.", "registerBy": "Before you make any sales, and in all cases before filing your first return for the period", "note": "Illinois calls the permit a Certificate of Registration and there is no registration fee. Note that monthly filers hold a certificate that expires after one year and renews automatically only if you are current on returns and payments, so a lapse in filing can cost you the registration itself.", "source": "https://tax.illinois.gov/questionsandanswers/286.html", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Illinois has a marketplace facilitator law, and a facilitator that crosses the threshold is liable for the retailers' occupation tax on the sales it facilitates. If a platform is collecting for you, it carries the remittance duty on those sales. The catch is that this does not switch off your own obligations: sales through your own website still count toward your own threshold. Keep the two channels separated in your books so you can prove which tax was paid by whom.", "source": "https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/086/086001310001350R.html", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Illinois locks you in for a full year once you cross. You test your Illinois sales each quarter against the preceding twelve months, and if you meet the threshold you must collect and file for one year starting the first day of the next quarter, even if your sales collapse in month two. Only at the end of that year do you retest, and only then may you stop, at which point you must notify the Department electronically rather than simply going quiet. After that you keep retesting quarterly forever, so a single strong quarter pulls you back in for another twelve months.", "source": "https://www.ilga.gov/commission/jcar/admincode/086/086001310001150R.html", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Illinois has no general gross receipts tax, so there is nothing equivalent to Washington's B&O tax or Ohio's Commercial Activity Tax. Illinois taxes business profit rather than revenue. Do not read that as one tax bill though, because most Illinois businesses owe both income tax and a separate Personal Property Replacement Tax on the same income, and the replacement tax reaches partnerships, S corporations and LLCs that owe no corporate income tax at all.", "source": null, "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Illinois Secretary of State, Department of Business Services", "url": "https://www.ilsos.gov/publications/business-services/llc.html", "feeLLC": 150, "feeCorp": 150, "feeNote": "$150 for a foreign LLC admission and $150 for a foreign corporation's application for authority. A foreign series LLC pays $400. Posted corporate fees exclude franchise tax, so a corporation should expect an initial franchise tax on top. Expedited service adds $100 and must be requested in person.", "note": "Qualifying a foreign entity is a separate step from registering for tax, and it is the one out-of-state employers most often skip. A foreign LLC must attach a certificate of good standing from its home state. Once admitted you inherit an ongoing $75 annual report, so treat this as a recurring cost rather than a one-off.", "source": "https://www.ilsos.gov/publications/business-services/dfc.html", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "florida": { "state": "Florida", "abbr": "FL", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Florida Department of Revenue" ], "note": "One application, the Florida Business Tax Application, opens both your sales and use tax account and your reemployment tax account at the Department of Revenue. Because Florida has no personal income tax there is no third payroll registration. The trap is assuming that covers everything: new hire reporting is also run by the Department of Revenue but through a completely separate system with its own login, and workers compensation is a different agency entirely." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://floridarevenue.com/faq/Pages/FAQDetails.aspx?FAQID=1466", "registerWhen": null, "note": "Florida imposes no personal income tax, so there is nothing to withhold for the state and no account to open. Federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare still apply exactly as they do everywhere else. The mistake out-of-state employers actually make is leaving their home state's withholding switched on for a worker who now lives and works in Florida, which quietly takes money the employee does not owe and creates a refund fight in the other state.", "source": "https://floridarevenue.com/faq/Pages/FAQDetails.aspx?FAQID=1466", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Florida Department of Revenue", "url": "https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/rt_rate.aspx", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 7000, "year": "2026", "note": "Florida calls unemployment insurance reemployment tax, and the Department of Revenue collects it rather than the state workforce agency, so searching the jobs department for a payroll account is a dead end. You become liable most commonly at quarterly payroll of $1,500 or more, or one employee for any part of a day in 20 different weeks in a year. Only the first $7,000 you pay each employee is taxed. The 2.7% starting rate holds until you have reported for ten quarters.", "source": "https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/rt_rate.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 4, "requiredFor": [ "construction industry: one or more employees", "non-construction: four or more employees", "agriculture: six or more regular employees, or twelve or more seasonal workers" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Division of Workers' Compensation, Florida Department of Financial Services", "url": "https://www.myfloridacfo.com/division/wc/employer/coverage-requirements", "note": "Florida sets the trigger by industry rather than one flat headcount. A non-construction employer needs coverage at four employees, a construction employer at the very first one, and agriculture switches on at six regular workers. The trap is who counts: corporate officers and LLC members who work in the business count as employees, so a two-owner construction LLC is already over the line on day one. Officers can file for an exemption from covering themselves, but that is a separate filing and does not remove the duty to cover anyone else.", "source": "https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2023/440.02", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's date of hire; for independent contractors paid $600 or more in a calendar year, within 20 days of the start date or first payment", "agency": "Florida Department of Revenue, Child Support Program", "url": "https://servicesforemployers.floridarevenue.com/", "note": "Florida gives you 20 days from the hire date to report every new or rehired employee. Florida is one of the states that also requires independent contractors to be reported once you pay one $600 or more in a calendar year, which catches businesses that assume the duty only covers people on payroll. Reporting goes through a different system and a different login from your tax accounts.", "source": "https://servicesforemployers.floridarevenue.com/SiteAssets/docs/New_Hire_Reporting_Form_Instructions.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Florida runs no state disability insurance or paid family leave program, so there is no employee payroll deduction and no employer contribution for one. Federal FMLA job protection still applies if you are large enough for it, and any paid leave you offer Florida staff is your own policy rather than a state benefit.", "source": "https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/eservices/Pages/registration.aspx", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Florida Department of Revenue", "url": "https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/eservices/Pages/registration.aspx", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before you begin conducting business activities subject to Florida's taxes and fees", "note": "You register as a sales and use tax dealer through the Florida Business Tax Application, and Florida wants that done before you start making taxable sales rather than after the first one. No fee appears on the current form, its instructions, or the registration page, and the form has no payment section, but the Department never affirmatively says registration is free, so no amount is published here. Once you hold a certificate you owe a return every filing period even in a period with no sales, and a late return carries a $50 minimum penalty whether or not tax is due.", "source": "https://floridarevenue.com/Forms_library/current/dr1n.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Since July 2021 a marketplace provider such as Amazon or Etsy must register, collect and remit Florida sales tax on the sales it facilitates, so those sales are not yours to report. The trap is assuming that covers your whole Florida exposure. If you also sell through your own website or any Florida location, those sales sit outside the marketplace and you still need your own dealer registration once they pass the state's remote sales test on their own.", "source": "https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/sales_tax.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Florida's remote seller test looks back at the previous calendar year, so whether you must collect this year turns on last year's sales rather than what you are selling today. Neither the statute nor the Department publishes a rule for how long the duty trails after you fall below the line, which is why this is left unresolved rather than guessed. What is certain is that your registration does not lapse on its own: you keep owing returns, including zero returns, until you tell the Department to close the account, and a business that closes owes a final return within 15 days.", "source": "https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2024/212.0596", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Florida has no broad gross receipts tax on business revenue of the kind Washington and Ohio impose. The phrase does appear in Florida law, but only for two narrow industries: a tax on utility services such as electricity and natural gas sold to Florida consumers, and a separate one on dry cleaning. Unless you are a utility or a dry cleaner, neither reaches you.", "source": "https://floridarevenue.com/taxes/taxesfees/Pages/grt_utility.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations", "url": "https://dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/forms/fees/", "feeLLC": 125, "feeCorp": 70, "feeNote": "LLC: $100 filing fee plus a required $25 registered agent designation, $125 total. Corporation: a flat $70, which the fee schedule breaks out as $35 filing plus a $35 registered agent designation. A certificate of status and a certified copy are $8.75 each and optional.", "note": "Registering a company you already own elsewhere to do business in Florida is a different filing from forming a new Florida company, and it is priced differently. Both figures already include the mandatory registered agent designation, so you also need a person or service with a real Florida street address to accept legal papers. What people forget is the recurring cost: once you qualify, you are in Florida's annual report cycle due between January 1 and May 1, and the $400 late penalty on a missed report cannot be waived for any reason.", "source": "https://dos.fl.gov/media/702554/cr2e027.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "new-jersey": { "state": "New Jersey", "abbr": "NJ", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services", "Division of Taxation", "Department of Labor and Workforce Development" ], "note": "New Jersey uses one form, the NJ-REG, to open every state business account at once: withholding and sales tax with the Division of Taxation, and unemployment, workforce development, temporary disability and family leave with the Department of Labor. There is no fee for the NJ-REG itself. If you form or foreign-qualify an entity first, you must still file the NJ-REG within 60 days of that entity filing, so do not treat the certificate of authority as the end of the job." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "New Jersey Division of Taxation", "url": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/businesses/payroll/index.shtml", "registerWhen": "File Form NJ-REG at least 15 business days before you commence business, and within 60 days of forming a new entity", "note": "If someone is your employee for federal tax purposes they are your employee here, and you must withhold from residents and from nonresidents working or teleworking in the state for their own convenience. Pennsylvania residents are the one reciprocity exception and must file a certificate of nonresidence to stop the withholding. A trap that catches new employers: if you pay an unregistered unincorporated contractor in New Jersey you must withhold 7% of the payment. The state also warns you can be held personally responsible for amounts you should have withheld.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/businesses/payroll/index.shtml", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Employer Accounts", "url": "https://www.nj.gov/labor/ea/employer-services/rate-info/", "newEmployerRate": 0.026825, "wageBase": 44800, "year": "2026", "note": "You become a covered employer once you employ anyone and pay $1,000 or more in wages in a calendar year. The 2.6825% figure is only the unemployment piece: a new employer also pays 0.5% disability and 0.1175% workforce development, for a combined employer rate of about 3.3%. New employer rates run on a fiscal year from July to June and apply for your first three calendar years, while the wage base changes on a calendar year, which is why the two dates never line up. The employer wage base is $44,800 for 2026 and rises to $46,400 for 2027, far above the $7,000 federal base most out-of-state employers are used to.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/labor/ea/employer-services/rate-info/", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "corporations", "limited liability companies", "partnerships", "sole proprietorships with any employee other than the principal owner", "nonprofit organizations" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://nj.gov/labor/workerscompensation/employer-requirements/index.shtml", "note": "Every New Jersey employer not covered by a federal program must carry coverage or be approved to self-insure, and there is no small-employer exemption. Corporate officers who perform services count as employees, so a one-person corporation still needs a policy, while partners and LLC members are excluded for themselves but must insure anyone else. Going uninsured is a criminal offense if willful, with penalties up to $5,000 for the first ten days plus up to $5,000 for each additional ten-day period, and you become directly liable for the full cost of any injury.", "source": "https://nj.gov/labor/workerscompensation/employer-requirements/index.shtml", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the hire, rehire or return to work; employers transmitting electronically report every 15 days instead", "agency": "New Jersey Department of Human Services, New Hire Operations Center", "url": "https://www.njcsesp.com/", "note": "You must report every new hire, rehire and return to work within 20 days, and also anyone you contract with for compensation, including workers paid on a 1099 and people engaged through ride-share or delivery platforms. A first violation gets a written warning, then civil penalties up to $25 per violation, rising to $500 where employer and worker conspired to withhold or falsify the report.", "source": "https://lis.njleg.state.nj.us/nxt/gateway.dll/statutes/1/112/598", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 1, "employeeContributionRate": 0.0023, "employerContributionRate": 0, "year": "2026", "agency": "New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development", "url": "https://www.nj.gov/labor/ea/employer-services/rate-info/", "note": "Family Leave Insurance is funded entirely by worker payroll deductions, so the employer rate is zero, but you are legally responsible for taking the deduction and showing it on the payslip. For 2026 the worker rate is 0.23% on the first $171,100 of wages, a much higher cap than the $44,800 employer base, so a well paid employee keeps contributing all year. Any employer subject to the unemployment law is automatically subject to family leave and temporary disability, so the same trigger of one employee and $1,000 in annual wages applies.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/labor/ea/employer-services/rate-info/", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services", "url": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/revenue/gettingregistered.shtml", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "At least 15 days before your first sale, first use tax remittance, or first use of a New Jersey exemption certificate", "note": "There is no fee to file the NJ-REG, and the permit it produces is called a Certificate of Authority. File at least 15 days before your first taxable sale, because the certificate is what legally lets you collect. A remote seller who crosses the economic threshold gets up to 30 days to register and start collecting. A remote seller selling only through marketplaces still has to register once over the threshold, but can ask to be placed on a non-reporting basis.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/revenue/pdf/Legacy-Reg-Form-0825.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "New Jersey put the collection duty on the marketplace facilitator for every marketplace transaction, regardless of whether the individual seller is above or below the economic threshold. If all your New Jersey sales go through a marketplace, you do not collect on those sales yourself. The catch is the threshold math: if you sell both on your own website and through marketplaces, you must count both channels together when testing whether you have crossed into a registration obligation.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/remotesellersfaq.shtml", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "New Jersey does not let you stop collecting the moment your sales fall off. Once a remote seller meets the threshold, the collection obligation continues for that year and the next, so a single strong year drags a full following year of collecting and filing behind it. Plan on staying registered and filing returns, including zero returns, through that trailing period rather than closing the account as soon as volume drops.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/remotesellersfaq.shtml", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "New Jersey has no general gross receipts tax, so there is nothing comparable to the Ohio or Oregon commercial activity tax or the Washington business and occupation tax. Business income is reached through the Corporation Business Tax and the Gross Income Tax instead. A few narrow industry levies do use a gross receipts base, notably on petroleum products, so a fuel or energy business should check its own sector rules.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/taxation/businesses/index.shtml", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services", "url": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/revenue/fees.shtml", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "$100 for a foreign LLC certificate of registration and $100 for a foreign corporation or limited partnership certificate of authority. Foreign LLP registration is also $100.", "note": "Qualifying an out-of-state entity costs $100 whether you are an LLC or a corporation. That filing is only half the job, because you must still file the NJ-REG within 60 days of the entity filing to actually open your tax and payroll accounts. Budget for the exit as well: cancelling a foreign LLC registration later costs $125, which is more than getting in.", "source": "https://www.nj.gov/treasury/revenue/fees.shtml", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "new-york": { "state": "New York", "abbr": "NY", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "New York State Department of Labor", "New York State Department of Taxation and Finance" ], "note": "New York looks like two agencies but registers you once. Form NYS-100 opens your unemployment account with the Department of Labor and your withholding and wage reporting account with the Department of Taxation and Finance at the same time, and from then on one quarterly return reports all three. What the combined account does not cover is insurance: workers compensation, disability benefits and Paid Family Leave are bought from a private carrier or the State Insurance Fund, not registered for with the state." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "New York State Department of Taxation and Finance", "url": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/doingbus/hire.htm", "registerWhen": "File Form NYS-100 once you have a federal EIN and meet unemployment liability, which for a general business is the first day of the calendar quarter in which you pay $300 or more in wages", "note": "You must withhold New York State income tax, and on top of that New York City or Yonkers tax if the employee lives or works there, so a single hire can create three withholding obligations. Watch for a second, separate payroll tax if the employee works in the New York City metro area: the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax applies to employers with more than $312,500 of covered payroll in a quarter across the twelve county district, at rates that rise with payroll size.", "source": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/mctmt/emp.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "New York State Department of Labor", "url": "https://dol.ny.gov/unemployment-insurance-rate-information", "newEmployerRate": 0.041, "wageBase": 17600, "year": "2026", "note": "The 2026 new employer rate is 4.1%, which is the 4.025% unemployment rate plus the 0.075% re-employment services rate every contributory account pays. Do not use the 3.4% figure the state also publishes, which is only a component. The bigger change for 2026 is the wage base, which jumped from $12,800 to $17,600 after the state paid off its unemployment trust fund loan, so budget for roughly 37% more taxable wages per employee than in 2025. From 2026 the base resets every January to 18% of the state average annual wage, so it moves every year. A general business becomes liable in the quarter it pays $300 or more in wages, which is a very low trigger.", "source": "https://dol.ny.gov/unemployment-insurance-rate-information", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "New York State Workers' Compensation Board", "url": "https://www.wcb.ny.gov/content/main/coverage-requirements-wc/wc-coverage-required.jsp", "note": "Virtually all New York employers must carry coverage from the first person who works for them, and there is no opt out. The trap is who counts as an employee: in a for-profit business the Board counts part time, temporary, seasonal, casual, day labor, leased and borrowed workers, and it counts family members and unpaid volunteers as well. The narrow exceptions are a sole proprietorship, partnership or LLC with no employees, and a corporation owned entirely by one or two people who hold all the stock and all the offices and have no other workers.", "source": "https://www.wcb.ny.gov/content/main/coverage-requirements-wc/wc-coverage-required.jsp", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's hiring date", "agency": "New York State Department of Taxation and Finance", "url": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/wt/newhire.htm", "note": "You have 20 days from the hiring date, which is the first day services are performed for pay, not the offer date. A rehire counts if the person was separated from you for 60 or more consecutive days. Two New York specific catches: you must also report whether dependent health insurance is available and the date the employee qualifies, and since 2022 you must report independent contractors whose contract exceeds $2,500.", "source": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/wt/newhire.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 1, "employeeContributionRate": 0.00432, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "New York State Workers' Compensation Board", "url": "https://paidfamilyleave.ny.gov/2026", "note": "New York runs two separate employee-funded programs on top of workers compensation, and both ride on one insurance policy you buy from a carrier. The rate here is Paid Family Leave: for 2026 employees contribute 0.432% of gross wages, capped at $411.91 a year, funding up to 12 weeks of leave. Statutory disability benefits use a completely different and much older formula: the employee pays half of one percent of wages but never more than sixty cents a week, about $31 a year, and the employer pays whatever the premium costs above that. Coverage is required once you have had an employee on each of at least 30 days in a year.", "source": "https://paidfamilyleave.ny.gov/2026", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "New York State Department of Taxation and Finance", "url": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/st/register.htm", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "At least 20 days before you make a taxable sale, provide a taxable service, or issue or accept an exemption document", "note": "The permit is called a Certificate of Authority. The timing rule has teeth: you must apply at least 20 days before your first taxable sale, and you cannot legally make a taxable sale until the certificate arrives, so treat it as a lead time rather than a formality. Operating without a valid certificate carries a penalty of up to $500 for the first day plus up to $200 for each day after, to a maximum of $10,000. The Tax Department does not publish a registration fee, so none is stated here.", "source": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/how_to_register_for_nys_sales_tax.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "New York has required marketplace providers to collect state and local sales tax on the third party sales they facilitate since June 2019, so the big platforms handle the tax on your marketplace sales. The provider's duty applies whether or not you are registered, but that does not erase your own obligations: sales through your own website still count toward your registration threshold and still need reporting. If a platform collects for you, get its Marketplace Provider Certificate so you can document why those receipts were not taxed by you.", "source": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/publications/sales/marketplace.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "New York does not publish a trailing period, and the mechanism is unusual enough to be worth understanding. Economic nexus is tested on a rolling look back at the immediately preceding four sales tax quarters, so your status can turn on and off as older quarters drop out of the window rather than being fixed for a calendar year. Separately, the only reasons the Tax Department publishes for surrendering a Certificate of Authority are stopping business, selling it, or changing legal form, and falling below the threshold is not on that list. Until your account is closed you must keep filing on time even for periods with no taxable sales.", "source": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/pubs_and_bulls/tg_bulletins/st/amending_or_surrendering_a_certificate_of_authority.htm", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "New York has no statewide gross receipts tax in the mould of Washington's business and occupation tax or Ohio's commercial activity tax. The closest thing an employer will actually meet is the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax, but that is levied on payroll expense rather than revenue and only applies in the twelve county New York City metro district. New York City imposes its own local taxes on some businesses, including a commercial rent tax on certain Manhattan tenants.", "source": "https://www.tax.ny.gov/bus/mctmt/emp.htm", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "New York State Department of State, Division of Corporations", "url": "https://dos.ny.gov/application-authority-foreign-limited-liability-companies", "feeLLC": 250, "feeCorp": 225, "feeNote": "Application for Authority is $250 for a foreign LLC and $225 for a foreign business corporation. A foreign LLC also pays a $50 Certificate of Publication fee on top of the newspaper charges described below. Expedited handling is $25 for 24 hour, $75 for same day, $150 for two hour.", "note": "The filing fee is the small part of the cost for an LLC. Within 120 days of filing, a foreign LLC must publish a notice once a week for six successive weeks in two newspapers designated by the county clerk, then file a Certificate of Publication with the publishers' affidavits. Newspaper rates vary enormously by county and are highest in Manhattan, so the county you name in the application drives the real bill. Both entity types must attach a certificate of existence from their home state dated within the last year.", "source": "https://dos.ny.gov/application-authority-foreign-business-corporation", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "pennsylvania": { "state": "Pennsylvania", "abbr": "PA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Pennsylvania Department of Revenue", "Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry" ], "note": "One application covers two agencies. Pennsylvania's online business tax registration opens your employer withholding account and your unemployment compensation account at the same time, and collects your workers compensation coverage information too. It does not cover everything: local earned income tax withholding is registered separately through the local tax collector, and workers compensation insurance itself must be bought from an insurer or the State Workers' Insurance Fund." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Pennsylvania Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-types-and-information/employer-withholding", "registerWhen": "Before your first Pennsylvania payroll. The unemployment account opened by the same registration carries a hard deadline of 30 days after covered services are first performed", "note": "Pennsylvania taxes wages at a flat 3.07% and you withhold from residents on all compensation and from nonresidents on work done in the state. The trap that catches out-of-state employers is the second layer underneath: Pennsylvania municipalities levy a local earned income tax, and any employer with a worksite in the state must withhold and remit it. A home office counts as a worksite, so hiring one remote worker can pull you into local withholding for that person's municipality on top of the state rate. A Local Services Tax may apply as well.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/content/dam/copapwp-pagov/en/revenue/documents/formsandpublications/formsforbusinesses/employerwithholding/documents/rev-415.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Office of UC Tax Services", "url": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dli/resources/for-employers-and-educators/how-to-file/uc-tax/yearly-tax-highlights", "newEmployerRate": 0.03822, "wageBase": 10000, "year": "2026", "note": "Pennsylvania is one of the few states where employees pay unemployment tax too. On top of your employer contribution you must withhold 0.07% from every employee's gross wages, and unlike your own contribution that withholding has no wage cap at all, so it applies to the whole paycheck all year. The employer side is capped at the first $10,000 per employee: 3.8220% for a newly liable non-construction employer, or 10.5924% for a newly liable construction employer. Register within 30 days of the first day covered work is performed, because missing that adds a 3% delinquency loading to your rate.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dli/resources/for-employers-and-educators/how-to-file/uc-tax/yearly-tax-highlights", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Bureau of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dli/resources/for-employers-and-educators/workers--compensation-for-employers/workers--compensation-compliance", "note": "Coverage is mandatory from your very first employee, including part timers and family members such as a spouse or children. There is no opt-out route for an ordinary business: you either buy a policy from an insurer or the State Workers' Insurance Fund, or get approval to self-insure. The only escape is if every single worker falls into a narrow excluded category. Going without coverage is not just a fine, it can mean criminal prosecution with penalties running per day of noncompliance.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dli/resources/for-employers-and-educators/workers--compensation-for-employers/workers--compensation-compliance", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date of hire", "agency": "Pennsylvania New Hire Reporting Program", "url": "https://www.pacareerlink.pa.gov/jponline//Common/LandingPage/ReportNewHires", "note": "You report every employee who lives or works in Pennsylvania within 20 days of the date of hire, which means the first day services are performed for wages, not the offer date. Rehires count if the worker returns after a layoff, termination, separation or unpaid leave longer than 30 days. If you have employees in more than one state and want to report them all to Pennsylvania, you must register with the national Multistate Employer Registry first and report electronically, since multistate employers cannot use paper.", "source": "https://www.pacareerlink.pa.gov/jponline//Common/LandingPage/ReportNewHires", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Pennsylvania has no statewide paid family leave or temporary disability insurance program, so there is no state payroll deduction of that kind. The full list of employer accounts the Commonwealth asks you to register for covers unemployment, withholding and workers compensation, and nothing else of this type. Note this is a statement about state law only: some Pennsylvania cities have their own paid sick leave ordinances that apply to employees working within city limits.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/services/revenue/register-my-business-for-taxes", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Pennsylvania Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.pa.gov/services/revenue/register-my-business-for-taxes", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before making any taxable sale, rental or lease in Pennsylvania", "note": "The sales, use and hotel occupancy tax licence is free. You must have it in hand before your first taxable sale, not after. The licence renews automatically every five years, but only if you have no outstanding returns or unpaid Pennsylvania tax, so a lapsed filing can quietly cost you the licence. If you sell only through a marketplace that already collects Pennsylvania tax for you, you do not need a licence at all.", "source": "https://hub.business.pa.gov/Home/HelpCenterDetail/eCommerceorOnlineRetailorGraphicDesign", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The marketplace facilitator is responsible for collecting and remitting Pennsylvania sales tax on the sales it facilitates. If every one of your Pennsylvania sales goes through a platform that collects for you, you do not have to register or file here at all. The moment you add a direct channel the picture changes: you count your direct sales plus any marketplace sales where the platform did not collect, when testing whether you have crossed into a filing obligation. The old option of sending customers use tax notices instead of collecting has been abolished.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-types-and-information/sales-use-and-hotel-occupancy-tax/online-retailers", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Pennsylvania tests economic presence once a year on a fixed calendar, so the obligation does not switch off the moment your sales drop. Sales are measured over a calendar year and the resulting collection period runs from April 1 of the following year through March 31 of the year after that. In practice a year when you fall below the threshold still leaves you collecting until the following March 31. Do not assume the account closes itself either: keep filing until you formally end the registration.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-types-and-information/sales-use-and-hotel-occupancy-tax/online-retailers", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Gross Receipts Tax", "agency": "Pennsylvania Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-rates/corporation-tax-rates", "rateRange": "50 mills (5%) on telephone, telegraph and transportation other than motor vehicles; 59 mills (5.9%) on electric suppliers", "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Pennsylvania does levy a tax literally called the Gross Receipts Tax, but it is nothing like Washington's B&O or Ohio's CAT and almost certainly does not touch you. It applies only to specific regulated industries: telephone and telegraph, electric suppliers, and certain transportation companies. An ordinary business pays corporate net income tax or passes income through to owners instead, and never files this. There is no small business exclusion because there is no general application to exclude anyone from.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/revenue/resources/tax-rates/corporation-tax-rates", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Pennsylvania Department of State, Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations", "url": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/business/fees-and-payments", "feeLLC": 250, "feeCorp": 250, "feeNote": "$250 flat for both, unlike states that scale the corporate fee with authorized shares. Amending a foreign registration later costs another $250.", "note": "An out-of-state LLC or corporation registers by filing a Foreign Registration Statement together with a docketing statement, and the fee is $250 whichever entity type you are. This is separate from and additional to your payroll and sales tax registrations, which do not qualify you to do business here. The fee is nonrefundable, so sort out entity name availability before you file.", "source": "https://www.pa.gov/agencies/dos/programs/business/fees-and-payments", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "arizona": { "state": "Arizona", "abbr": "AZ", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Arizona Department of Revenue", "Arizona Department of Economic Security" ], "note": "Arizona lets you register for almost everything on one form. The Arizona Joint Tax Application covers transaction privilege tax, use tax, withholding and unemployment insurance in a single submission, and Revenue forwards the employment portion to Economic Security. The catch is that one application still produces two separate accounts with two numbers, and Economic Security makes its own liability decision afterward. Workers compensation is not on this form at all, and neither are city business licences." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Arizona Department of Revenue", "url": "https://azdor.gov/business/withholding-tax", "registerWhen": "As soon as the business commences operations in Arizona, by filing the Arizona Joint Tax Application", "note": "Arizona is unusual in that the employee picks the withholding rate rather than claiming allowances: every new employee files Form A-4 within five days of hire to elect a percentage. If the employee does not return an A-4 within those five days you must withhold at 2.0% until they elect otherwise, so a missing form is not an excuse to withhold nothing. Employees claiming exemption elect a zero percentage and must renew that election every year.", "source": "https://azdor.gov/business/withholding-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Arizona Department of Economic Security", "url": "https://des.az.gov/services/employment/unemployment-employer/employment-taxes-calculating-unemployment-taxes", "newEmployerRate": 0.02, "wageBase": 8000, "year": "2026", "note": "A new Arizona employer that is not a successor to an existing business pays 2.0% for at least two full calendar years, after which you move to an experience rate. Tax applies only to the first $8,000 of gross wages per employee per year, raised from $7,000 in 2023. The trap is that you must keep reporting wages quarterly even after an employee passes the $8,000 ceiling, because those reports establish benefit eligibility whether or not tax is due.", "source": "https://des.az.gov/services/employment/unemployment-employer/employer-handbook-unemployment-insurance-tax/employees-and-wages", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "all public and private employers with any regularly employed workers", "employees of a contractor whose work is a part or process in the hiring employer's own trade or business", "covered employees under a professional employer agreement" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Industrial Commission of Arizona", "url": "https://www.azica.gov/employers", "note": "Arizona has no headcount cushion. Every person who employs workers regularly employed in the same business is subject to the workers compensation chapter, and regularly employed expressly covers part-year and seasonal work, so coverage is required from your first employee. Domestic servants in a private home are the only carved-out category. Watch the contractor rule: if you hire a contractor to do work routine to your own business and you keep supervision or control, that contractor's employees count as yours for coverage purposes.", "source": "https://www.azleg.gov/ars/23/00902.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days after the employee is hired, rehired, or returns to work", "agency": "Arizona Department of Economic Security, via the Arizona New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://des.az.gov/services/child-and-family/child-support/employers", "note": "Every employer doing business in Arizona must report each new hire, and also each rehire or return to work after a layoff, furlough, unpaid leave or termination, within 20 days. Employers who file electronically get a different clock: two monthly batches no more than sixteen days apart, which is tighter than 20 days for some hires. If you employ people in two or more states and report electronically you may designate one state to receive all your reports, but you must notify the federal government which state you picked.", "source": "https://www.azleg.gov/ars/23/00722-01.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": "Industrial Commission of Arizona", "url": "https://www.azica.gov/employers", "note": "Arizona runs no state paid family leave or temporary disability programme, so there is no payroll contribution to withhold. What Arizona does have is a mandatory earned paid sick time entitlement paid entirely out of the employer's own pocket rather than an insurance pool. Employees accrue at least one hour for every 30 hours worked, capped at 40 hours a year if you have 15 or more employees and 24 hours if fewer, counting full time, part time and temporary staff alike. That 15 employee line is measured across the year, so a business that briefly hit 15 falls into the higher tier.", "source": "https://www.azleg.gov/ars/23/00372.htm", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Arizona Department of Revenue", "url": "https://azdor.gov/business/transaction-privilege-tax/tpt-license", "fee": 12, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before engaging in any taxable business activity in Arizona; remote sellers begin remitting in the month following 30 days after the threshold is met", "note": "Arizona does not really have a sales tax. The transaction privilege tax is levied on the vendor for the privilege of doing business, not on the buyer, which means the legal liability is yours whether or not you separately charged the customer. The state licence costs $12 per business location, and businesses with a physical presence must also get a city or town licence in each municipality where they operate, at that city's own fee on top. The licence runs on the calendar year and must be renewed by January 1. One useful exception: a remote seller with no physical presence pays the same $12 but renews for free, because no municipal fees attach.", "source": "https://azdor.gov/business/transaction-privilege-tax/retail-sales-subject-tpt/out-state-sellers/licensing-and-renewal", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "If you sell into Arizona only through a marketplace that collects payment and remits for you, Arizona does not require you to hold a licence or file returns on those sales at all, regardless of physical presence. The trap sits on the other side: if you also sell direct, through your own site, by phone or by mail, those sales are yours to licence and report, and the marketplace's collection does not cover them. A business that runs a marketplace for others and also sells its own goods may need two separate licences.", "source": "https://azdor.gov/business/transaction-privilege-tax/retail-sales-subject-tpt/out-state-sellers", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Arizona's economic nexus test looks at both the previous and the current calendar year, which builds in a trailing obligation. A remote seller that met the threshold in the previous year, or meets it during the current one, must collect for the following year as well, so a single strong year drags the obligation into the next even if sales collapse. Only when you fail the threshold in both years may you cancel, and cancelling is something you must actively do rather than something that happens automatically. Leaving a dormant licence open keeps the annual renewal duty and its late penalties alive.", "source": "https://azdor.gov/business/transaction-privilege-tax/retail-sales-subject-tpt/out-state-sellers/licensing-and-renewal", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Arizona levies no gross receipts tax separate from the transaction privilege tax, so there is nothing extra to register for here. Be aware though that the transaction privilege tax is itself structurally a gross receipts style tax: it is imposed on the seller for the privilege of doing business rather than on the purchaser, and it is measured by your receipts. That is why it sits in the sales tax section of this record rather than being duplicated here.", "source": "https://azdor.gov/business/transaction-privilege-tax/tpt-license", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Arizona Corporation Commission, Corporations Division", "url": "https://azcc.gov/corporations/fee-and-payment-info", "feeLLC": 150, "feeCorp": 175, "feeNote": "$150 for a foreign LLC registration statement and $175 for a foreign corporation's application for authority. Expedited processing is an add-on. Both filings require a certificate of good standing from your home state dated no more than 60 days before delivery, and the corporation filing also requires certified copies of your original articles and every amendment.", "note": "The fee difference between entity types is not the real cost gap. A foreign corporation must publish its application in a newspaper after the Commission approves it, and that cost sits entirely outside the $175 filing fee. A foreign LLC has no publication requirement at all, so the LLC route is cheaper by considerably more than the $25 headline difference suggests. Do not publish before approval, because the approval letter tells you how and where, and publishing early can mean paying twice.", "source": "https://azcc.gov/docs/default-source/corps-files/fee-schedules/fee-schedule-llcs.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "georgia": { "state": "Georgia", "abbr": "GA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales and use tax" ], "note": "Georgia runs one online registration that opens your withholding account and your sales and use tax account in the same session, with account numbers back by email in about fifteen minutes. That covers only the Department of Revenue side. Unemployment insurance is a completely separate registration at the Department of Labor, and workers compensation is not a state account at all because you buy it from a private insurer, so plan on three different agencies." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Georgia Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.georgia.gov/taxes/withholding-tax-employers", "registerWhen": "Before your first Georgia payroll, at the Georgia Tax Center", "note": "Georgia publishes no grace period measured in days. The real deadline is mechanical: the Department will not accept a withholding payment without an account number, so if you run payroll before registering you cannot legally remit and the penalty clock is already running. Georgia is also mid-change on the rate itself, having cut the flat income tax rate for 2026 with a specific date before which employers must keep using the old rate, so check the current figure rather than assuming.", "source": "https://dor.georgia.gov/how-do-i-register-withholding-payroll-tax-number", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Georgia Department of Labor", "url": "https://dol.georgia.gov/faqs-employers/employers-faqs-unemployment-insurance", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 9500, "year": "2026", "note": "A new Georgia employer is assigned a total rate of 2.7% on the first $9,500 of each employee's wages. Two details trip people up. First, 2.7% is the total and already includes the administrative assessment portion, which Georgia asks you to calculate as a separate line, so do not add a surcharge on top. Second, you become liable once you have one worker in 20 different calendar weeks in a year or a payroll of $1,500 in any single quarter, a low bar a part-time hire can cross without anyone noticing.", "source": "https://dol.georgia.gov/faqs-employers/employers-faqs-unemployment-insurance", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 3, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Georgia State Board of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://sbwc.georgia.gov/employer-information", "note": "Georgia requires coverage once you regularly employ three or more people, and part-timers count the same as full-timers. The counting rule is the trap: corporate officers and LLC members are treated as employees, and while up to five of them can exempt themselves from coverage, those exemptions do not reduce the headcount. So a two-owner LLC that hires one part-timer is at three and is covered, even if both owners opted themselves out. Going without is a misdemeanor, carries civil penalties of $500 to $5,000 per occurrence, and strips the tort immunity workers compensation normally buys you.", "source": "https://sbwc.georgia.gov/employer-information", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 10, "deadline": "within 10 days of the employee's hire date", "agency": "Georgia New Hire Reporting Program", "url": "https://www.ga-newhire.com/", "note": "Georgia gives you only 10 days, half the window most states allow, so this is the one to diarise if you are used to 20. Every new hire and rehire counts and no employers are exempt, so it catches you even with a single employee. It is easy to miss because it goes to a separate site rather than to the Department of Revenue or the Department of Labor, and nothing in your withholding or unemployment registration triggers it for you.", "source": "https://www.ga-newhire.com/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Georgia has no state disability insurance and no state paid family leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of this kind and nothing extra to register for. If you are used to running payroll in a state like California or Delaware, this is one line item you will not have here.", "source": "https://dol.georgia.gov/employment-laws-and-rules", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Georgia Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.georgia.gov/taxes/business-taxes/tax-registration", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "There is no routine deposit, though a chronically delinquent dealer can be ordered to post a bond of $1,000 to $10,000.", "registerBy": "Before you begin collecting Georgia sales tax, since the registration number is what authorizes you to collect it", "note": "The certificate of registration is free: the state's administrative rule says no fee is required for the original, and charges only $1 to reissue one that was revoked. Anyone meeting the definition of a dealer must register even if every sale is online, out of state, wholesale or exempt, so a business with no taxable sales at all can still owe a registration and returns. Two mechanics catch people later: the certificate is issued per place of business and is not transferable, and when you shut down or move counties you must return it for cancellation rather than letting it lapse.", "source": "https://rules.sos.ga.gov/GAC/560-12-1-.09", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Georgia treats a marketplace facilitator as a dealer in its own right, so the big platforms collect and remit Georgia state and local tax on the sales they facilitate, reporting under a dedicated account separate from their own direct sales. For you as a seller that means platform sales are generally handled without you, but it is not a blanket exemption: sales through your own website or any other channel are still yours to register for and remit.", "source": "https://dor.georgia.gov/marketplace-facilitators", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Georgia publishes no trailing nexus rule and no guidance on when a remote seller may stop collecting, so this is recorded as unknown rather than guessed. What the state does say has a tail built into it: the remote seller test is met if you exceed the threshold in the previous or the current calendar year. Read literally, a year in which you cross obliges you to keep collecting through the following calendar year even if that year's sales collapse. Because there is no published wind-down procedure, call the Department before you stop filing rather than going quiet.", "source": "https://dor.georgia.gov/media/35301/download", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Georgia has no state gross receipts or commerce tax. Do not read that as no local cost though: Georgia cities and counties levy their own occupation tax and business licence, often computed on gross receipts, and it is the local licence application that also triggers Georgia's E-Verify affidavit for employers with more than ten employees counted company-wide, not just Georgia ones.", "source": "https://dor.georgia.gov/taxes/business-taxes/tax-registration", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division", "url": "https://sos.ga.gov/how-to-guide/how-to-guide-register-foreign-entity", "feeLLC": 235, "feeCorp": 235, "feeNote": "$235 for both, made up of a $225 filing fee plus a $10 service charge, whether you file online or by mail. Expediting costs extra. All fees are non-refundable.", "note": "A foreign entity applies for a certificate of authority before expanding into Georgia and must appoint a registered agent physically located in the state. A foreign corporation additionally needs a certificate of existence from its home state no more than 90 days old, so order that before you start; foreign LLCs do not. After the initial filing you must file an annual registration between January 1 and April 1 every year, and missing it gets your certificate revoked, at which point you re-qualify and pay the full fee again.", "source": "https://sos.ga.gov/how-to-guide/how-to-guide-register-foreign-entity", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "washington": { "state": "Washington", "abbr": "WA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Department of Revenue tax registration", "Employment Security unemployment insurance", "Labor and Industries workers compensation" ], "note": "Washington has one front door. The Business License Application you file with the Department of Revenue is what opens your workers compensation account at Labor and Industries and your unemployment account at Employment Security at the same time, so you do not register with each agency separately. File it no sooner than 90 days before your first hire, and expect each agency to write to you afterward with its own account number and filing instructions." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/income-tax", "registerWhen": null, "note": "Washington has no personal income tax, so there is no state withholding account and nothing to take out of a paycheck for state income tax. Federal withholding still applies, and you still open state payroll accounts, they are just for unemployment, workers compensation, paid leave and long-term care instead. One thing to watch: the 2026 Legislature passed a tax on individual income above $1 million effective January 2028, with first returns due in 2029, and guidance has not yet been published.", "source": "https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/income-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Washington Employment Security Department", "url": "https://esd.wa.gov/employer-requirements/unemployment-taxes/how-we-determine-tax-rates", "newEmployerRate": null, "wageBase": 78200, "year": "2026", "note": "There is no single new employer rate to quote. A new employer pays 115% of the average rate for all businesses in its industry, with a federal floor of 1%, and stays on that industry rate for roughly two and a half to three years before its own layoff history takes over. Tax is owed on the first $78,200 of each employee's wages in 2026, up from $72,800 in 2025 and rising to $82,000 in 2027, so this figure is reset every January and is among the highest wage bases in the country.", "source": "https://esd.wa.gov/employer-requirements/unemployment-taxes/how-we-determine-tax-rates", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Washington State Department of Labor and Industries", "url": "https://lni.wa.gov/insurance/insurance-requirements/how-to-get-a-workers-compensation-account", "note": "Washington is a monopoly state fund state: you cannot buy a policy from a private insurer, you either buy coverage from Labor and Industries or get certified to self-insure. Coverage is required as soon as you hire, and you open the account through the same Business License Application rather than shopping for a quote. Premiums are charged per hour worked rather than as a percentage of payroll, at a rate set separately for each of 327 risk classifications, so no single rate exists. Washington is also the only state where workers pay a meaningful share of the premium, on average about 24%, which you withhold from their pay.", "source": "https://lni.wa.gov/insurance/insurance-requirements/do-i-need-a-workers-comp-account/", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date of hire or rehire", "agency": "Washington Department of Social and Health Services, Division of Child Support", "url": "https://www.dshs.wa.gov/esa/division-child-support/new-hire-reporting", "note": "Report every newly hired and rehired employee within 20 days of hire. This is a different obligation from your quarterly wage reports to Employment Security and Labor and Industries, and it repeats for every single hire even though the account setup only happens once. A rehire after a break in service counts again.", "source": "https://www.dshs.wa.gov/esa/division-child-support/new-hire-reporting", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 50, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Washington Employment Security Department", "url": "https://paidleave.wa.gov/employer-roles-responsibilities/", "note": "Washington runs two separate payroll deductions that catch new employers out. Paid Family and Medical Leave costs 1.13% of gross wages in 2026 up to the Social Security cap, split so the employee pays up to 71.43% of it and the employer the remaining 28.57%, but only employers averaging 50 or more employees owe the employer share. On top of that, the state long-term care programme takes 0.58% of gross wages with no cap at all and is entirely employee paid. You collect both and file them on one combined quarterly report, and if you forget to withhold a premium you cannot go back and recover it from the employee later.", "source": "https://paidleave.wa.gov/employer-roles-responsibilities/", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Washington Department of Revenue, Business Licensing Service", "url": "https://dor.wa.gov/open-business/apply-business-license", "fee": 50, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before you make taxable retail sales in Washington, or once you meet the state's nexus reporting requirement", "note": "Washington does not issue a standalone sales tax permit. You register for retail sales tax and the business and occupation tax together by filing one Business License Application, which returns a Unified Business Identifier and a tax registration endorsement. The processing fee is $50 to open the first location of a new business, or $10 if you already hold a Washington licence and are filing for another purpose such as hiring employees.", "source": "https://dor.wa.gov/open-business/apply-business-license/variable-business-license-processing-fees", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Washington puts the collection duty on the marketplace facilitator rather than on you for sales it facilitates. If all your Washington sales run through a facilitator that is collecting, you do not collect the tax yourself, but keep the facilitator's monthly gross sales report as proof. The trap is the business and occupation tax: those marketplace sales are still your gross receipts, so you may still have to register, report them under retailing, and then claim a deduction for the amount the facilitator remitted.", "source": "https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/retail-sales-tax/marketplace-fairness-leveling-playing-field/marketplace-facilitators", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Washington keeps you registered after you stop. A person who meets a nexus test in a calendar year is deemed to have nexus for the whole of the following calendar year as well, even if the activity that created it ended on January 1. The Department applies that same one year trailing period to retail sales tax and to everything else on the combined excise tax return, so plan to keep filing through the trailing year and then formally close the account rather than simply going quiet.", "source": "https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=458-20-193", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Business and Occupation (B&O) tax", "agency": "Washington Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/business-occupation-tax/business-occupation-tax-classifications", "rateRange": "0.138% to 3.3% depending on classification. The common ones are 0.471% retailing, 0.484% wholesaling and manufacturing, and service and other activities tiered at 1.5%, 1.75% or 2.1% by prior year service income", "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "The B&O tax stands in for a corporate income tax and it is charged on gross receipts, with no deduction for cost of goods, payroll or any other expense, so a thin margin business can owe it in a year it loses money. Your rate depends entirely on which of more than 50 classifications your activity falls into, and the spread is wide. A retailer pays B&O on the same sale it collects retail sales tax on, so these are two separate obligations reported on one combined return. A small business credit can reduce or wipe out the tax for very small filers, but it never removes the duty to register and file.", "source": "https://dor.wa.gov/taxes-rates/business-occupation-tax/business-occupation-tax-classifications", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities Division", "url": "https://www.sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/business-entities", "feeLLC": 180, "feeCorp": 180, "feeNote": "$180 for both foreign LLCs and foreign profit corporations, plus an online processing fee at checkout. Expedited service is an additional $100. Separate from the Department of Revenue business licence fee.", "note": "Registering with the Secretary of State is a different step from the Department of Revenue business licence, and doing one does not do the other. You will need a current certificate of existence from your home state plus a Washington registered agent. Once the Secretary of State filing clears, you still file the Business License Application with Revenue to get your Unified Business Identifier and tax registration.", "source": "https://www.sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/business-entities", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "massachusetts": { "state": "Massachusetts", "abbr": "MA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales and use tax", "paid family and medical leave contributions" ], "note": "One registration with the Department of Revenue opens your withholding account, your sales and use tax account and your paid family and medical leave account, so you do not register three separate times for those. Unemployment insurance is not part of it: that is a separate registration with the Department of Unemployment Assistance in its own system. Workers compensation is not a state account at all, it is a policy you buy from a private insurer. Budget for three errands, not one." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Massachusetts Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.mass.gov/guides/withholding-taxes-on-wages", "registerWhen": "Before the business opens and before your first Massachusetts payroll", "note": "You must withhold from every Massachusetts resident you employ, on wages for work done inside or outside the state, and from nonresidents on wages for work performed in Massachusetts. The rule that catches out-of-state companies is the reverse case: if your only link is employing a resident who works entirely outside the state you do not have to withhold, but the moment that person works in Massachusetts you do. Once registered you must file quarterly wage reports for every period even if you withheld nothing, so an account left open quietly generates late filing penalties.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/guides/withholding-taxes-on-wages", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance", "url": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/employer-contributions-to-unemployment", "newEmployerRate": 0.0242, "wageBase": 15000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new employer pays 2.42% on the first $15,000 of wages, and a new construction employer pays 6.08%. New employers are exempt from the recovery assessment that experience-rated employers pay on top, so the headline number is the whole bill for the first three years. The wage base is fixed in statute rather than reset annually, but the rate is reset each year. Separately, Massachusetts charges an employer medical assistance contribution on the same first $15,000: you are exempt for roughly your first three years and while under six employees, then pay 0.12% in year four, 0.24% in year five and 0.34% from year six, a cost that appears years after you thought your payroll maths was settled.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/employer-contributions-to-unemployment", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Massachusetts Department of Industrial Accidents", "url": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/workers-compensation-insurance-requirements", "note": "Massachusetts gives you no free headcount and no hours minimum: coverage is required for every employee from the first one, part time included. The only carve outs are domestic workers below 16 hours a week, and owners covering themselves. Out-of-state employers with anyone working in Massachusetts must cover them here, and an all-states endorsement is not enough on its own: your carrier has to make a specific Massachusetts filing. Going without triggers a stop work order at $100 a day including weekends, rising to $250 a day if you appeal, plus three year debarment from public contracts.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/workers-compensation-insurance-requirements", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 14, "deadline": "within 14 days of the start of, or return to, employment", "agency": "Massachusetts Department of Revenue, Child Support Services Division", "url": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/learn-about-the-new-hire-reporting-program", "note": "Fourteen days rather than the twenty most states allow, so diarise it if you are used to the longer window. Massachusetts also asks for more than new employees: you report anyone returning after 30 or more days off the payroll, retiring employees, employees who file workers compensation claims, and independent contractors you expect to pay $600 or more in a year. The penalty is up to $25 each, but $500 per person if the omission was agreed with the worker. Employers with 25 or more employees must file electronically.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/learn-about-the-new-hire-reporting-program", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 25, "employeeContributionRate": 0.0046, "employerContributionRate": 0.0042, "year": "2026", "agency": "Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave", "url": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/paid-family-and-medical-leave-employer-contribution-rates-and-calculator", "note": "Headcount decides whether you pay any of this. An employer with 25 or more covered individuals sends 0.88% of eligible wages in total: you may withhold up to 0.46% from the worker and owe the remaining 0.42% yourself. Below 25 covered individuals you owe nothing of your own and simply remit the 0.46% withheld, so hiring your 25th covered individual adds a real employer cost. Contributions stop at the Social Security wage maximum, rates are reset every October for the following year, and a 2026 law reshuffles the employer share between medical and family leave from January 2027.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/paid-family-and-medical-leave-employer-contribution-rates-and-calculator", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Massachusetts Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.mass.gov/info-details/register-your-business-with-masstaxconnect", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before the business opens; a remote seller registers effective the first day of the first month beginning two months after the month it crosses the threshold", "note": "You register as a vendor online and the state mails you a registration certificate which you must display at each location. No fee is charged in the online application, but the statute lets the Commissioner of Administration set one and the Department never states that registration is free, so no amount is published here. Remote sellers and marketplaces file monthly rather than on the smaller-vendor schedule, and if all your sales turn out to be exempt you still owe an annual return showing zero.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/administrative-procedure/ap-616-registration-information-sales-tax-meals-tax-room-occupancy-excise-withholding-tax-and-other-miscellaneous-excises", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A platform collects and remits the tax on the sales it facilitates for you once its own combined Massachusetts sales pass the remote seller threshold. Get the platform's collection certificate and keep it: accepting it in good faith is what releases you from liability on those sales, and it also lets you leave those sales out of your own threshold count. The trap is that your direct sales still count on their own, so a seller comfortably covered on marketplace orders can still trip into a registration duty through its own website.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/regulations/830-CMR-64h19-remote-retailers-and-marketplace-facilitators", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Massachusetts tests both the prior and the current calendar year, which produces trailing nexus without ever calling it that. Cross the threshold in one year and you collect for the whole of the next even if your sales collapse, and only after a full year back under the line does the duty lapse. Note also that lapsing out does not close your account: a registration stays open until you cancel it or file a return marked final, and an open account keeps generating filing obligations.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/regulations/830-CMR-64h19-remote-retailers-and-marketplace-facilitators", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Massachusetts has no gross receipts tax of the Washington or Ohio kind. What businesses owe instead is the corporate excise, charged on net income and on tangible property or net worth rather than on total revenue, so costs and expenses do reduce it. If you are comparing states on the assumption that a sales tax state has no second business-level tax, check the corporate excise before concluding Massachusetts is cheaper than a gross receipts state.", "source": "https://www.mass.gov/business-taxes", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Massachusetts Secretary of the Commonwealth, Corporations Division", "url": "https://www.sec.state.ma.us/divisions/corporations/general-information/corporations-filing-fees.htm", "feeLLC": 500, "feeCorp": 400, "feeNote": "A foreign LLC pays $500, fixed by statute. A foreign corporation pays $400. Neither filing can be done online, and both need a certificate of good standing from the home state less than 90 days old.", "note": "The deadline is the part people miss: a foreign LLC must register within ten days after it commences doing business in Massachusetts, far tighter than most states. The ongoing cost is unusually high too, because a foreign LLC pays $500 again for every annual report, while a foreign corporation's annual report is $125. Registering with the Corporations Division is a separate step from your tax and unemployment accounts and does not register you for any tax.", "source": "https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXII/Chapter156c/Section48", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "colorado": { "state": "Colorado", "abbr": "CO", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Colorado Department of Revenue", "Colorado Department of Labor and Employment", "Division of Family and Medical Leave Insurance" ], "note": "Colorado does not issue one combined payroll account. Wage withholding is a Department of Revenue account, unemployment is a Department of Labor account, and paid family leave is a third account with its own division. The state's business portal lets you open the Secretary of State, Revenue and Labor registrations in a single pass, which is why people assume it is one account, but you still get separate numbers and file separate returns. Paid family leave is not in that portal at all and must be registered separately." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Colorado Department of Revenue", "url": "https://tax.colorado.gov/withholding-accounts", "registerWhen": "Before remitting the first Colorado wage withholding", "note": "You withhold whenever the pay is subject to federal withholding and the worker is either a Colorado resident, wherever they work, or a nonresident performing services inside Colorado. The account is free and never needs renewing, but once it exists you must file for every period even when the tax due is zero, or the state issues non-filer notices. Check the city as well as the state: Denver levies an occupational privilege tax withheld from each employee earning at least $500 a month in the city, plus an employer share for that same employee, registered and filed with the city rather than the state.", "source": "https://tax.colorado.gov/withholding-accounts", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Unemployment Insurance", "url": "https://cdle.colorado.gov/ui/employers/requirements/premiums", "newEmployerRate": 0.0305, "wageBase": 30600, "year": "2026", "note": "You become liable once you pay $1,500 of wages in any calendar quarter, or employ at least one person for any part of a day in 20 weeks, in the current or prior year. New employers pay an introductory rate for their first year, three years in construction, and for 2026 that is 3.05% for non-construction and general construction, built from a beginning rate, a support rate and a solvency surcharge. Heavy construction is much higher at 6.285%, so check your classification before budgeting. Premiums are owed on the first $30,600 of wages in 2026, up from $27,200 in 2025, and both the base and the rate tables reset every December.", "source": "https://cdle.colorado.gov/ui/employers/requirements/premiums/introductory-rates", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Division of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://cdle.colorado.gov/insurance-coverage", "note": "Colorado requires coverage from the very first employee, and counts part-time workers and family members as employees. Anyone paid for their services is presumed an employee unless they fit a narrow independent contractor exemption, so misclassifying a contractor is the usual way an employer ends up uninsured without realising it. Fines run up to $500 for every day without coverage, the state can shut the business down, and if someone is injured while you are uninsured you pay the claim yourself plus a penalty worth 25% of the worker's benefits.", "source": "https://cdle.colorado.gov/insurance-coverage", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 calendar days of the date of hire, or by the first regularly scheduled payroll after that window closes", "agency": "Colorado State Directory of New Hires", "url": "https://newhire.state.co.us", "note": "Reports go through a separate state portal from your unemployment and withholding accounts. This is the obligation employers most often skip because nothing bills them for it, but it is what funds child support enforcement and the state does audit it.", "source": "https://cdle.colorado.gov/employers/recruiting-hiring/new-employer-checklist", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 10, "employeeContributionRate": 0.0044, "employerContributionRate": 0.0044, "year": "2026", "agency": "Colorado Division of Family and Medical Leave Insurance", "url": "https://famli.colorado.gov/employers", "note": "Colorado's paid family and medical leave programme is funded by a premium of 0.88% of wages for 2026, down from 0.9% in 2025, split evenly at 0.44% each between employer and employee, stopping at the federal Social Security wage cap. Employers with nine or fewer employees are excused from the employer half, but the headcount counts every employee nationwide rather than just the Colorado ones, so a twelve person company with three people in Colorado pays the full rate. Every employer with at least one covered Colorado employee must register and refresh its headcount by the end of February each year, because a missed update makes the state assume you have ten or more and bill you accordingly.", "source": "https://famli.colorado.gov/employers", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Colorado Department of Revenue", "url": "https://tax.colorado.gov/standard-retail-license", "fee": 16, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": "A new account must send a $50 deposit with the application, refunded automatically once the business has remitted $50 of state sales tax, so a first licence usually costs $66 up front.", "registerBy": "By the first day of the first month beginning at least 90 days after your cumulative Colorado sales in the current year pass the threshold", "note": "The state retail licence is a two year licence expiring at the end of every odd numbered year, and the fee is prorated by when you apply, from $16 down to $4. The real trap is that this licence only covers the state and the local jurisdictions the state collects for. Colorado's home rule cities administer their own sales tax, write their own rules about what is taxable, and generally require their own licence and their own return, so one remote seller can end up registered with the state plus several individual cities. The state's filing system covers only the home rule cities that opted in; the rest must be contacted and paid directly.", "source": "https://tax.colorado.gov/standard-retail-license", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A marketplace facilitator must collect and remit all applicable state and state-administered local sales tax on sales made through its marketplace. If you sell only through marketplaces and the facilitator is collecting everything due, you can be exempt from holding a Colorado licence and filing returns at all. Selling through a marketplace and also selling direct makes you a multichannel seller, and the direct sales are still entirely your problem.", "source": "https://tax.colorado.gov/marketplace-facilitators", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Colorado runs on a calendar year lookback rather than a named trailing nexus rule. If your sales into Colorado exceeded the threshold in the previous calendar year, you are subject to licensing and collection for the entire current calendar year, no matter how little you sell during it. So a good year followed by a quiet one still means twelve more months of registration, returns and home rule filings, and you cannot close the account the moment sales drop off.", "source": "https://tax.colorado.gov/sales-tax-basics", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Colorado has no gross receipts tax on business revenue. The Department of Revenue's list of business tax types runs to sales and use, business income, wage withholding, excise and fuel, and severance, with nothing resembling Washington's B&O or Ohio's commercial activity tax. Business profits are taxed through the regular corporate or pass-through income tax instead.", "source": "https://tax.colorado.gov/businesses", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Colorado Secretary of State", "url": "https://www.coloradosos.gov/pubs/info_center/fees/business.html", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "Statement of Foreign Entity Authority, $100, filed online. Colorado charges the same whether the entity is an LLC or a corporation and does not scale it with authorized shares. Withdrawing later costs $10.", "note": "Colorado accepts this filing online only, with no paper version of the form. Registering here is separate from your tax and payroll accounts: qualifying with the Secretary of State does not open a withholding, unemployment or paid leave account, and opening those does not qualify you to do business.", "source": "https://www.coloradosos.gov/pubs/info_center/fees/business.html", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "ohio": { "state": "Ohio", "abbr": "OH", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Ohio Department of Taxation", "Ohio Department of Job and Family Services", "Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation" ], "note": "Ohio has no single employer account. Withholding, sales tax and the commercial activity tax are registered with the Department of Taxation through the Ohio Business Gateway, unemployment is a separate registration with Job and Family Services in its own system, and workers compensation is a third application to the Bureau of Workers' Compensation. The Gateway looks like a one stop because it carries several services behind one login, but it does not open your unemployment or workers compensation accounts, so budget for three registrations." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Ohio Department of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.ohio.gov/business/employer-withholding", "registerWhen": "Within 15 days of the date the withholding liability begins", "note": "The same account number also covers school district income tax, which you must withhold for any employee living in one of Ohio's taxing school districts. The bigger surprise for out-of-state employers is municipal income tax: many Ohio cities levy their own, collected by the municipalities or regional agencies rather than by the state, and none of it runs through your state account. You generally do not withhold for a city where an employee works 20 or fewer days in a year, but past that, or where their principal place of work is in a taxing city, municipal withholding starts. Residents of five neighbouring states who work in Ohio are exempt under reciprocity if they file the right form.", "source": "https://tax.ohio.gov/business/employer-withholding", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Ohio Department of Job and Family Services", "url": "https://jfs.ohio.gov/unemployment-services/for-employers/file-unemployment-taxes/tax-resources/contribution-rates", "newEmployerRate": 0.0285, "wageBase": 9000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new Ohio employer pays 2.85% on the first $9,000 of wages, up from the 2.7% that held from 2023 through 2025, and a construction employer pays 5.85%. On top of the contribution rate, every contributory employer owes a technology and customer service fee of 0.15% on the same $9,000 in 2026 and 2027, which the state does not count or report as an unemployment contribution, so it is easy to leave out of a budget. You become liable once you have a worker in covered employment in 20 weeks of the current or prior year, or pay $1,500 in wages in any quarter.", "source": "https://jfs.ohio.gov/unemployment-services/for-employers/file-unemployment-taxes/tax-resources/contribution-rates", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://info.bwc.ohio.gov/for-employers/workers-compensation-coverage/getting-coverage", "note": "Ohio is a monopolistic state fund state: you cannot buy a policy from a private insurer, you buy it from the state fund. Coverage is required from your first employee, and it is not in effect until the Bureau has both your application and a non-refundable application fee of at least $120. Premium depends on payroll and industry classification, so there is no single rate. The trap for an out-of-state business is that your existing policy does not travel: another state's coverage is recognised for a non-Ohio resident working in Ohio for up to 90 consecutive days, but someone hired to work in Ohio, or an Ohio resident working remotely from home for you, is an Ohio employee whose wages must be reported here.", "source": "https://info.bwc.ohio.gov/for-employers/workers-compensation-coverage/getting-coverage", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's date of hire, or of the date a contractor is engaged or re-engaged", "agency": "Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Ohio New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://jfs.ohio.gov/child-support/employer-information/report-new-hire-changes-in-status", "note": "The duty covers independent contractors you engage as well as employees, which is the part most businesses miss. Reports go to Job and Family Services rather than the Department of Taxation, so this is a separate filing and nothing about registering for payroll tax satisfies it. A copy of the employee's federal W-4 is an accepted form of report. Missing one costs $25 per unreported hire, rising to $500 where employer and employee agreed not to report.", "source": "https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/rule-5101:12-10-90.1", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Ohio runs no state disability insurance and no state paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and no extra account to open. If you already run payroll in a state like California or Delaware, do not carry that deduction across: an Ohio employee has nothing withheld for leave or disability, and federal family leave protection is unpaid.", "source": "https://tax.ohio.gov/business/employer-withholding", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Ohio Department of Taxation, with county auditors issuing county vendor's licences", "url": "https://tax.ohio.gov/business/sales-and-use-tax", "fee": 50, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before making any taxable retail sales in Ohio; a remote seller registers once it has substantial nexus", "note": "An Ohio county vendor's licence costs $50 for each fixed place of business in the county where you make retail sales, and you must hold it before you start selling rather than after. Watch this figure: the fee doubled from $25 in April 2025, so any source still saying $25 is over a year stale, and the Department will not refund it. A remote seller with no fixed Ohio location does not buy a vendor's licence at all: it registers for a seller's use tax account instead, and the statute sets no fee for that.", "source": "https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-5739.17", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A platform that lists your goods and takes the order is treated as the seller for the sales it facilitates, so it collects and remits the Ohio tax on those and you do not, whether or not you personally have nexus in Ohio. The catch is that it only covers facilitated sales: anything you sell through your own website or any other channel remains yours to collect and remit, and those direct sales are what you measure against the nexus test.", "source": "https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-5741.07", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Ohio's substantial nexus test looks at the current or the preceding calendar year, so a year in which you cross drags the following year in with it. Dropping below the threshold does not end the duty straight away: you keep collecting and filing through the next calendar year. Your registration also stays open until you close it, so notify the Department when you genuinely stop selling into Ohio rather than filing zero returns indefinitely.", "source": "https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-5741.01", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Commercial Activity Tax (CAT)", "agency": "Ohio Department of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.ohio.gov/business/commercial-activity-tax", "rateRange": "0.26% of Ohio taxable gross receipts above the exclusion", "exclusionThreshold": 6000000, "note": "The CAT is charged on your Ohio sales with no deduction for cost of goods, payroll or any other expense, and unlike sales tax you cannot bill it separately to your customer. What makes it survivable for most small businesses is the exclusion: for 2025 and later you owe nothing until Ohio taxable gross receipts pass $6 million, up from $3 million in 2024 and only $150,000 before that, and the old annual minimum tax was abolished. An out-of-state business is in scope only if it has bright-line presence, which includes $50,000 of Ohio payroll. Watch that trigger when you hire: one reasonably paid Ohio employee can give you presence, and once receipts also cross $6 million you have 30 days to register.", "source": "https://tax.ohio.gov/business/commercial-activity-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Ohio Secretary of State", "url": "https://www.ohiosos.gov/businesses/filing-forms--fee-schedule/", "feeLLC": 99, "feeCorp": 99, "feeNote": "Statute sets $99 for a foreign LLC's registration and $99 for a foreign for-profit corporation's licence to transact business, so the cost is the same either way and does not scale with authorized shares.", "note": "You must also appoint and maintain an Ohio statutory agent with a real Ohio street address, an ongoing cost separate from the filing fee. Registering with the Secretary of State is only the entity step and opens no tax accounts, so withholding, unemployment, workers compensation and any vendor's licence all remain separate registrations afterwards.", "source": "https://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-111.16", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "michigan": { "state": "Michigan", "abbr": "MI", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Michigan Department of Treasury", "Unemployment Insurance Agency" ], "note": "Michigan splits payroll registration between two agencies. Treasury issues the account you use for income tax withholding and sales tax, while the Unemployment Insurance Agency issues a separate employer account number. The paper application is one form covering both, because Treasury forwards the unemployment schedules on, but the online routes are separate systems. Plan on two accounts, two logins and two filing calendars even if you started from a single form." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Michigan Department of Treasury", "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/withholding", "registerWhen": "Before your first Michigan payroll. Paper applications should be mailed at least six weeks before you intend to start; online registration is authenticated in minutes", "note": "The trap that catches out-of-state employers is the second layer: twenty-four Michigan cities levy their own income tax, and city withholding is owed by an employer that merely does business in the city, even with no office there. Detroit's own guide uses an out-of-state construction firm as its example. Detroit is administered by Treasury and needs no separate registration if you are already registered for state taxes, but the other twenty-three cities, including Grand Rapids, Lansing and Flint, run their own systems and you must register and file with each separately.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/new-biz/registration-faqs", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency", "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/uia/employers", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 9000, "year": "2026", "note": "A new non-construction employer pays 2.7% for its first two years, and construction employers instead get the average construction contractor rate. You become liable at very low triggers, the easiest being $1,000 in gross wages in a calendar year. The wage base has a catch worth real money: the default base in law is $9,500, and the reduced $9,000 applies only to a qualified employer, meaning one that has filed every quarterly report and owes no unpaid balance of $25 or more. Fall behind on a single report and you pay tax on an extra $500 per employee.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/uia/assets/unemployment-tax-rate", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "any private employer regularly employing one or more employees 35 hours or more per week for 13 weeks or longer in the preceding 52 weeks", "any private employer regularly employing three or more employees at one time, including part-time employees", "agricultural employers with three or more employees working 35 hours or more per week for 13 consecutive weeks" ], "optOutFilings": "Coverage can be satisfied by buying insurance, qualifying as a self-insurer, or properly executing an exclusion form with the agency. The exclusion route is narrow and paperwork-driven rather than a general opt-out.", "agency": "Workers' Disability Compensation Agency", "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/wdca/insurance-requirements/pages/workers-disability-compensation-insurance-requirements", "note": "Michigan has two triggers and you are covered if either fires, which is what people get wrong. One full-time employee working 35 hours a week for 13 weeks obliges you to carry coverage, and separately any three employees at one time obliges you even if all three are part-time. Owners are not always outside the count: a partner counts as an employee of the partnership, a corporate officer counts as an employee of the corporation, and a member who is a manager counts as an employee of an LLC, though a true sole proprietor never counts against themselves.", "source": "https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-418-115", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the hire date, meaning the date services are first performed for pay", "agency": "Michigan New Hires Operation Center, Office of Child Support", "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/adult-child-serv/child-sup/resources/employers/new-hire-reporting", "note": "The clock starts on the first day services are performed for pay, not the day the offer letter was signed. Seasonal and temporary hires count, and so does a returning employee previously on your payroll. Reports missing mandatory fields are simply not processed, so an incomplete filing is the same as no filing.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/mdhhs/adult-child-serv/child-sup/resources/employers/new-hire-reporting", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity", "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/ber/wage-and-hour/paid-medical-leave-act", "note": "Michigan runs no state disability or paid family leave fund, so there is no payroll deduction. What it does have, since February 2025, is the Earned Sick Time Act, which is employer-funded rather than insured: employees accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours worked. Employers with 11 or more employees may cap use at 72 hours a year, while a small business of 10 or fewer may cap at 40. The sting is that once you employ 11 or more people for 20 or more workweeks you lose small-business status for the rest of that year and all of the next, so a busy summer moves you to the higher tier well into the following year.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/leo/bureaus-agencies/ber/wage-and-hour/paid-medical-leave-act", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Michigan Department of Treasury", "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/sales-use-tax", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "Normally none, but the law lets Treasury demand a surety bond of not less than $1,000 and not more than $25,000 where it thinks security is needed, typically when the applicant or its officers have a history of unpaid tax. Cash may be deposited instead, capped at the estimated tax payable over one year.", "registerBy": "Remote sellers register and begin remitting on January 1 of the calendar year following the year they crossed the threshold. Sellers with a Michigan location register before making taxable retail sales.", "note": "Treasury confirms in writing that there is no fee for a Michigan sales tax licence. The licence runs January to December and renews automatically unless you cancel, so there is nothing to re-apply for. Michigan has no city or county sales tax, so the rate is flat statewide and you file one return rather than tracking local jurisdictions, which makes it one of the simpler states to sell into. Selling without a licence is a misdemeanour, so the free licence is not one to skip.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/sales-use-tax/information/sales-tax-license-faq", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The facilitator must remit Michigan sales tax on everything it facilitates, whether or not the underlying seller has nexus of its own, and Treasury will audit the facilitator rather than you unless you gave it incorrect information. If every one of your Michigan sales runs through a registered facilitator you do not need your own registration, but any direct-to-customer sales put you straight back into the threshold test.", "source": "https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-205-52d", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Dropping below the threshold does not end your obligation that year. You keep collecting until a full calendar year has passed in which you met neither component of the test, so a seller that qualified in one year and fell below the next still owes tax on all of that second year and only stops the following January. The practical effect is a trailing period of up to two years of filing after your last big year, and any tax you do collect during the wind-down must be remitted or refunded to the customer.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/sales-use-tax/information/remote-seller-faq", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/cit", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Michigan used to have one and no longer does. The old Michigan Business Tax included a modified gross receipts tax, but it was replaced by the Corporate Income Tax in 2012 and survives only for businesses holding an unused certificated credit. What remains is a tax on income rather than receipts. Gross receipts survive only as a filing screen: a taxpayer with less than $350,000 of Michigan-allocated gross receipts is not required to file or pay.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/business-taxes/cit", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Corporations, Securities and Commercial Licensing Bureau, Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs", "url": "https://www.michigan.gov/lara/bureau-list/cscl/corps/limited-liability-co/types/foreign-limited-liability-company", "feeLLC": 50, "feeCorp": 60, "feeNote": "Foreign LLC $50. Foreign profit corporation $60, being a $10 fee plus a $50 initial franchise fee. Foreign non-profit is $20. Neither qualification form can be filed online; both must be mailed or delivered. Expedited review is extra, from $50 for 24-hour handling up to $1,000 for one-hour service.", "note": "Qualifying is separate from registering for tax, and hiring one person in Michigan will usually put you over the line into transacting business. Skipping it is expensive in a specific way: an unqualified foreign LLC cannot bring or maintain a lawsuit in a Michigan court until it obtains a certificate of authority, it owes the state all the fees it would have paid had it qualified, and it faces a civil penalty of $100 to $1,000 for every month it operated without one.", "source": "https://www.michigan.gov/-/media/Project/Websites/lara/cscl/Folder6/Filing_Fees.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "virginia": { "state": "Virginia", "abbr": "VA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Virginia Department of Taxation", "Virginia Employment Commission", "Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission", "State Corporation Commission" ], "note": "Virginia has no single payroll account. One tax registration opens both your withholding and sales tax accounts, but each gets its own number, and unemployment insurance is a completely separate registration with the Employment Commission. The state's business portal can submit several registrations in one sitting, which makes it feel like one account, but you still end up with two agencies, two sets of returns and two sets of deadlines." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Virginia Department of Taxation", "url": "https://www.tax.virginia.gov/withholding-tax", "registerWhen": "Before you pay a Virginia employee's first wages", "note": "Virginia ties withholding to the federal rule: if federal law requires you to withhold from a payment, Virginia requires it too, with no minimum headcount or dollar threshold to get you out of it. Your filing frequency is set by how much you withhold each month. The trap is that one Virginia employee, including a remote worker you never meet, creates an account you must keep filing on every period even when you had no payroll that period.", "source": "https://www.tax.virginia.gov/withholding-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Virginia Employment Commission", "url": "https://www.vec.virginia.gov/employers", "newEmployerRate": 0.025, "wageBase": 8000, "year": "2026", "note": "A new employer is assigned the statutory base rate of 2.5% on the first $8,000 each employee earns, capping the base cost at about $200 per employee a year until you have enough history for a computed rate. Watch for add-ons: Virginia layers annual charges such as the pool cost charge and fund builder on top, so the figure on your rate notice is usually a little above 2.5% and it is reset every calendar year. You become liable once you pay $1,500 in wages in a quarter or have an employee in 20 weeks of a year.", "source": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title60.2/chapter5/section60.2-526/", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 3, "requiredFor": [ "any employer that regularly employs more than two employees, so coverage begins at the third", "contractors, counting the employees of any subcontractor hired to perform the contractor's own trade or to fulfil the contractor's contract", "employers whose count reaches three only by including corporate officers, LLC managers, working family members, minors, or temporary, seasonal and part-time staff" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no waiver or exemption for an employer over the threshold, and employee waivers are not recognised. An individual executive officer or LLC manager may reject coverage for themselves by filing a rejection form, provided the business still carries a valid policy.", "agency": "Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission", "url": "https://workcomp.virginia.gov/workers-compensation-insurance-information-employers", "note": "Virginia is not a first-employee state: coverage becomes mandatory once you regularly employ more than two people, so your third worker is the trigger. The count is much broader than a payroll list. Part-time, seasonal, temporary and minor workers count, so do working family members and corporate officers who draw no salary, and if you hire subcontractors to do your own trade then their employees are added to your total too. That last rule catches small contractors constantly, because two employees plus a two-person sub crew is four, and the penalty runs up to $250 per uninsured day capped at $50,000.", "source": "https://workcomp.virginia.gov/workers-compensation-insurance-information-employers", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's date of hire, or within 20 days of the start of an independent contractor's contract", "agency": "Virginia New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://www.va-newhire.com/", "note": "Virginia gives you 20 days from the date of hire, and the same 20 days from the start of the contract for a new independent contractor. Most states only require employee reporting, so the contractor half is easy to miss if you are running a 1099 workforce. Submitting a copy of the W-4 for an employee or a W-9 for a contractor satisfies the requirement.", "source": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title63.2/chapter19/section63.2-1946/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2028", "agency": "Virginia Employment Commission", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title60.2/chapter8/", "note": "Nothing is withheld for this today, but it is coming and it is now law. Virginia enacted a paid family and medical leave insurance programme in 2026: the programme is established in January 2028, employer contributions begin that April, and benefit payments begin that December. It covers every private employer with no headcount exemption, but the split differs by size, with employers of 11 or more able to deduct half the contribution from wages and pay the rest, while employers of 10 or fewer deduct the same employee half and owe no employer share. The contribution rate is left to the Commissioner to fix actuarially and is republished each October, so no rate exists to quote yet.", "source": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacodefull/title60.2/chapter8/", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Virginia Department of Taxation", "url": "https://www.tax.virginia.gov/retail-sales-and-use-tax", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "Neither the statute nor the regulation conditions the certificate on a bond or deposit, so unlike California and Texas there is no open-ended deposit demand attached to registering.", "registerBy": "Before you engage in business as a dealer in Virginia. A remote seller that crosses the economic nexus threshold must register no later than 30 days after establishing nexus.", "note": "The certificate of registration is free, and it is issued per place of business. Registering is not optional paperwork: doing business as a dealer without a certificate is a misdemeanour and each day counts as a separate offence. The deadline that catches out-of-state sellers is the 30 day clock, which starts when you cross the economic nexus line rather than at the following quarter or year.", "source": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title23/agency10/chapter210/section290/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The platform, not you, collects and remits Virginia sales tax on sales made through it. If every one of your Virginia sales runs through a platform you generally do not have to register at all. The trap is mixed channels: sales from your own website are yours to handle, and if those direct sales alone cross the threshold you must register and collect on them while the platform sales stay with the platform.", "source": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title58.1/chapter6/section58.1-612.1/", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Dropping below the threshold does not let you stop collecting mid-year. Virginia lets a registered remote seller cease collection on January 1 of the year following any year in which it failed the test, so you keep collecting through December 31 of the year you fell short. If you cross the line again afterwards, the 30 day registration clock restarts.", "source": "https://www.tax.virginia.gov/laws-rules-decisions/rulings-tax-commissioner/20-43", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": "Business, Professional and Occupational License (BPOL) tax, levied by localities rather than by the Commonwealth", "agency": "Cities, counties and towns, with the Department of Taxation writing the regulations but not collecting it", "url": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title23/agency10/chapter500/", "rateRange": "Statutory caps of $0.16 per $100 of gross receipts for contracting, $0.20 for retail, $0.36 for services, and $0.58 for financial, real estate and professional services", "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Virginia has no statewide gross receipts tax, but that answer alone will get an expanding business in trouble. Virginia localities are authorised to levy a Business, Professional and Occupational License tax computed on your gross receipts rather than your profit, and you owe it separately in each locality where you have a definite place of business. State law caps the rates by category and shields small businesses with a floor that varies by locality size, from $100,000 of gross receipts in the largest down to whatever the locality chooses in places under 25,000 people. Below the floor a locality can still charge a flat licence fee, so check the ordinance of the specific city or county you are moving into rather than the state.", "source": "https://law.lis.virginia.gov/admincode/title23/agency10/chapter500/section100/", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Virginia State Corporation Commission", "url": "https://www.scc.virginia.gov/businesses/forms-and-fees/", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": null, "feeNote": "A foreign LLC pays a flat $100. A foreign stock corporation has no single figure, because the entrance fee scales with authorized shares at $50 for each 25,000 shares or fraction, flattening to $2,500 above 1,000,000 shares, plus a $25 filing fee. That puts the real range at $75 to $2,525, which is why no corporation figure is published here. A foreign nonstock corporation is a flat $75.", "note": "Foreign qualification means registering an entity you already formed elsewhere so it can legally do business in Virginia, and it is a different filing from forming a Virginia entity. Hiring a Virginia employee or opening an office is the usual trigger, and doing business without qualifying blocks you from bringing suit in Virginia courts until you register. Budget for the annual registration fee that follows, which is separate from these one-time amounts.", "source": "https://www.scc.virginia.gov/businesses/forms-and-fees/foreign-limited-liability-companies/", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "south-carolina": { "state": "South Carolina", "abbr": "SC", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Department of Revenue", "Department of Employment and Workforce", "Department of Social Services" ], "note": "South Carolina has no single payroll registration. Hiring one person means opening a withholding account with the Department of Revenue, a separate unemployment account with the Department of Employment and Workforce, reporting the hire to the Department of Social Services new hire directory, and buying workers compensation privately once you cross the headcount trigger. Four agencies, four independent obligations, and clearing one does not register you with the others." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "South Carolina Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.sc.gov/businesses/apply-business-tax-account", "registerWhen": "Before your first South Carolina payroll; allow up to five business days for the application to process", "note": "If you have an employee performing work in South Carolina you must open a withholding account and file quarterly returns, even if your company has no office, property or other physical presence in the state. Wages are taxed where they are earned, so a remote worker sitting in Greenville pulls you into South Carolina withholding regardless of where your payroll is run. There is no charge to register.", "source": "https://dor.sc.gov/tax/registration/faq", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce", "url": "https://www.dew.sc.gov/employers/tax-rate-information", "newEmployerRate": 0.0106, "wageBase": 14000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new employer pays a total effective rate of 1.06%, being a 1.0% base rate plus a 0.06% contingency assessment, on the first $14,000 each employee earns. That works out to a maximum of about $148 per employee for the year, among the cheapest in the country. Note the state's own press release quotes 1.0% for new employers, which is the base rate only and not the total actually billed.", "source": "https://www.dew.sc.gov/employers/tax-rate-information", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 4, "requiredFor": [ "employers who regularly employ four or more people in the same business in South Carolina", "part-time workers and family members count toward the four", "exempt if total annual payroll in the previous calendar year was under $3,000, regardless of headcount", "agricultural employees, casual employees, railroads and real estate agents on straight commission sit outside the Act regardless of size" ], "optOutFilings": "South Carolina issues no exemption certificate and the Commission will not certify that an employer is exempt, so there is nothing to file to claim the small-employer exemption. The filing runs the other way: if you once carried coverage you stay under the Act until you file a Form 38 withdrawing. An employer who drops to three employees and simply cancels the policy without filing can still be treated as subject to the Act.", "agency": "South Carolina Workers' Compensation Commission", "url": "https://wcc.sc.gov/employer-faqs", "note": "The trigger is two tests joined by an or, and either one exempts you. Coverage is mandatory once you regularly employ four or more people in the same business, but you are exempt if you employ fewer than four or if your total payroll last year was under $3,000. The count is broader than owners expect: part-time workers and family members count, so three part-timers plus a working relative puts you at four.", "source": "https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t42c001.php", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 calendar days of hiring the employee", "agency": "South Carolina Department of Social Services, Child Support Services", "url": "https://newhire.sc.gov/", "note": "Every employer must report each newly hired or rehired employee within 20 calendar days. Employers who transmit electronically may instead report twice a month in batches spaced twelve to sixteen days apart. This is a child support requirement that also feeds unemployment fraud screening, so it applies even to a single hire. Penalties are small for ordinary lapses but rise to $500 per offence where employer and employee conspired to withhold or falsify the report.", "source": "https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t43c005.php", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "South Carolina runs no state paid family leave or temporary disability programme, so there is no payroll deduction to set up. Do not be misled by the name of the state's Paid Family Leave Insurance Act, which only authorises licensed insurers to sell voluntary family leave coverage to employers as a private product. It is not a mandate. The paid parental leave you may read about covers state government employees only.", "source": "https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t38c103.php", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "South Carolina Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.sc.gov/businesses/apply-business-tax-account/licensing-retail-license", "fee": 50, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": "Transient retailers with no permanent business location may be required to post a cash deposit or bond covering at least their annual sales tax liability, and it must be posted before the licence is issued. This does not reach ordinary remote sellers or businesses with a fixed location.", "registerBy": "By the first day of the second calendar month after economic nexus is established", "note": "South Carolina charges $50 for a retail licence, per retail location, so a second storefront means a second $50. It is a one-time fee with no annual renewal while the same taxpayer keeps operating at the same location, but there is a trap on the way out: close the licence and later need one again and you pay the $50 over. The registration deadline is unusual and worth diarising, since nexus reached in December means a licence in hand by 1 February.", "source": "https://dor.sc.gov/sites/dor/files/policies/RR18-14.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The facilitator is treated as the retailer and must obtain the licence and remit tax on everything sold through its marketplace, including goods owned by third parties. If you sell exclusively through a marketplace you are not a South Carolina retailer and need no licence of your own. The catch is the threshold maths: your marketplace sales still count toward your own gross revenue test, so marketplace volume can push you over the line on your direct website sales even though the marketplace remits on its own share.", "source": "https://dor.sc.gov/sales-use-tax-marketplace-facilitators-and-third-parties-whose-products-are-sold-marketplace-guidance-and-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "affirmative-termination", "note": "South Carolina publishes no fixed trailing period, but two mechanisms keep you registered after your sales fall off. The economic nexus test looks at the previous calendar year or the current one, so a strong year carries the duty through the following one. And a registered seller keeps collecting and filing every period until it tells the Department the licence is being closed, which makes ending the obligation an affirmative act. Weigh that against the $50 you pay again if you close and later re-register.", "source": "https://dor.sc.gov/sites/dor/files/policies/RR18-14.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "South Carolina has no gross receipts tax of the Washington or Ohio type, so revenue alone does not create a separate state-level business tax. Corporations do owe an annual licence fee, but it is computed on capital stock and paid-in surplus rather than on sales, at a $25 minimum. A foreign corporation pays that $25 minimum up front alongside its certificate of authority.", "source": "https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t12c020.php", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "South Carolina Secretary of State, Business Filings Division", "url": "https://businessfilings.sc.gov/BusinessFiling/Home/DownloadForms?pdfCategoryId=1", "feeLLC": 110, "feeCorp": 110, "feeNote": "$110 for a foreign LLC certificate of authority and $110 for a foreign corporation, but a corporation must also file an initial annual report for another $25, making the real corporate cost $135. A foreign nonprofit pays only $10.", "note": "Qualifying is triggered by transacting business in South Carolina rather than by making sales into it. Both entity types must attach a certificate of existence from their home state dated no more than 30 days before filing, which is the step that most often delays a filing because the home state has to issue it first.", "source": "https://businessfilings.sc.gov/BusinessFiling/Home/DownloadForms?pdfCategoryId=1", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "maryland": { "state": "Maryland", "abbr": "MD", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Comptroller of Maryland", "Maryland Department of Labor" ], "note": "Maryland uses one Combined Registration Application that opens your withholding account, your sales and use tax licence and an unemployment account, so most businesses file a single form rather than three. The catch is that the Department of Labor now tells new employers to create the unemployment account directly in its own portal, and its guidance warns you may still need the combined application for the Comptroller's accounts. Treat the two agencies as separate confirmations rather than assuming one submission gave you a live unemployment account. Workers compensation and the coming paid leave programme sit outside it entirely." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Comptroller of Maryland", "url": "https://www.marylandcomptroller.gov/", "registerWhen": "Before the first payroll. The state's own guide warns against waiting until withholding payments are due to register", "note": "Maryland withholding is not just state tax. Every Maryland county and Baltimore City levies its own income tax that you collect through the same state return, and the rate is set by the county where the employee LIVES, not where your office or the job site is. For 2026 those county rates run from 2.25% to 3.30%, and the employee's county of residence comes off the exemption certificate you must collect at or before hire. Two people doing identical jobs at identical pay will have different Maryland withholding if they live in different counties.", "source": "https://www.marylandcomptroller.gov/content/dam/mdcomp/tax/instructions/withholding/2025/Withholding-Guide.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Maryland Department of Labor, Division of Unemployment Insurance", "url": "https://labor.maryland.gov/unemployment-insurance/employer-agent/tax-rate.shtml", "newEmployerRate": null, "wageBase": 8500, "year": "2026", "note": "You become a covered employer once you employ at least one person in Maryland. Maryland does not publish one flat new employer rate: the Division says only that it may range from 1.0% to 2.6%, so no single figure is printed here and you should read the rate on the assignment notice the Division sends you. Contributions are owed on the first $8,500 each employee earns, one of the lowest wage bases in the country, so the annual cost per employee is capped low. Construction firms headquartered outside Maryland are a deliberate exception and get the Maryland construction industry average rate.", "source": "https://labor.maryland.gov/unemployment-insurance/employer-agent/tax-rate.shtml", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every Maryland employer with one or more employees, with few exceptions" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission", "url": "https://www.wcc.state.md.us/PDF/Publications/QandA_Emplr.pdf", "note": "Maryland has no headcount grace period: with few exceptions every employer with one or more employees must provide coverage, so the obligation attaches to your first hire. You buy the policy from any licensed carrier or from the state's guaranteed market insurer, and only employers with a net worth of at least $10 million can apply to self-insure. Failing to carry coverage exposes you to a fine of up to $10,000, and if you are a corporation the officers responsible for general management are personally liable for it. Deducting any part of the premium from an employee's wages is a misdemeanour.", "source": "https://www.wcc.state.md.us/PDF/Publications/QandA_Emplr.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date of hire, unless you report electronically, in which case twice each month not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart", "agency": "Maryland Department of Human Services, Child Support Administration", "url": "https://dhs.maryland.gov/child-support-services/report-new-hires/new-hires-faqs/", "note": "Anyone who has to issue a W-2 must report each new hire within 20 days. Employers who report electronically trade the 20 day rule for a stricter rhythm of two transmissions a month. Rehires count as new hires if the person was separated from you for at least 60 consecutive days, which is the step seasonal and on-call employers most often miss. Penalties are small at $20 per month of violation, rising to $500 where employer and employee colluded to avoid reporting.", "source": "https://dhs.maryland.gov/child-support-services/report-new-hires/new-hires-faqs/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 15, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": "Maryland Department of Labor, FAMLI Division", "url": "https://paidleave.maryland.gov/employers/make-contributions/", "note": "Maryland's paid family and medical leave programme is law and its first regulations are in force, but NO CONTRIBUTIONS ARE BEING COLLECTED YET. After more than one delay, the current official schedule is that payroll deductions begin in January 2027, the first quarterly payment is due that April, and employees can first claim benefits in January 2028, so the fund is built for a year before it pays out. A total contribution rate has been reaffirmed for 2027, split so the employer may withhold at most half from the employee, but because that rate is not yet in force no rate figure is published here. Employers with fewer than 15 employees counted worldwide remit only half the rate. Rates are reset each November for the following year.", "source": "https://paidleave.maryland.gov/employers/make-contributions/", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Comptroller of Maryland", "url": "https://www.marylandcomptroller.gov/", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before you make your first taxable sale. The statute requires you to be licensed before engaging in business as a retail vendor, an out-of-state vendor or a marketplace facilitator", "note": "The sales and use tax licence comes out of the same combined application as your withholding account, and the statute is written as a precondition: you must hold the licence before you engage in business as a vendor, not merely before your first return is due. No Comptroller page states a price one way or the other, so no fee is reported rather than guessing it is free. Maryland does pay you a timely filing discount on tax collected, capped per return. Separately, many Maryland businesses also need a trader's licence from the Clerk of the Circuit Court in their county, a different filing with its own charges.", "source": "https://mgaleg.maryland.gov/mgawebsite/Laws/StatuteText?article=gtg§ion=11-702", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Maryland's marketplace facilitator law moves the collection duty onto the platform, so if a facilitator collects Maryland tax on your facilitated sales you do not collect or report those sales at all. The trap is that this only holds if every one of your Maryland sales runs through the marketplace: the moment you also sell direct you must register and collect on the direct sales yourself. Worse, the registration thresholds are measured on your combined activity, so facilitated sales count toward the test that drags your direct sales into the net.", "source": "https://www.marylandcomptroller.gov/content/dam/mdcomp/tax/legal-publications/alerts/SUT_Tax_Alert_Sept2019.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "We could not find a Comptroller page or statute setting a trailing period for Maryland, meaning a stated stretch of time you remain registered after your sales drop below the threshold, so this is recorded as unknown rather than guessed. What Maryland does have is an affirmative closing step: you file a final return and contact the Comptroller to close the account. Until you do, the account stays open and the Comptroller keeps expecting returns, so a business that quietly stops selling into Maryland can accrue non-filing notices.", "source": "https://www.marylandcomptroller.gov/businesses/closing-a-business.html", "confidence": "U" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Maryland has no general gross receipts tax on business revenue, so there is no Maryland equivalent of Washington's B&O or Ohio's commercial activity tax to budget for. The one gross revenues tax on the books is a narrow digital advertising tax that only reaches companies with at least $100 million of global annual revenue, so it does not touch small and mid-sized businesses. Maryland businesses instead pay corporate or pass-through income tax on profit.", "source": "https://www.marylandcomptroller.gov/legal-library/tb-59-jul-11-2025.html", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation", "url": "https://dat.maryland.gov/businesses/Pages/Non-Maryland-(Foreign)-Business-Entities.aspx", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "$100 for a foreign LLC registration and $100 for a foreign corporation qualification, both stated on the forms themselves. Expedited review adds $50, same-day rush is considerably more, and paying through the state business portal adds a percentage service fee. A $200 late penalty applies on top if the entity already did business in Maryland before registering.", "note": "Both filings must arrive with written proof of existence from your home state, generally a certificate of good standing issued within the last 60 days, so order that early. The expensive trap is on the form itself: it asks whether the entity has already done business in Maryland before registering, and answering yes requires a $200 penalty payment with the filing. Non-expedited review can take four to six weeks, so pay the expedite fee if a hire or a contract is waiting on it.", "source": "https://dat.maryland.gov/sdat%20forms/llc-foreign.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "louisiana": { "state": "Louisiana", "abbr": "LA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Louisiana Department of Revenue", "Louisiana Workforce Commission" ], "note": "Louisiana does not have one combined payroll account. Withholding runs through a Department of Revenue account and unemployment through a separate Workforce Commission account, handled independently. What Louisiana does offer is a shared front door: its business portal lets you file the entity with the Secretary of State, request the revenue account and apply for the unemployment account in one sitting. Treat that as one application covering three agencies, not as one account." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Louisiana Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.louisiana.gov/businesses/widely-used-tax-types/withholding/", "registerWhen": "When you employ one or more people at a salary of $375 per month or more, and only once you actually begin withholding", "note": "Every employer with resident or nonresident employees performing services in Louisiana must withhold, so an out-of-state company with a single remote worker here is caught. Note the department's explicit warning not to open the account before you begin withholding, because an early account creates return filing obligations for periods when you had no payroll. That is unusual advice and worth following.", "source": "https://revenue.louisiana.gov/businesses/widely-used-tax-types/withholding/", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Louisiana Workforce Commission", "url": "https://www.laworks.net/unemploymentinsurance/ui_lainsurancetaxrates.asp", "newEmployerRate": null, "wageBase": 7000, "year": "2026", "note": "You become liable once you pay $1,500 or more in wages in any calendar quarter, or have someone employed during part of a day in 20 or more separate weeks in a year. The 2026 taxable wage base is the first $7,000 per worker, and the Commission warns it can move with the trust fund balance. There is no single new employer rate to quote: a new employer serves a 24 month eligibility period charged at the weighted average rate for its own industrial classification, so two businesses hiring on the same day get different rates depending on their industry code. Any source quoting one Louisiana new employer rate is inventing it.", "source": "https://www.laworks.net/unemploymentinsurance/ui_lainsurancetaxrates.asp", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "all private employers with at least one employee, including part-time, temporary and seasonal workers" ], "optOutFilings": "Louisiana has no general opt-out. The narrow exception is ownership based: a business owner, or a corporate officer who owns at least 10% of the company, may exclude themselves from the policy by written agreement with the insurer. That covers only the owner, never the staff, so the policy itself still has to exist.", "agency": "Louisiana Workforce Commission, Office of Workers' Compensation Administration", "url": "https://www.laworks.net/FAQs/FAQ_WorkComp_EmployerCoverage.asp", "note": "Coverage is required from the very first employee, with no headcount grace period, and part-time, temporary and seasonal workers all count. A short list sits outside the requirement, including certain domestic workers in a private residence and certain unincorporated farm workers. Going without is expensive: fines of up to $250 per employee for a first violation and $500 per employee afterward, capped at $10,000, with criminal exposure for willful violations.", "source": "https://www.laworks.net/FAQs/FAQ_WorkComp_EmployerCoverage.asp", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's hire date", "agency": "Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services", "url": "https://dcfs.louisiana.gov/page/164", "note": "New hires and rehires must be reported within 20 days. The rehire rule has a specific trigger that catches seasonal employers: report a returning worker once they have been separated for at least 60 consecutive days. This registry sits with Children and Family Services for child support enforcement rather than with the Workforce Commission, so it is a separate filing from your quarterly wage report.", "source": "https://dcfs.louisiana.gov/page/164", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Louisiana has no state paid family leave or temporary disability programme, so there is no payroll contribution to withhold. Do not be misled by the Paid Family Leave Insurance Act passed in 2026: it sits in the insurance code and simply creates a line of insurance that licensed carriers may sell to employers who want it. It creates no employer mandate, no contribution rate and no state administered benefit.", "source": "https://www.legis.la.gov/Legis/ViewDocument.aspx?d=1481439", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Louisiana Department of Revenue, plus each parish collector, or the Commission for Remote Sellers", "url": "https://revenue.louisiana.gov/businesses/general-resources/business-registration/", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": "No general bond or deposit is published for an ordinary sales tax account, though the Department does require bonds for fuel, tobacco and alcohol licences. Individual parish collectors set their own terms and can differ from the state.", "registerBy": "Remote sellers must apply to the Commission within 30 days of meeting the economic nexus threshold and must begin collecting no later than 60 days after meeting it", "note": "Louisiana is the worst multi-jurisdiction sales tax trap in the country, because the local tax is not administered by the state. The local sales tax in each parish is collected by that parish's own collector, so a business with a physical presence registers with the state for its portion and then separately with the collector in every parish where it does business, filing a separate return to each. The escape hatch applies only to remote sellers with no physical presence: they register with one Commission and file one combined state and local return. Which side of that line you fall on is decided by physical presence, so hiring one employee or renting one warehouse can move you out of the single filing system and into parish by parish registration overnight.", "source": "https://remotesellers.louisiana.gov/FAQ", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The marketplace facilitator is the dealer for every sale made through its marketplace and remits state and local tax to the Commission on your behalf. The surprising part, which the Commission makes explicit, is that this holds even when the marketplace seller is physically located in Louisiana, because a marketplace sale is treated as a remote sale either way. The trap is mixed channels: the facilitator covers only the marketplace half, and you remain the dealer responsible for registering and remitting on your direct sales, which means parish by parish if you have physical presence.", "source": "https://remotesellers.louisiana.gov/Documents/RSIB%2023-001%20Marketplace%20Facilitators%20and%20Louisiana%20Merchants.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Louisiana's remote seller test keys off revenue or transaction counts in the previous or current calendar year, which implies obligations can carry into a following year, but neither the Commission nor the Department publishes a rule on how long collection duties continue after a seller falls below the threshold. There is no published fixed period and no published termination procedure. Because the answer is genuinely undocumented rather than merely hard to find, do not assume you can stop collecting and let the account lapse. Write to the Commission before you stop, and keep the reply.", "source": "https://remotesellers.louisiana.gov/FAQ", "confidence": "U" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Louisiana has no gross receipts or business activity tax layered on top of sales tax. The related item worth knowing is that Louisiana's corporation franchise tax, a capital based tax rather than a receipts tax, has been repealed for franchise tax periods beginning on or after January 2026. Older guidance and vendor comparison tables still list it, so check the period you are filing for before you pay it.", "source": "https://revenue.louisiana.gov/tax-education-and-faqs/faqs/income-tax-reform/is-the-corporation-franchise-tax-repealed/", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Louisiana Secretary of State, Commercial Division", "url": "https://www.sos.la.gov/business-services/forms-fee-schedule", "feeLLC": 150, "feeCorp": 125, "feeNote": "IMPORTANT, these fees change. $150 for a foreign LLC and $125 for a foreign corporation for filings completed on or before 30 September 2026. From 1 October 2026 they rise to $185 for an LLC and $155 for a corporation. Expedited 24 hour processing costs an extra $30, and withdrawing later costs the same as qualifying.", "note": "Qualifying an existing out-of-state company is a separate filing from forming one here, and it is what a single Louisiana employee or a leased location usually triggers. You must attach a certificate of good standing from your home state less than 90 days old, so order that first because a stale certificate is the most common rejection. Louisiana charges the LLC MORE than the corporation, which is the reverse of most states, so do not carry a neighbouring state's figure across.", "source": "https://www.sos.la.gov/business-services/forms-fee-schedule", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "minnesota": { "state": "Minnesota", "abbr": "MN", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (joint unemployment insurance and Paid Leave employer account at ui.mn.gov)", "Minnesota Department of Revenue (separate income tax withholding account)" ], "note": "Minnesota splits payroll registration across two agencies, so you register twice, not once. Income tax withholding is its own account at the Department of Revenue, while unemployment insurance and the new Paid Leave programme share one joint employer account at ui.mn.gov. The trap is assuming Paid Leave needs a separate signup: for most employers it does not, because the joint account already exists and Paid Leave premiums and wage detail reports ride the same quarterly filing as unemployment insurance. Only employers with workers who are not covered by unemployment insurance need to open a second, Paid-Leave-only account." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Minnesota Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/new-employer-guide", "registerWhen": "before you withhold Minnesota tax from your employees' wages", "note": "Anyone paying wages for work done in Minnesota needs a Minnesota Tax ID Number with a withholding account, and Revenue can assess a $100 penalty if you withhold before you register. The number is issued in seconds online or immediately by phone, and it doubles as your Minnesota employer ID for withholding, but it is not the DEED unemployment account number, which comes from a different agency. Minnesota has income tax reciprocity with Michigan and North Dakota, so residents of those two states who give you a completed Form MWR are exempt from Minnesota withholding. Every new employee also needs a Minnesota Form W-4MN alongside the federal W-4, and there is a $50 penalty per form you fail to forward when Revenue requires it.", "source": "https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/new-employer-guide", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, Unemployment Insurance Program", "url": "https://www.uimn.org/employers/wages-taxes/tax-rates/index.jsp", "newEmployerRate": null, "wageBase": 44000, "year": "2026", "note": "Minnesota has no single new employer rate, so no figure is published here. It assigns your rate from your industry code, and for 2026 that runs from 1.00 percent for most non-construction businesses up to 8.90 percent for the highest risk construction trades, with a full table on the state's site. That assigned rate already includes the 0.40 percent base tax rate, and Minnesota then adds a 14.00 percent additional assessment on top of the tax you compute for 2026. Register only after you have actually paid covered wages, and before the first quarterly wage detail report falls due. You may not withhold any of this from employee pay.", "source": "https://www.uimn.org/employers/wages-taxes/tax-rates/index.jsp ; https://www.uimn.org/employers/wages-taxes/tax-rates/new-employer-rates.jsp ; https://www.uimn.org/employers/help-and-support/emp-hbook/new-registration.jsp", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "all employers with one or more employees, including part-time, temporary and seasonal workers", "minors and workers who are not citizens" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry", "url": "https://www.dli.mn.gov/business/workers-compensation/work-comp-who-needs-workers-compensation-coverage", "note": "Minnesota has no headcount trigger at all. Section 176.181 requires coverage from the very first employee, and the department states plainly that an employer with only one part-time employee generally must provide it. The only alternative to buying a policy is approval to self insure from the Department of Commerce on proof of financial ability, which is out of reach for a small business. This is enforced rather than nominal: the Special Compensation Fund investigates uninsured employers and refers them for civil penalties, and limited exceptions for certain owners and closely held corporate officers are set out in the department's coverage fact sheet.", "source": "https://www.dli.mn.gov/business/workers-compensation/work-comp-who-needs-workers-compensation-coverage", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 calendar days of the date of hire", "agency": "Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families (Minnesota New Hire Reporting Center)", "url": "https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/142A.29", "note": "Report every new hire and rehire within 20 calendar days of the hire date to the Minnesota New Hire Reporting Center at mn-newhire.com. Note the agency moved: the reporting duty now sits with the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, not Human Services, after the 2024 reorganisation renumbered the statute to section 142A.29. A returning worker counts as a new hire once they have been off the payroll for 60 days, and the only exemption is a job expected to last under two months that also pays under $250 a month. Penalties bite only after a certified mail notice of noncompliance, then run $25 for each intentionally unreported employee, or $500 each where employer and employee conspired to avoid reporting.", "source": "https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/142A.29 ; https://edocs.dhs.state.mn.us/lfserver/Public/DHS-3283-ENG ; https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/new-employer-guide", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 30, "employeeContributionRate": 0.0044, "employerContributionRate": 0.0044, "year": "2026", "agency": "Minnesota Paid Leave (Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development)", "url": "https://pl.mn.gov/resources/calculators/premium-rate-and-contributions", "note": "Minnesota Paid Leave began collecting premiums and paying benefits on January 1, 2026, and every employer participates whatever its size, including the nonprofits, religious organisations and agricultural employers that unemployment insurance exempts. The total premium for 2026 is 0.88 percent of wages up to the Social Security cap of $185,000, made up of 0.61 percent for medical leave and 0.27 percent for family leave; you may deduct at most 0.44 percent from the employee, leaving 0.44 percent as the employer share, and you may choose to cover more. Small employers pay a reduced total of 0.66 percent, which you qualify for only by employing 30 or fewer workers in every quarter and paying an average wage no higher than 150 percent of the statewide average, currently $27,745.88 a quarter; because the 0.44 percent employee deduction cap does not change, a small employer's own share falls to 0.22 percent. Premiums are paid quarterly through the unemployment insurance employer account at ui.mn.gov, the rate is capped by law at 1.1 percent and reset each July 31 for the following year, and it has already been confirmed to stay at 0.88 percent for 2027.", "source": "https://pl.mn.gov/resources/calculators/premium-rate-and-contributions ; https://pl.mn.gov/employers/roles-and-responsibilities", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Minnesota Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/guide/registering-your-business", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": "Minn. Stat. 297A.92 lets the commissioner require security from a retailer, either a deposit in a form and amount the commissioner specifies or a bond from a surety company authorised in Minnesota. A deposit is capped at twice your estimated average liability for a filing period, or $10,000, whichever is less. Revenue also requires a security deposit as a condition of reinstating a sales tax account that was cancelled or revoked.", "registerBy": "before making any taxable sales in Minnesota; a remote seller that crosses the Small Seller Exception must register and begin collecting on the first day of a calendar month no later than 60 days after crossing it", "note": "You must hold a Minnesota Tax ID Number with a sales and use tax account before you make a single taxable sale, and registration is instant online. Minnesota does not issue a physical permit: you get a confirmation letter you are not required to display, though suppliers often ask for a copy, and the same Minnesota Tax ID is what out-of-state suppliers mean when they ask for your seller's permit or resale number. No registration fee is stated in the sales tax chapter or on Revenue's registration pages, but nothing on a primary page affirmatively says the permit is free, so no dollar figure is published here rather than guess at a zero. The real money risk is the security provision, not a fee, because Revenue can demand a deposit or bond before it issues or reinstates your account.", "source": "https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/guide/registering-your-business ; https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/297A.84 ; https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/297A.92 ; https://www.sos.mn.gov/media/5969/a-guide-to-starting-a-small-business-in-minnesota.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Minnesota has had a marketplace provider law since the 2018 Wayfair decision, and it reaches foreign marketplaces too. A marketplace that both lists your products and processes the customer's payment must collect and remit Minnesota sales tax on the sales it facilitates, which relieves you of collecting on those particular sales. It does not relieve you of Minnesota altogether: you still count facilitated sales when testing whether you have crossed the registration threshold, and you must collect yourself on anything sold through your own website or any other channel that is not collecting for you.", "source": "https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/sales-tax-marketplace-providers ; https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/sales-tax-faqs-remote-sellers ; https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/297a.66", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Minnesota does not let you stop collecting the month your sales fall away. Once you begin, you must keep collecting and remitting through at least the last day of the twelfth calendar month following the month you started. Even after that the obligation does not lapse by itself: you have to notify the Department of Revenue that you have stopped soliciting Minnesota customers and verify that you did not meet either threshold during those twelve months. The businesses that get assessed are the ones that quietly stopped filing after a slow year without ever telling the state.", "source": "https://www.revenue.state.mn.us/sales-tax-faqs-remote-sellers ; https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/297a.66", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Minnesota has no general gross receipts or business activity tax of the Washington B&O or Ohio CAT kind, so there is nothing extra here for most businesses. The nearest analogue is the corporate franchise tax minimum fee, which applies to C corporations, S corporations and most partnerships and is a flat dollar amount stepped by the sum of your Minnesota property, payroll and sales rather than a rate on receipts. It is zero at the bottom of the scale and tops out in the low five figures, but the brackets and amounts are inflation adjusted every year, so use the current year's figures from Revenue rather than the table printed in the statute. A separate MinnesotaCare tax does work like a gross receipts tax, but only for health care providers, so it is not a general cost of doing business.", "source": "https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/290.0922", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Minnesota Secretary of State, Business Services", "url": "https://www.sos.mn.gov/business-liens/business-forms-fees/", "feeLLC": 185, "feeCorp": 200, "feeNote": "These are the mail filing fees for the original Certificate of Authority. Filed online or in person the same filing costs more: $205 for a foreign LLC and $220 for a foreign corporation, so add $20 to the stored figure if you file online, which is how most people file. Afterwards the annual renewal is free for a foreign LLC but costs a foreign corporation $115 by mail or $135 online, and missing it means revocation.", "note": "An out-of-state LLC or corporation that transacts business in Minnesota files a Certificate of Authority with the Secretary of State before it starts, and a corporation must attach a certificate of existence from its home state issued within the previous 90 days. The trap is that Minnesota does not define transacting business anywhere in statute: it applies the minimum contacts standard from jurisdiction law, and the state says explicitly that neither the Secretary of State nor any other agency will make that call for you. Qualifying is only step one for an employer, because a foreign entity still needs a Minnesota Tax ID, a withholding account, an unemployment insurance account and workers compensation cover. Revenue can also order the Secretary of State to revoke your certificate of authority if you fall out of compliance with Minnesota tax law.", "source": "https://www.sos.mn.gov/media/1580/foreignllccertificateofauthority.pdf ; https://www.sos.mn.gov/media/1559/foreigncorpregistration.pdf ; https://www.sos.mn.gov/media/1687/businessentityfees.pdf ; https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/322C.0802", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "missouri": { "state": "Missouri", "abbr": "MO", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Missouri Department of Revenue", "Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Employment Security", "a private workers compensation insurer" ], "note": "Missouri gives you one online application but not one account. The registration at mytax.mo.gov applies to both the Department of Revenue and the Department of Labor in a single pass, so you fill in your details once, and the paper equivalent, Form 2643, does the same job. What comes back is two separate account numbers: a Missouri Tax I.D. Number from Revenue for withholding and sales tax, and an employer account number from the Division of Employment Security for unemployment. They live in different portals, mytax.mo.gov and UInteract, and they have their own filing calendars. Workers compensation is a third thing entirely, bought from a private insurer rather than registered with the state, so budget for one application, two tax accounts and one insurance policy." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Missouri Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.mo.gov/taxation/business/tax-types/withholding/", "registerWhen": "Before your first Missouri payroll. The Employer's Tax Guide says every employer paying wages to an employee working in Missouri must register, and sets no grace period; a transient employer must register and post its bond before beginning performance of any contract", "note": "Two things catch out-of-state employers here. First, Missouri has no reciprocity agreement with any state, which the Employer's Tax Guide states in those words, so a neighbouring-state resident who performs services in Missouri has Missouri tax withheld on the Missouri portion of their wages with no exemption form to fall back on. Second, if you are not domiciled in Missouri and the work cannot reasonably be expected to continue for 24 consecutive months, you are a transient employer under section 285.230 and must file a cash bond, surety bond or irrevocable letter of credit with the Department before you start the contract. That bond is at least your average estimated quarterly withholding, never less than $5,000 and never more than $25,000. Failing to file it is a class A misdemeanour, adds a 25 percent penalty to any deficiency, and bars you from public works in Missouri for a year. On top of the state layer, St. Louis and Kansas City levy earnings taxes that never touch your state account.", "source": "https://dor.mo.gov/forms/4282_2026.pdf ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=285.230 ; https://dor.mo.gov/taxation/business/registration/requirements.html", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Employment Security", "url": "https://labor.mo.gov/des/employers/tax-rates", "newEmployerRate": 0.02376, "wageBase": 9000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new Missouri employer pays 2.376 percent on the first $9,000 of each worker's wages, and unusually the same rate applies to mining and construction as to everything else, so there is no higher construction band to plan for. A 501(c)(3) nonprofit that elects to contribute pays 1.00 percent. Watch the wage base rather than the rate: it has fallen every year, from $11,000 in 2022 to $10,500, $10,000 and $9,500, and now $9,000 for 2026, so a figure carried over from last year overstates the tax. The published rate already includes the contribution rate adjustment, which the state raises or lowers with the trust fund balance, and long-term maximum-rated employers pick up surcharges of a quarter percent a year. You become liable as a general business employer once you pay $1,500 in wages in a calendar quarter or have a worker in any part of a day in 20 different weeks of a year, and you then have 30 days to tell the Division.", "source": "https://labor.mo.gov/des/employers/tax-rates ; https://labor.mo.gov/des/employers/liability", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 5, "requiredFor": [ "any employer with five or more employees", "construction industry employers who erect, demolish, alter or repair improvements, from one or more employees" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Division of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://labor.mo.gov/dwc/employers", "note": "Missouri is one of the few states where a small employer genuinely owes nothing here. Section 287.030 makes you an employer for workers compensation purposes only at five or more employees, so a business with one to four Missouri staff has no duty to carry a policy, and the Division says such an employer may elect coverage voluntarily instead. The exception swallows the rule for builders: a construction employer that erects, demolishes, alters or repairs improvements is covered from its first employee. Do not read the exemption as free money. An employer below five employees that declines coverage keeps its exposure to an ordinary civil suit from an injured worker, because it is outside the exclusive-remedy bargain. Getting it wrong the other way is worse: knowingly failing to insure when you are required to is a class A misdemeanour and carries a penalty of up to three times the annual premium you would have paid, or up to $50,000, whichever is greater, and a second offence is a class E felony.", "source": "https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=287.030 ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=287.128 ; https://labor.mo.gov/dwc/employers", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days after the date the employer hires the employee", "agency": "Missouri Department of Revenue, which forwards reports weekly to the Family Support Division for the State Directory of New Hires", "url": "https://www.missouriemployer.dss.mo.gov/newhireinfo.aspx", "note": "Missouri routes this differently from most states. The report is a copy of the employee's completed Form MO W-4 and it goes to the Department of Revenue, which passes it to the Family Support Division weekly, so the tax agency is the front door even though this is a child support programme. You can file it online at the Missouri new hire reporting site instead of mailing the form. Report anyone you expect to pay earnings, and treat a returning worker as a new hire whenever they have to fill in a fresh W-4. Electronic filers may batch reports into two transmissions a month, between 12 and 16 days apart, rather than filing hire by hire. Penalties are small by national standards, up to $25 for an intentional failure, but rise to $350 for each report where employer and employee conspired to omit or falsify information. The statute is written around newly hired employees and does not extend the duty to independent contractors, which is the opposite of the rule in states like Ohio.", "source": "https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=285.300 ; https://dor.mo.gov/forms/4282_2026.pdf ; https://www.missouriemployer.dss.mo.gov/Help/FAQs.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations", "url": "https://labor.mo.gov/faqs/knowledge-base/when-do-employees-stop-earning-paid-sick-time-due-passage-hb-567", "note": "Missouri has no state disability insurance fund and no paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and no account to open. This changed twice in quick succession and stale guidance is everywhere. Proposition A, passed by voters in November 2024, created an earned paid sick time mandate that took effect in 2025. House Bill 567 repealed it, and the Department of Labor states that employers are no longer required to provide earned paid sick time beginning August 28, 2025, though they may keep offering it. The Revisor's own version history for section 290.603 shows the Proposition A text running only to that date. If you are copying a Missouri leave policy written in early 2025, it is describing a law that no longer exists.", "source": "https://labor.mo.gov/faqs/knowledge-base/when-do-employees-stop-earning-paid-sick-time-due-passage-hb-567 ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=290.603", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Missouri Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.mo.gov/taxation/business/registration/requirements.html", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "None for an ordinary registration. Bonds stopped being a condition of registering for sales or vendor's use tax on August 28, 2018, and the Department confirms this in its registration FAQs. It can still demand one from a licensee in default under section 144.087, capped at twice your average monthly liability over the previous twelve months, with release available after a year of clean compliance. A cash bond, an irrevocable letter of credit or a pledged certificate of deposit can all stand in for a surety bond.", "registerBy": "Before you make any sale at retail. A remote seller registers once its gross receipts from taxable sales delivered into Missouri pass $100,000, tested after the close of each calendar quarter against the preceding twelve months, and must begin collecting no more than three months after that quarter ends", "note": "Section 144.083 says the retail sales licence is issued at no cost to the licensee, so this is a confirmed free permit rather than an unknown, and the Department has ten working days to issue it once your application is complete. It does not expire; it runs until revoked or until you surrender it when you stop selling. Selling before you hold one is expensive in a way that compounds daily: $500 for the first day and $100 for each day after, to a maximum of $10,000. There is a second-order trap for anyone opening a physical location. A Missouri city or county may not issue or renew your local occupation licence unless you hand over a statement from the Department of Revenue that you owe no tax, dated within the previous 90 days, and if your state retail sales licence is revoked the local licence becomes null and void with it.", "source": "https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.083 ; https://dor.mo.gov/faq/taxation/business/registration.html ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.087", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Missouri came to this late. Section 144.752 requires marketplace facilitators engaged in business activities in the state to register and collect from January 1, 2023, and the duty covers sales made through the marketplace whether or not the underlying seller holds a Missouri retail sales licence of its own. So Amazon or Etsy handles the tax on what it facilitates for you. Two limits matter. The relief is practical rather than a stated statutory safe harbour: the section lets a facilitator and a seller agree in a contract who fulfils the chapter's requirements, so read the platform's terms rather than assuming you are covered. And it only reaches facilitated sales, so anything you sell through your own site or another channel is yours to collect and remit.", "source": "https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.752", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Once you cross the threshold you are committed for at least a year. Section 144.605 requires a vendor that meets the test to collect and remit for a period of not less than twelve months, starting no more than three months after the close of the quarter in which it crossed, and to keep collecting as long as it is engaged in business activities in the state. Falling below $100,000 in the middle of that window does not release you. What the statute does not do is set out a clean exit: it describes no procedure for switching off once the twelve months are up and you no longer meet the test, so close the account with the Department rather than quietly stopping your returns, which is how businesses end up with non-filer notices.", "source": "https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=144.605", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Missouri levies no state gross receipts tax of the Washington B&O or Ohio CAT kind, and the corporation franchise tax that used to sit alongside income tax is gone: section 147.010 says no annual franchise tax is imposed for tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2016. The cost that replaces it is local and is the thing businesses expanding into Missouri miss. Chapter 94 lets cities license and levy a tax on merchants, manufacturers and other corporations, and cities set the measure and the rate by ordinance, which in practice is often gross receipts. Separately, St. Louis and Kansas City are the only two Missouri cities allowed to levy an earnings tax, frozen in place by Proposition A in 2010 for cities that already had one on November 2, 2010, and section 92.111 reaches not just nonresident wages but the net profits of businesses conducted in the city by nonresidents. So a company with no Missouri office can still owe a city business tax on what it earns there. Add the certificate of no tax due from section 144.083 that you must produce before any city will issue your occupation licence.", "source": "https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=147.010 ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=94.270 ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=92.111", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Missouri Secretary of State, Corporations Division", "url": "https://www.sos.mo.gov/business/corporations/forms", "feeLLC": 105, "feeCorp": 155, "feeNote": "Foreign LLC $105, stated on the face of Form LLC-4, the Application for Registration of a Foreign Limited Liability Company. Foreign for-profit corporation $155, the qualification fee on the Chapter 351 schedule, and unlike the domestic incorporation fee it does not scale with authorized shares. The $50 online rate on the fee schedule is for domestic LLCs only, so a foreign LLC pays the $105 paper figure. Foreign nonprofit corporations pay $25. Afterwards a foreign corporation files an annual registration report at $45 by paper or $20 online, while Missouri LLCs, domestic and foreign alike, file no annual report at all.", "note": "You need a Missouri registered agent with a real street address, and a foreign LLC must attach a certificate of good standing from its home state dated within 60 days of filing. Skipping this is not a paperwork nicety. A foreign corporation that transacts business without a certificate of authority cannot maintain a proceeding in any Missouri court until it gets one, and faces a fine of not less than $1,000; section 347.163 puts an unregistered foreign LLC in the same position. Qualifying opens no tax accounts, so withholding, unemployment, workers compensation and any retail sales licence are all still ahead of you.", "source": "https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/Business/fees.pdf ; https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/Business/llc4.pdf ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=351.574 ; https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneSection.aspx?section=347.163", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "oregon": { "state": "Oregon", "abbr": "OR", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Department of Revenue income tax withholding, statewide transit tax and TriMet or Lane transit district taxes", "Employment Department unemployment insurance and Paid Leave Oregon contributions", "Department of Consumer and Business Services Workers' Benefit Fund assessment" ], "note": "Oregon runs one combined payroll system. A single Business Identification Number, opened through Revenue Online or the paper Combined Employer's Registration (Form 150-211-055), covers withholding, the statewide and district transit taxes, unemployment insurance, Paid Leave Oregon and the Workers' Benefit Fund assessment, and all of them are reported quarterly on one Form OQ. Two things sit outside it: the workers compensation insurance policy itself, which you buy from a private insurer, and Secretary of State foreign qualification. Register before you issue any paycheck, and start early, because Revenue quotes up to 30 business days to process an online registration and up to 60 for the paper form. Your Business Identification Number is not the registry number the Secretary of State gave you, and the agencies will not accept one in place of the other." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Oregon Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/businesses/pages/withholding-and-payroll-tax.aspx", "registerWhen": "Before you issue any paycheck to an Oregon employee", "note": "You withhold Oregon income tax from a nonresident employee for services performed in Oregon unless their Oregon earnings for the year will fall under the standard deduction for their filing status, which is $2,910 for a single filer in 2026. Three other things ride along and catch new employers out. The statewide transit tax is 0.1% (0.001) withheld from wages for work performed in Oregon, and the employer is the taxpayer, although a nonresident employer that does not conduct business in Oregon is not required to withhold it and the employee then owes it directly. The TriMet rate of 0.8237% and the Lane Transit District rate of 0.80% are employer-paid taxes on wages for work inside those boundaries, not deductions from the employee. Separately, if an employee working in the Portland area earns $200,000 or more in the year you must withhold the Metro Supportive Housing Services and Multnomah County Preschool for All personal income taxes and register for those with the Portland Revenue Division, which is a city account and not part of the state combined report. Oregon also expects an employer with no retirement plan of its own to facilitate OregonSaves.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/forms/FormsPubs/combined-payroll_211-155-2_2026.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Oregon Employment Department", "url": "https://www.oregon.gov/employ/businesses/pages/current-tax-rate.aspx", "newEmployerRate": 0.024, "wageBase": 56700, "year": "2026", "note": "A new employer, meaning one with less than 12 months of reported payroll, pays a base rate of 2.4% on the first $56,700 of each employee's wages in 2026. Oregon stays in Tax Schedule 3 for 2026, so experience-rated employers run from 0.9% to 5.4%. The wage base rose 4.4% from $54,300 in 2025 and is recalculated from the state average wage every January, so this is the figure most likely to be stale. You become a subject employer once your total payroll reaches $1,000 in any calendar quarter, or you employ one or more people in 18 separate weeks of a calendar year, under ORS 657.025. Oregon workers contribute nothing to unemployment insurance. A special payroll tax offset, 0.135% for each quarter of 2026, is carved out of the rate you pay and must be deducted before you report contributions on federal Form 940.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/employ/NewsAndMedia/Documents/2025-11-18_Tax_Rate_2026_Press_Release.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "any employer with one or more subject workers; every worker is a subject worker unless one of roughly 30 exemptions in ORS 656.027 applies" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Oregon Workers' Compensation Division, Department of Consumer and Business Services", "url": "https://wcd.oregon.gov/employer/pages/compensation-insurance-overview.aspx", "note": "There is no free headcount in Oregon: an employer with one or more subject workers must carry a policy, and every worker is a subject worker unless one of roughly 30 exemptions in ORS 656.027 applies. You buy the policy on the open market from a private insurer, because Oregon has no monopoly state fund. Budget separately for the Workers' Benefit Fund assessment, which is not insurance and does not come from your insurer: it is 1.8 cents per hour worked in 2026, entered on Form OQ as 0.018 and reported in whole hours rather than dollars, and it covers every paid individual your policy covers plus any owner or officer you chose to cover. Because it is charged per hour, part-time and seasonal staff cost less than a percentage-of-payroll assessment would suggest, and you must track hours worked, not just wages.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/dcbs/sbo/pages/do-i-need-coverage.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's date of hire or rehire", "agency": "Oregon Child Support Program, Oregon Department of Justice", "url": "https://www.doj.state.or.us/child-support/for-employers/report-new-hires/", "note": "Report every new hire and rehire within 20 days of the hire date, through the Oregon Employer Services Portal or on the paper Oregon New Hire Reporting Form. This goes to the Department of Justice, not to Revenue or the Employment Department, so it is a separate account and a separate habit from your quarterly combined report. Oregon is broader than most states here: you also have to report newly engaged and reengaged independent contractors who give you a W-9 and are expected to work more than 20 days, which means the obligation can attach to people who never appear on your payroll.", "source": "https://www.doj.state.or.us/child-support/for-employers/report-new-hires/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 25, "employeeContributionRate": 0.006, "employerContributionRate": 0.004, "year": "2026", "agency": "Oregon Employment Department, Paid Leave Oregon", "url": "https://paidleave.oregon.gov/employers-overview/", "note": "Paid Leave Oregon is live and paying benefits. The total contribution for 2026 is 1% of gross wages up to $184,500, split so the employee pays 60% of it (0.6% of wages) and the employer pays 40% (0.4%). Employers averaging fewer than 25 employees owe no employer share but must still withhold and remit the employee's. The trap for a company expanding into Oregon is how that count is taken: it is your whole workforce, in-state and out-of-state together, so a 60-person business hiring its first person in Oregon is a large employer from day one and owes the employer share immediately. Contributions are due for anyone whose work is performed in Oregon, which expressly includes someone working remotely in Oregon for an out-of-state employer. The wage cap tracks the Social Security taxable maximum and moves every January.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/employ/NewsAndMedia/Documents/2025-11-18_Tax_Rate_2026_Press_Release.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": false, "permit": { "agency": null, "url": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/businesses/Pages/sales-tax.aspx", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": null, "note": "Oregon does not have a general sales or use tax, so there is no permit to apply for, no fee, no rate to charge, no exemption certificate to collect and no return to file. An out-of-state seller shipping into Oregon still needs three things. First, the Corporate Activity Tax below is a gross receipts tax that reaches remote sellers with no Oregon location, because it keys off Oregon-sourced receipts rather than presence, and it starts as a registration duty at $750,000. Second, a few narrow transaction taxes survive and are collected at the point of sale: a flat $15 bicycle excise tax on each new bicycle priced $200 or more sold to an Oregon consumer, in store or online, and a 0.5% vehicle privilege tax on dealers selling vehicles into Oregon. Third, running the other way, Oregon issues a Business Registry Resale Certificate that an Oregon buyer can present to sellers in sales-tax states, and those sellers may accept it but are not obliged to.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/businesses/Pages/sales-tax.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": false, "note": "A marketplace facilitator law exists to move the duty to collect a sales tax onto the platform, and Oregon has no sales tax to collect, so no such law applies and Amazon, Etsy or eBay remit nothing to Oregon on your behalf. Do not read that as nothing to do. Those same platform sales still count as your Oregon commercial activity for the Corporate Activity Tax, and unlike a sales tax there is no facilitator standing between you and that registration, so a marketplace-only seller can cross the $750,000 CAT registration line without ever having filed anything in Oregon.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/businesses/Pages/sales-tax.aspx", "confidence": "S" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "none", "note": "There is no sales tax registration in Oregon, so nothing trails after you stop selling. The equivalent problem lives in the Corporate Activity Tax instead: registration is once and permanent, since the instructions say you do not need to register again if you registered in a prior year. A year in which Oregon receipts fall back under $750,000 therefore does not close the account, and it is on you to tell the Department of Revenue you have stopped rather than simply going quiet.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/forms/FormsPubs/form-or-cat-instr_106-003-1_2025.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Corporate Activity Tax (CAT)", "agency": "Oregon Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/programs/businesses/pages/corporate-activity-tax.aspx", "rateRange": "$250 base tax plus 0.57% (0.0057) of taxable Oregon commercial activity above $1 million", "exclusionThreshold": 1000000, "note": "This is the tax people miss when they hear Oregon has no sales tax, and the usual mistake is conflating its two different thresholds. You must register within 30 days of passing $750,000 of Oregon commercial activity, and failing to register costs $100 a month up to $1,000 a year even in a year when no tax is due. You must file once Oregon commercial activity reaches $1 million, and only the amount above $1 million is taxed. Before applying the rate you subtract 35% of the greater of your apportioned labor costs, counting no more than $500,000 of any one employee, or your cost of goods sold, and that subtraction is capped at 95% of commercial activity. It applies to every entity type including sole proprietorships, it is imposed on the seller rather than collected from the customer, and it is charged on receipts rather than profit, so a low-margin business can owe it in a loss-making year. Estimated payments are due quarterly if you expect to owe $5,000 or more.", "source": "https://www.oregon.gov/dor/forms/FormsPubs/form-or-cat-instr_106-003-1_2025.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Oregon Secretary of State, Corporation Division", "url": "https://sos.oregon.gov/business/register/pages/foreign-limited-liability-companies-forms.aspx", "feeLLC": 275, "feeCorp": 275, "feeNote": "$275 for a foreign LLC Application for Authority to Transact Business (Form 110) and $275 for a foreign business or professional corporation Application for Authority. Both then renew annually at $275, which is where Oregon actually stings: a domestic Oregon LLC or corporation renews for $100, so staying registered as a foreign entity costs $175 more every year, forever.", "note": "You need an Oregon registered agent with a real Oregon street address, and either a web-verifiable registry number from your home jurisdiction or an official certificate of existence issued within 60 days of delivery. Qualifying with the Secretary of State does not open any tax account: the registry number it gives you is not a Business Identification Number, and you still have to register separately with Revenue for payroll and, if you cross the threshold, for the Corporate Activity Tax.", "source": "https://sos.oregon.gov/business/Documents/business-registry-forms/br-fee-schedule.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "wisconsin": { "state": "Wisconsin", "abbr": "WI", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Wisconsin Department of Revenue (Business Tax Registration, covering income tax withholding and the seller's permit or use tax certificate)", "Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Unemployment Insurance Division (separate employer account)", "Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Worker's Compensation Division (no account, but a policy filed by your insurer)" ], "note": "Wisconsin half combines. One Business Tax Registration at the Department of Revenue covers your withholding account and your seller's permit or use tax certificate together, and one $20 fee buys both for two years, so a business that hires and sells here registers once with Revenue rather than twice. Unemployment insurance is a different agency entirely: you file a separate New Employer Registration with the Department of Workforce Development and get a separate account number and a separate quarterly filing calendar. Workers compensation is a third track with no state account at all, because you buy a policy from a licensed private insurer and the insurer files proof of coverage with the state for you. Plan on two registrations and one insurance purchase." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/pcs-with.aspx", "registerWhen": "before you first withhold Wisconsin income tax from an employee's wages; Revenue asks that you apply for the related seller's permit at least three weeks before opening if you also sell here", "note": "You owe Wisconsin withholding if you pay wages to a Wisconsin resident, wherever the work is done, or to a nonresident for services performed in Wisconsin, and you are engaged in, licensed to do, or transacting business in the state. Two carve-outs matter to an out-of-state employer. Wisconsin has reciprocity with Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and Michigan, so a resident of one of those four who gives you a completed Form W-220 is not subject to Wisconsin withholding, and you keep the form rather than filing it. Separately, there is a small-dollar exception for a nonresident from a non-reciprocity state only where the employer is an interstate air carrier or where you can reasonably expect the employee's annual Wisconsin earnings to be under $2,000. Registration costs $20 and lasts two years, then $10 to renew, and the same registration carries your seller's permit if you have one. Every new employee also completes a Wisconsin Form WT-4 alongside the federal W-4, and the WT-4 doubles as an acceptable new hire report.", "source": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/pcs-with.aspx ; https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/pcs-btr.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Unemployment Insurance Division", "url": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/ui/employers/taxrates.htm", "newEmployerRate": 0.0305, "wageBase": 14000, "year": "2026", "note": "Schedule D, the lowest of Wisconsin's four schedules, is in effect for 2026, and the taxable wage base is $14,000 per employee. The stored 3.05% is the 2026 new employer rate for an ordinary business whose payroll is under $500,000, made up of a 2.50% basic rate and a 0.55% solvency rate. Three other new employer rates exist and you should check which one you are: payroll of $500,000 or more pays 3.25%, a new construction employer under $500,000 pays 2.50%, and a new construction employer at $500,000 or more pays 2.70%. Construction is cheaper than everything else in 2026, which is a reversal of 2024 and 2025 when construction paid 2.90% and 3.10%. The new employer rate applies for your first three calendar years. You become a covered employer, and liable back to January 1 of that year, as soon as you pay $1,500 of wages in any quarter or employ anyone for part of a day in 20 weeks of a calendar year, and separately you are liable the moment you owe federal unemployment tax on Wisconsin wages. Agricultural, domestic and nonprofit employers have their own higher triggers. None of this may be deducted from employee pay.", "source": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/ui/employers/taxrates.htm ; https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/ui201/t1201.htm ; https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/108/18", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "any employer with three or more full-time or part-time employees, effective the day the third person is employed", "any employer with one or more full-time or part-time employees that has paid gross combined wages of $500 or more in any calendar quarter for work done in Wisconsin, effective the 10th day of the first month of the next quarter", "farms employing six or more workers on the same day for 20 days, consecutive or not, in a calendar year, effective within 10 days after the 20th day", "out-of-state employers with any employees working in Wisconsin, who must hold a policy from a Wisconsin-licensed insurer naming Wisconsin in section 3-A of the declarations page" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no general opt-out. A closely held corporation with no more than 10 stockholders and 2 corporate officers and no other employees may file a Corporate Officer Option Notice to stay outside the Act; add a third officer or any other employee and that option disappears. The only other alternative to buying a policy is self-insurance, which requires the department's permission and proof of very sound finances, so it is out of reach for a small business.", "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Worker's Compensation Division", "url": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/wc/employers/", "note": "The stored threshold of 1 is deliberate. Wisconsin has two triggers and either one binds you, so the headline answer of three employees is the one that misleads people. A single part-time employee paid $500 in gross wages across a calendar quarter puts you in scope by the 10th day of the following quarter, which is almost any real hire. The three-employee trigger is separate and immediate: a 1947 Wisconsin Supreme Court case held that employing three people for a single moment is enough, and the legislature wrote that into the definition of employer in 2021 Wisconsin Act 232. Relatives, minors, part-timers and corporate officers all count. Wisconsin does not sell the insurance, so you buy from one of roughly 300 licensed carriers, and it is illegal to deduct any part of the premium from employee pay. Going uninsured is enforced hard: the penalty is twice the premium you avoided or $750, whichever is greater, plus up to $100 a day for up to seven days in some cases, the state can order your business closed until you comply, and you are personally liable for the injured worker's benefits.", "source": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/dwd/publications/wc/WKC-13330-P.htm ; https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/wc/employers/oos-employers.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days after the employee is hired, rehired, or returns to work", "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Wisconsin New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/uinh/", "note": "Every Wisconsin employer with a federal employer identification number reports each new hire within 20 days, and the same duty covers anyone rehired, recalled or returning after an unpaid gap of more than 60 days, including a worker who stayed on the payroll through the gap. Employees are reported even if they work one day and quit. If you report electronically you have a second constraint that is easy to miss: transmissions must go in twice a month, no more than sixteen days apart. Wisconsin will accept a Form WT-4 as the report, or a federal W-4 if you add the date of birth and date of hire, which is the cheapest way for a small employer to comply. Penalties under Wis. Stat. 103.05 are modest but real, up to $25 per unreported employee and up to $500 where employer and employee acted together to avoid reporting, and the department must give you notice and a chance to correct first.", "source": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/uinh/ ; https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/103/05 ; https://wi-newhire.com/reporting_fundamentals", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, Equal Rights Division", "url": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/er/civilrights/fmla/", "note": "Wisconsin runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family or medical leave fund, so there is no payroll deduction and nothing to register for. What exists is the Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act, which is unpaid job-protected leave, not an insurance programme. It reaches employers with at least 50 permanent employees during at least 6 of the last 12 months, and only employees with 52 consecutive weeks of service and 1,000 hours in the preceding 52 weeks qualify. Entitlements are two weeks for the employee's own serious health condition, two weeks for a parent, child or spouse, and six weeks for the birth or adoption of a child, and the employee may substitute accrued paid leave. It runs alongside the federal FMLA rather than instead of it. Note the unusually short complaint window: 30 days from the action.", "source": "https://dwd.wisconsin.gov/er/civilrights/fmla/", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/pcs-seller.aspx", "fee": 20, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": "Revenue may require a security deposit of up to $15,000 before or after issuing the permit, and may refuse to issue or may revoke the permit if you do not post it. It is usually requested where the applicant has a history of delinquent tax. Any deposit comes back after 24 consecutive months of compliance. See Wis. Adm. Code sec. Tax 11.925.", "registerBy": "apply at least three weeks before you open a Wisconsin location; a remote seller registers once its gross sales into Wisconsin exceed $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year and collects beginning with the next sale after it crosses", "note": "Which document you need depends on where you are. A seller's permit is for a business with a Wisconsin sales location making retail sales. An out-of-state retailer with no Wisconsin location that has to collect gets a use tax certificate instead, and a business that only buys taxable goods for its own Wisconsin use gets a consumer's use tax certificate. All of them are applied for on the same Business Tax Registration, and the $20 stored here is that BTR fee, which covers two years and every permit or certificate on the registration, including your withholding account, with a $10 renewal after that. So the fee is not per permit, and if you already registered to withhold you have already paid it. Buying an existing business does not transfer the permit, you apply fresh. You must display a seller's permit at your place of business. Remote sellers also collect the county and city sales taxes and, in some industries, the premier resort area taxes, so registering does not leave you with a single flat rate.", "source": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/pcs-seller.aspx ; https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/pcs-btr.aspx ; https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/ise-remote-sellers.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Since January 1, 2020 under 2019 Wis. Act 10 a marketplace provider must collect and remit Wisconsin tax on every taxable sale it facilitates for you, and once it does you are not subject to audit or held liable on those transactions. Two catches. First, facilitated sales still count toward your own $100,000 small seller test, so a marketplace can push you over the threshold for the sales you make elsewhere without you ever registering for the marketplace ones. Second, the relief is not absolute: a provider that got the tax wrong can push liability back to you where it shows the department the error came from insufficient or incorrect information you supplied, unless you and the provider are related. A seller may also apply for a waiver under sec. 77.52(3m)(b) to collect the tax itself instead of the marketplace. If every Wisconsin sale you make runs through a collecting marketplace you need no permit of your own, but any direct sale changes that.", "source": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/Businesses/marketplace-providers-sellers.aspx ; https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/77/iii/523 ; https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/ise-remote-sellers.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "affirmative-termination", "note": "Wisconsin's test looks at the previous or the current calendar year, so a year over $100,000 obliges you for the rest of that year and for all of the next one, and only after a full quiet calendar year can you stop. Even then it does not stop by itself. Revenue's own worked example is explicit: a seller that exceeded the threshold in 2017 and fell to $68,000 in 2018 may inactivate its certificate effective January 1, 2019, and is required to keep collecting Wisconsin tax in 2019 if it does not inactivate. So the obligation follows the registration, not the sales, and the businesses that get assessed are the ones that quietly stopped filing without closing the account. Note also that the 200-transaction test was repealed on February 20, 2021 by 2021 Wis. Act 1, and the test moved to a calendar year, so a high-volume low-value seller that registered under the old rule may be free to deregister and not realise it.", "source": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/TaxPro/2018/Registration-and-Collection-Dates-for-Remote-Sellers.aspx ; https://www.revenue.wi.gov/Pages/FAQS/ise-remote-sellers.aspx", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": "Economic development surcharge, gated by gross receipts but computed on tax liability or net income", "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/DOR%20Publications/pb400.pdf", "rateRange": "C corporations, insurers and exempt organisations taxable as corporations pay the greater of $25 or 3% of Wisconsin gross tax liability; tax-option S corporations pay the greater of $25 or 0.2% of net income apportioned to Wisconsin. The maximum in every case is $9,800.", "exclusionThreshold": 4000000, "note": "Wisconsin has no Washington-style tax on receipts, so most expanding businesses owe nothing here, but the economic development surcharge is worth knowing because gross receipts are what switch it on. It applies only to corporations, tax-option S corporations, insurers and exempt organisations taxable as corporations that have $4,000,000 or more of gross receipts from all activities. Since taxable years beginning on or after January 1, 2013, individuals, estates, trusts, partnerships and LLCs taxed as partnerships are not subject to it at all, which exempts most small businesses expanding into Wisconsin by structure alone. The base is your Wisconsin gross tax liability or net income, not receipts, so a corporation with $10 million of Wisconsin sales and no profit owes the $25 minimum rather than a percentage of sales. In a combined group the $4,000,000 test is applied to each member separately. Gross receipts for the test is a broad figure that includes dividends, interest, rents, royalties and the gross sales price of assets sold, not just sales revenue.", "source": "https://www.revenue.wi.gov/DOR%20Publications/pb400.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Corporate and Consumer Services", "url": "https://dfi.wi.gov/Pages/BusinessServices/BusinessEntities/ForeignEntities.aspx", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": null, "feeNote": "A foreign LLC files Form 521 for a flat $100. A foreign for-profit corporation files Form 21 and the fee is not flat, which is why no figure is stored: it is $100 plus $3 for each $1,000, or part of $1,000, of the corporation's estimated capital represented in Wisconsin above $60,000, computed on the worksheet in item 14 of the form. A corporation with under $60,000 of Wisconsin capital pays exactly $100, so treat $100 as the floor and run the worksheet before you send a cheque. Optional expedited service is a further $100 on either form. A foreign corporation must also attach a certificate of status from its home state issued within the previous 60 days, and no such certificate is required for the LLC.", "note": "Registering with the Department of Financial Institutions is separate from registering for tax, and hiring one Wisconsin employee will normally amount to transacting business. Wisconsin will not tell you whether it does: the department says plainly that its role is ministerial, that it will not give a legal opinion on whether your activities count, and that you should ask your own counsel. The statutory lists of things that do not count are in ss. 180.1501 for corporations and 183.0905 for LLCs. Registering late is where the money is. Both forms carry a supplement that charges you the $65 annual report fee for every year you operated unregistered, plus a penalty of 50% of the amount owed or $5,000, whichever is less; a corporation also pays $3 per $1,000 on any drop in its Wisconsin capital since then. Until you register you cannot maintain an action or proceeding in a Wisconsin court, though your contracts stay valid, your title to property is unaffected, and you can still defend a suit brought against you.", "source": "https://dfi.wi.gov/Documents/BusinessServices/BusinessEntities/Forms/CORP521.pdf ; https://dfi.wi.gov/Documents/BusinessServices/BusinessEntities/Forms/CORP21.pdf ; https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/180/xv/1502 ; https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/183/ix/0902", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "nevada": { "state": "Nevada", "abbr": "NV", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, Employment Security Division (unemployment insurance)", "Department of Taxation (Modified Business Tax)" ], "note": "One registration covers two of the payroll obligations: when you open your unemployment insurance account with the Employment Security Division, the Department of Taxation says you are automatically registered for the Modified Business Tax, so there is no second payroll tax sign-up. Nothing else is bundled. The state business license from the Secretary of State, the sales tax permit from the Department of Taxation, your workers compensation policy from a private insurer and new hire reporting are four separate steps with their own logins. The order matters too: the Department of Taxation says you need a federal EIN before you can get the state business license through SilverFlume, and the business license before you can register for a tax permit in My Nevada Tax." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://tax.nv.gov/tax-types/modified-business-tax/", "registerWhen": null, "note": "Nevada takes nothing out of a paycheck for state income tax, and this is a constitutional bar rather than a policy that could change next session: Article 10, Section 1(9) of the Nevada Constitution says no income tax shall be levied upon the wages or personal income of natural persons. The same subsection then permits taxes on the income or revenue of a business, which is why the state charges the employer instead. So the employer still owes the Modified Business Tax, a quarterly payroll tax on its own wage bill. For a general business the rate printed on the current return is 1.17% (0.0117) of the quarter's gross wages after subtracting employer-paid health insurance costs and after a $50,000 per calendar quarter threshold, so a business paying under $50,000 of net wages in a quarter owes nothing but must still file. The Department's rate page puts financial institutions and businesses paying the Net Proceeds of Minerals tax at 1.554% with no $50,000 threshold, but the financial institutions return still posted on the site is the October 2022 edition printing 1.853%, so a bank or mining employer should confirm the rate with the Department before filing. Returns are due the last day of the month after each quarter, and from 1 January 2026 the Department has resumed its quarterly wage comparison, matching the gross wages on your Modified Business Tax return against the wages you reported to the Employment Security Division and billing the difference. You still withhold federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare as normal.", "source": "https://tax.nv.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/TAX-F003-MBT-Return-General-Business.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, Employment Security Division", "url": "https://detr.nv.gov/Page/UI_Information_for_Employers", "newEmployerRate": 0.0295, "wageBase": 43700, "year": "2026", "note": "The trigger to register is low: an employing unit that pays $225 or more in Nevada wages in any calendar quarter must register and pay. New employers pay 2.95% and keep that rate for 14 to 17 calendar quarters, depending which quarter they became liable, before experience rating takes over and puts them somewhere on an 18 step schedule running from 0.25% to 5.40%. Budget for slightly more than the headline rate, because almost every employer also pays 0.05% for the Career Enhancement Program on top, taking a new employer to 3.00% in practice. Tax is owed on the first $43,700 of each employee's wages in 2026, up from $41,800 in 2025, and the Division has already published $45,400 for 2027. The base is recalculated every year at two thirds of the average annual Nevada wage, so it moves each January. Quarterly reports are due 31 January, 30 April, 31 July and 31 October.", "source": "https://detr.nv.gov/Page/UI_Information_for_Employers", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every private employer with any person in service under a contract of hire, from the first employee", "licensed contractors, who are deemed the employer of their subcontractors, independent contractors and those workers' employees" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Nevada Division of Industrial Relations, Workers' Compensation Section", "url": "https://dir.nv.gov/WCS/Employers/", "note": "There is no headcount to reach. The Division's own guidance quotes NRS 616B.612: every person, firm, voluntary association and private corporation which has in service any person under a contract of hire needs coverage unless a statute excludes them, so one employee is enough. Two things catch people out. First, if you hold a Nevada contractor licence, NRS 616A.210 deems subcontractors, independent contractors and their employees to be your employees for coverage purposes, and if one of them is injured while uninsured you pay the actual cost of the claim plus administrative fees. Second, calling someone an independent contractor does not help unless the independent enterprise test in NRS 616B.603 is met, which requires that they hold a licence or own or lease business property in their own name and that they are not in the same trade or business as you. Officers and managers of a corporation or limited-liability company can reject coverage for themselves under NRS 616B.624, but that must be in writing to both the company and the insurer and does not touch the duty to cover anyone else. Failing to carry coverage is a misdemeanour for a first offence.", "source": "https://dir.nv.gov/uploadedFiles/dirnvgov/content/WCS/EmployersDocs/EmployerCoverageRequirements.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of hire or rehire, or twice per month if you report electronically", "agency": "Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, Employment Security Division, New Hire Unit", "url": "https://detr.nv.gov/Page/New_Hire_Reporting_Info", "note": "Anyone for whom the IRS requires a W-4 must be reported, and a rehire counts again once the worker has been separated for 60 days or more. Reports go to the Employment Security Division rather than to child support directly, which is the same agency that holds your unemployment account but a different unit and a different submission. Nevada does not require a particular form: secure file transfer is preferred, and copies of the W-4 or any written format carrying the seven required data items are accepted by mail or fax. NRS 606.120 lets the Division set a civil penalty of less than $25 per employer who fails to comply, so the money at stake is small, but the report is not optional.", "source": "https://www.dss.nv.gov/siteassets/dwss.nv.gov/content/support/infoEmployers.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Nevada runs no state disability insurance or paid family leave fund, so there is no payroll deduction and no employer contribution for one. It does have a paid leave mandate, which is a different thing and is often mistaken for a state programme. Under NRS 608.0197 a private employer with 50 or more employees in Nevada must give every employee at least 0.01923 hours of paid leave for each hour worked, which is roughly 40 hours a year for someone full time, usable for any reason and carrying over up to 40 hours unless the employer front loads it. A business is exempt for its first two years of operation, and an employer whose existing paid time off policy already meets that accrual rate is treated as compliant. This is a cost you carry directly, not a premium you remit.", "source": "https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-608.html", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Nevada Department of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.nv.gov/manage-a-business/start-run-a-business/", "fee": 15, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": "The Department may require a cash or other security deposit under NRS 372.510; its own guidance notes that any security deposited is returned only after the account is cleared on closure. No standard amount is published.", "registerBy": "Before you make taxable sales in Nevada. A remote seller that crosses the economic nexus threshold must start collecting on the first day of the first calendar month beginning at least 30 days after it crossed.", "note": "The permit costs $15 for each location, and it is a separate permit per place of business rather than one statewide licence, so a second Nevada location means a second $15 application. You cannot register for it first: the Department requires a federal EIN, then a state business license through SilverFlume, and only then a Sales and Use Tax permit through My Nevada Tax. A business that buys but does not resell registers instead for a Consumer Use Tax account, which the Department does not charge the permit fee for. Once you hold the permit a return is due every period even in a period with zero sales, late payment carries a penalty rising from 2% to a maximum of 10% by days late plus 0.75% interest a month, and you must tell the Department immediately if you close or sell the business.", "source": "https://tax.nv.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Sales-and-Use-Tax-GeneraI-Info.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A marketplace facilitator that provides the infrastructure for a sale and collects the money must register and remit Nevada sales tax on the sales it facilitates, and it gives its sellers a Marketplace Facilitator Certificate of Collection as proof. If you have no physical presence in Nevada and sell only through facilitators that are registered and collecting, you do not need your own permit. The catch is the threshold arithmetic: the Department adds your marketplace sales and your direct sales together when working out whether you have crossed $100,000 or 200 transactions, so marketplace volume can push your own website sales into a registration duty even though the marketplace sales themselves are not yours to collect on.", "source": "https://tax.nv.gov/faqs/marketplace-facilitator-seller-faqs/", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Nevada's duty to collect does not switch off the moment sales dip. Once total Nevada sales exceed $100,000 or 200 separate transactions in the previous or current calendar year, you collect for the rest of that year and the whole of the following calendar year. If sales fall below the threshold during that second year, you stop collecting in the third year but the Department still expects you to report the sales, so the account and the filing duty outlive the collection duty.", "source": "https://tax.nv.gov/faqs/marketplace-facilitator-seller-faqs/", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Commerce Tax", "agency": "Nevada Department of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.nv.gov/commerce-tax/", "rateRange": "0.051% to 0.331% depending on which of 26 NAICS based business categories you fall into. Mining is lowest at 0.051%, rail transportation highest at 0.331%, and common ones are 0.111% retail trade, 0.091% manufacturing, 0.181% professional, scientific and technical services and 0.253% publishing, software and data processing", "exclusionThreshold": 4000000, "note": "This is the tax that stands in for a corporate income tax, and it is charged on Nevada gross revenue with no deduction for cost of goods or payroll. The $4,000,000 is a genuine exclusion rather than a cliff: the tax is Nevada gross revenue minus $4,000,000, multiplied by your category rate, so a business at $5,000,000 of Nevada revenue is taxed on $1,000,000. Most small businesses never touch it, and since the 2018 to 2019 tax year a business at or under $4,000,000 does not even have to file a return. The year runs 1 July to 30 June and the return is due 45 days after it ends, which is 14 August, with a 30 day extension available for good cause and 0.75% monthly interest on late payment. The part worth knowing even if you do owe it: 50% of the Commerce Tax you paid credits against your Modified Business Tax over the four quarters following that Commerce Tax year, so the two taxes are linked and you should not calculate one without the other.", "source": "https://www.leg.state.nv.us/NRS/NRS-363C.html", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Nevada Secretary of State, Commercial Recordings Division", "url": "https://www.nvsos.gov/sos/businesses/start-a-business", "feeLLC": 425, "feeCorp": null, "feeNote": "Foreign LLC: $425, which is the $75 registration fee under NRS 86.561, the $150 initial list of managers under NRS 86.5461 and the $200 state business license under NRS 76.100, all three due in the same submission. Foreign corporation: no single figure, because the registration fee is scaled to authorized stock under NRS 78.760, running from $75 where the shares represent $75,000 or less up to a $35,000 cap, and no par shares are valued at $1 each for that calculation, so a corporation authorising a million no par shares is already at $375 rather than $75. Add the $150 initial list under NRS 80.110 and the $500 state business license, which is higher for corporations than for every other entity type, giving a floor of $725 for the smallest possible share structure.", "note": "The state business license is the fee that catches people out, and it can bite before you ever register an entity. NRS 76.100 deems you to be conducting business in Nevada if you pay wages to a natural person who performs any of their paid duties in the state, so a single remote worker in Las Vegas puts an out-of-state company inside the licence requirement. It costs $200 a year, or $500 a year for a corporation, it renews annually alongside the list of officers or managers, and a late renewal adds a $100 penalty and is treated as a failure to file the annual list, which puts the entity into default and eventually revokes its right to transact business. Two exemptions are worth knowing: a home based business whose net earnings are 66 2/3 percent or less of the state average annual wage, and a natural person whose only business is renting four or fewer dwelling units. Registering with the Secretary of State is also separate from registering with the Department of Taxation, and a foreign corporation that willfully fails to qualify faces a fine of $1,000 to $10,000 and cannot bring or maintain a lawsuit in a Nevada court until it does.", "source": "https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/nrs-076.html", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "alabama": { "state": "Alabama", "abbr": "AL", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales and use tax", "sellers use tax and simplified sellers use tax", "rental and lodgings tax" ], "note": "One My Alabama Taxes registration opens your withholding account and your sales and use tax account in the same session, and the Department of Revenue charges nothing for it. That is where the convenience stops. Unemployment insurance is a separate registration with the Alabama Department of Workforce, workers compensation is not a state account at all because you buy the policy from a private insurer, and if your employee works inside a city that levies an occupational tax you have a fourth registration with that city. The Department of Revenue says so in its own employer booklet: state unemployment tax and local occupational taxes are not administered by it, and for the occupational tax you must contact the city or county administering it. Budget for three or four separate agencies, not one." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Alabama Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/individual-corporate/withholding-tax/", "registerWhen": "Before your first Alabama payroll, online at My Alabama Taxes. Expect three to five days for the account number to come back.", "note": "Alabama publishes no grace period in days. The rule is simply that employers and withholding agents must register by completing a withholding tax application online, and an out-of-state employer must withhold on wages to the extent they are earned in Alabama whether the employee lives there or not, so one remote Alabama worker creates the account. Two mechanics decide your calendar. Filing is quarterly on Form A-1 by the last day of the month after quarter end, but you flip to monthly Form A-6 filing, due by the 15th, for any month in the first or second month of a quarter in which you withheld more than $1,000. Separately, any single payment of $750 or more must be filed and paid electronically. The annual reconciliation, Form A-3 with the W-2s, is due by the last day of January, and an active account with no withholding still has to file a zero A-3. The bigger trap for a multi-state employer is the one Alabama does not handle for you: more than twenty Alabama municipalities levy an occupational tax on wages earned inside the city limits, the employer withholds it and remits it straight to that city on the city's own form and schedule, and it attaches to where the work is physically performed rather than where the employee lives or where you are registered. Birmingham is 1 percent and Opelika is 1.5 percent, on their own city forms. There is no state list and no state account that covers it, so check the ordinance of every city your Alabama people actually work in.", "source": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/whbooklet_0126.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Alabama Department of Workforce, Labor Division, Unemployment Compensation", "url": "https://workforce.alabama.gov/employers/", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 8000, "year": "2026", "note": "A newly liable Alabama employer pays the entry rate of 2.70 percent on the first $8,000 of each employee's wages, and stays there until it has at least two complete years of measurable unemployment experience. For 2026 that 2.70 percent is the whole bill: the department's own annual report states that the 2026 rate schedule is the A schedule and shared cost remains at 0.00 percent, so there is no add-on this year. Experience-rated employers run 0.20 to 6.80 percent, a range that already includes the 0.06 percent Employment Security Enhancement Assessment, and no credit for the ESA may be taken on the federal Form 940. You become liable once you pay $1,500 in wages in any calendar quarter or have one or more workers in 20 different weeks of the current or preceding year, which a single part-timer can cross. Note also that the agency changed name and shape: the Alabama Workforce Transformation Act merged part of the Department of Commerce with the Department of Labor to create the Alabama Department of Workforce, and the old adol.alabama.gov pages are still live alongside the new workforce.alabama.gov ones. Rate notices are no longer mailed. The 2026 notices went up on the website on 16 December 2025 and you have to go and get yours.", "source": "https://adol.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/Annual-Report-2025-Final.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 5, "requiredFor": [ "any employer that regularly employs five or more employees in any one business, counting full-time and part-time people and officers of a corporation", "any employer in the business of constructing or assisting on-site in the construction of new single-family detached residential dwellings, which is covered regardless of how few employees it has" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no opt-out for an employer at or above five. Below five, an employer is exempt by default and elects into coverage by filing written notice with the department on Form WC-14. An employer that had elected in and later withdraws must notify each employee of the withdrawal in writing and post a conspicuous notice telling employees and applicants that workers compensation coverage is not available.", "agency": "Alabama Department of Workforce, Workers' Compensation Division", "url": "https://adol.alabama.gov/insurance-requirement-information/", "note": "This is the field where Alabama differs most from the states around it. Most states start coverage at the first, second or third employee. Alabama exempts you until you regularly employ five, and the department states it plainly: an employer regularly employing fewer than five, full-time or part-time and including officers of a corporation, is not required to carry coverage. Two counting rules decide whether you are actually under the line. Part-timers count the same as full-timers, and corporate officers count as employees, so a three-owner company with two part-time staff is at five and is covered. The exception that catches builders is that the under-five exemption does not apply at all to the business of constructing or assisting on-site in the construction of new single-family detached homes, which is covered from the first employee. Employers of domestic workers, farm labourers and casual employees, and municipalities under 2,000 people, are also outside the requirement and may elect in. Being exempt is not the same as being safe: without coverage you also lose the exclusive-remedy protection that workers compensation buys, so an injured employee sues you in tort instead. The department's page does not publish the penalty for an employer that should have had coverage and did not, and the Code of Alabama could not be read on an official state page for this record, so no penalty figure is quoted here.", "source": "https://adol.alabama.gov/insurance-requirement-information/", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 7, "deadline": "within 7 days of the employee's date of hire or reemployment", "agency": "Alabama Department of Workforce, New Hire Program", "url": "https://workforce.alabama.gov/employers/new-hires/", "note": "Seven days is one of the tightest windows in the country, so if you are used to a 20 day habit from another state this is the one that will catch you out. All employers must report every newly hired or recalled employee, including temporary, seasonal and part-time staff, and a returning worker counts as a new hire if they were separated for at least 60 consecutive days. The penalty is small, up to $25 per violation, but the filing is easy to miss because it goes to a portal of its own and nothing in your withholding or unemployment registration triggers it. Employers filing electronically may batch and transmit twice a month instead, not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart. The portal itself moved in December 2025 when the department relaunched it, so a bookmarked old link may not work.", "source": "https://adol.alabama.gov/employers/alabama-new-hire/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Alabama has no state disability insurance and no state paid family and medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of this kind and nothing extra to register for. The Department of Revenue's 2026 employer booklet names only two other payroll taxes that sit outside its own withholding tax, state unemployment tax and local occupational taxes, and neither is a leave or disability levy. If you are used to running payroll in California, Delaware or New York, this is a line item you simply will not have here.", "source": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/whbooklet_0126.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Alabama Department of Revenue, Sales and Use Tax Division", "url": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/sales-use/business-tax-online-registration-system/", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "Nothing is collected at registration and the department's registration and annual renewal pages set no bond or deposit as a condition of the licence, so there is no open-ended deposit demand of the kind California and Texas can make.", "registerBy": "Before your first taxable Alabama sale. A remote seller must register once its retail sales delivered into Alabama exceeded $250,000 in the previous calendar year.", "note": "The licence is free. The department states that its business tax online registration system is provided at no charge to the registrant, and one session at My Alabama Taxes can open sales tax, sellers use tax, simplified sellers use tax, rental tax, lodgings tax and income tax withholding together. Allow three to five days for the account number. The detail that quietly kills accounts is the renewal. Alabama tax account licences for sales tax, rental tax, sellers use tax, lodgings tax, utility gross receipts tax and simplified sellers use tax must be renewed every November and December through the Tasks page of your My Alabama Taxes account. Miss the window and the licence is cancelled, which also means you can no longer use it to buy inventory tax free for resale. Nothing about that is obvious from the original registration, and it is an easy thing for an out-of-state operator to never notice.", "source": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/alabama-annual-tax-account-license-renewal/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Since 1 January 2019 a marketplace facilitator with $250,000 or more of sales into Alabama through its marketplace must either register and collect simplified sellers use tax on those sales or report the sales and send customer notifications instead. Alabama's version has an unusual sweetener: simplified sellers use tax is a flat 8 percent on every sale into the state regardless of the local rate, and collecting it relieves the facilitator, the marketplace seller and the buyer of any further state or local sales and use tax, with no county or city rates to look up. An in-state seller whose sales all run through a participating marketplace does not have to register for a sales or use tax account at all, though it should still obtain an exemption certificate to buy inventory tax free. The catch is the same as everywhere else. Sales through your own website or any other channel are yours to register for and remit, and if the platform elects to report rather than collect, the tax comes back to you as the seller.", "source": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/sales-use/simplified-sellers-use-tax-ssut/", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Alabama publishes no trailing nexus rule and no procedure for a remote seller to stop collecting, so this is recorded as unknown rather than guessed. What the rule does say builds in a lag of its own: the collection duty applies when retail sales into the state exceed $250,000 per year based on the previous calendar year's sales. Read literally, the year you cross the line sets your obligation for the following calendar year, so a year of collapsed sales does not release you until the year after that. Because the department has published no wind-down procedure and simplified sellers use tax participants file monthly returns, contact the Department of Revenue before you stop filing rather than going quiet.", "source": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/810-6-2-.90.03.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": "No statewide gross receipts tax. The local equivalents are the municipal business licence under Ala. Code 11-51-90, which cities commonly compute on gross receipts, and the state and county business privilege licence bought at the county probate office.", "agency": "Cities and counties, with the Department of Revenue's Business and License Division coordinating the issuance of state and county business privilege licences", "url": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/division/business-license/", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Alabama levies no state gross receipts or commerce tax, but do not read that as no local cost. Three separate local or state-level charges sit outside the sales tax and outside payroll. First, cities license businesses under Ala. Code 11-51-90 and the licence is frequently computed on gross receipts, owed separately in each city where you have a place of business, so no single rate can be quoted here. Second, a state and county business privilege licence is bought through the county probate office rather than online with the Department of Revenue. Third, and separate from all of that, Alabama levies a business privilege tax on net worth rather than receipts, at $0.25 to $1.75 per $1,000 depending on apportioned federal taxable income. On the privilege tax the department's own tax-type page is behind the law: it still describes the $100 minimum reduced to $50 for years after 31 December 2022, but the legislature finished the phase-out, and for taxable years beginning after 31 December 2023 an entity whose privilege tax computes to $100 or less owes nothing and is not required to file the return at all. Believe the later change, not the tax-type page. No rate range or threshold is recorded in the numeric fields because the municipal licence varies by city and by business classification and no state page publishes a schedule.", "source": "https://www.revenue.alabama.gov/notice-important-changes-to-the-2024-business-privilege-tax-filing-requirements/", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Alabama Secretary of State, Business Entities Division", "url": "https://www.sos.alabama.gov/business-entities", "feeLLC": 150, "feeCorp": 150, "feeNote": "$150 for both, whether you file on paper or online. Expedited paper processing, roughly three business days, is $250 instead. Add the name reservation you must obtain first, $25 by mail or $28 online. The published fee schedule carrying these amounts was last revised 23 August 2023.", "note": "Foreign qualification means registering an entity you formed elsewhere so it can transact business in Alabama, which is a different filing from forming an Alabama entity. Two sequencing details cost people time. You must first obtain a Certificate of Name Reservation from the Secretary of State and attach it to the application, so this is a two-filing process rather than one. And the registered agent must be a person or company physically located in Alabama, with a street address rather than a PO box. Filings go to the Secretary of State directly, not to a county probate judge. The penalty for getting the order wrong is real: transacting business in Alabama before registering carries a late filing penalty of $150 for each year you were unregistered, on top of the ordinary fee. On the other side, Alabama is lighter than most afterwards, because corporations authorised to transact business here no longer file an annual report with the Secretary of State, and since the 2024 tax year an entity whose business privilege tax computes to $100 or less files no privilege tax return either.", "source": "https://www.sos.alabama.gov/sites/default/files/form-files/FeeSchedule.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "utah": { "state": "Utah", "abbr": "UT", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Utah State Tax Commission", "Utah Department of Workforce Services", "Utah Department of Commerce, Division of Corporations and Commercial Code", "Utah Labor Commission" ], "note": "Utah does not issue one combined payroll account. Withholding is a Tax Commission account opened on form TC-69 through Taxpayer Access Point, unemployment insurance is a separate Workforce Services account with its own number, and workers compensation is bought from a private insurer rather than registered with the state. Utah used to run a genuine one-stop at osbr.utah.gov that opened Commerce, Tax Commission and Workforce Services accounts together; that address now redirects to the Division of Corporations, and the state's current combined front door is businessregistration.utah.gov. Workforce Services still offers a standalone path and describes it as the route to take if you are already registered with other agencies and only need an unemployment insurance number, so expect to touch at least three agencies whichever door you start at." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Utah State Tax Commission", "url": "https://tax.utah.gov/withholding", "registerWhen": "Before you have Utah employees, by filing form TC-69 at tap.utah.gov", "note": "You withhold if you pay wages for work done in Utah, or pay a Utah resident for work done anywhere else, and Utah states the consequence bluntly: it is a class B misdemeanor to have Utah employees without a withholding license. Two escape hatches exist and both are narrow. An employer doing business in Utah for 60 days or less in a calendar year can ask the Tax Commission to waive withholding, but the waiver is for the employer only and the employee still owes Utah tax; cross 60 days and you owe withholding for the whole period. Separately, a nonresident who works 20 days or less in Utah, has no other Utah income, and lives in a state with no income tax or a matching exclusion is left out of Utah withholding entirely. Watch the rate: the current Withholding Tax Guide, Publication 14 revised April 2026, computes every schedule at 4.45 percent, while the Tax Commission's own income tax rate page still stops at 4.5 percent for 2025. The form is the newer document, so use 4.45 percent and treat the rate page as stale.", "source": "https://files.tax.utah.gov/tax/forms/pubs/pub-14.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Utah Department of Workforce Services, Unemployment Insurance Division", "url": "https://jobs.utah.gov/ui/employer/public/Questions/TaxRates.aspx", "newEmployerRate": null, "wageBase": 50700, "year": "2026", "note": "There is no single new employer rate in Utah, so none is published here. A new employer is assigned the two year average benefit cost ratio of its own major industry, floored at 1 percent times the reserve factor plus the social cost, which for 2026 means a reserve factor of 1.10 and a social cost fixed at 0.001. Rates for 2026 run from a minimum of 0.1 percent to a maximum of 7.1 percent, and a new out-of-state contractor is handed the 7.1 percent maximum outright unless it bought an existing Utah business. Tax applies to the first $50,700 of each employee's wages in 2026, a base that is recalculated every year from the state average annual wage, and rates for the next year are set in late November. Liability is triggered by almost nothing: employing one or more individuals for any part of a day during a calendar year makes you a subject employer, so there is no headcount or payroll cushion for an ordinary business. Utah publishes no registration deadline in days; the real one is the quarterly report due date, the last day of the month after each quarter ends.", "source": "https://jobs.utah.gov/ui/employer/public/Questions/TaxRates.aspx ; https://jobs.utah.gov/ui/employer/public/handbook/Employer_Handbook.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every employer with one or more workers or operatives regularly employed in the same business", "employees of a contractor whose work is a part or process in the hiring employer's own trade or business, where the employer retains supervision or control", "directors and officers of a corporation, unless the corporation files written notice excluding up to five of them", "partners and sole proprietors of a motor carrier that employs at least one non-owner and who personally drive" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Utah Labor Commission, Division of Industrial Accidents", "url": "https://laborcommission.utah.gov/divisions/industrial-accidents/", "note": "Coverage is required from the first employee and there is no headcount cushion. Utah gives you only two ways to comply: buy a policy from an insurer licensed in Utah, or get approval from the Division to self-insure. The exemptions are narrow and specific. A domestic employer is out only if no single household worker puts in 40 hours a week. An agricultural employer is out if last year's payroll for workers outside the immediate family was under $8,000, and between $8,000 and $50,000 only if it carries $300,000 of liability insurance plus $5,000 of health benefits for those workers. Real estate agents and insurance producers working under written independent contractor agreements are excluded, as are qualifying owner-operator truckers who hold a coverage waiver plus occupational accident insurance. Partners and sole proprietors are outside coverage until they elect in, and corporate directors and officers are inside it until the corporation serves written notice excluding them, capped at five people. The contractor rule is the usual trap: hire a contractor to do work that is part of your own trade and keep supervision or control, and that contractor's staff and subcontractors count as your employees unless you obtain and rely on their certificate of compliance or coverage waiver. Going without coverage is a class B misdemeanor and each day is a separate offense, the Division can get a court to shut the business down, and you lose the tort immunity workers compensation normally buys.", "source": "https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title34a/Chapter2/C34A-2_1800010118000101.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "not later than 20 days after the date of hire or date of rehire", "agency": "Utah Department of Workforce Services, Utah New Hire Registry", "url": "https://jobs.utah.gov/ui/employer/Public/PublicPortal.aspx", "note": "Every hire and every rehire must be reported within 20 days with the employee's name, address, Social Security number and hire date, plus your own name, address and federal tax identification number. Employers approved to report on a semimonthly cycle instead must file batches no less than 12 and no more than 16 days apart, which is a tighter clock than 20 days for some hires. If you employ people in two or more states you may report all of them to a single other state under the federal multistate rule, and Utah then exempts you entirely. Late reporting carries a civil penalty of $25 per failure, rising to $500 where the employer and employee agreed not to report or to report falsely. Reports go through the Workforce Services employer portal, the same login as unemployment tax filing, which is the one convenience Utah does offer here.", "source": "https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title35A/Chapter7/C35A-7_1800010118000101.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": "Utah Labor Commission, Utah Antidiscrimination and Labor Division", "url": "https://laborcommission.utah.gov/divisions/utah-antidiscrimination-and-labor-uald/", "note": "Utah runs no state paid family and medical leave programme and no temporary disability insurance fund, so there is no payroll contribution of this kind to withhold or match and nothing extra to register for. The division that would administer such a programme enforces only the Utah Payment of Wages Act, the Utah Minimum Wage Act and the Utah Employment of Minors Act on the wage side, and Utah also has no statewide paid sick leave mandate. If you are used to running payroll in Colorado, Washington or California, this is a line item and an account you will not have here. The one Utah-specific wage rule to diarise instead is termination pay: when you separate an employee, all wages are due within 24 hours.", "source": "https://laborcommission.utah.gov/divisions/utah-antidiscrimination-and-labor-uald/", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Utah State Tax Commission", "url": "https://tax.utah.gov/sales", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "No routine deposit. A bond is required only where the applicant, a fiduciary of the applicant, or a business they collected for has a sales tax delinquency or a revoked licence, and that bond may not be less than $25,000 or more than $500,000.", "registerBy": "Before engaging in business in Utah; a remote seller registers once its gross revenue from Utah sales exceeds $100,000 in either the previous or the current calendar year", "note": "The licence itself is free, and this is confirmed in the statute rather than inferred: Utah Code 59-12-106 is headed in part 'No fee' and says a licence shall be issued without a licence fee. Collecting without one is a criminal violation. Three mechanics catch people. A separate licence is required for each place of business if you transact at two or more locations. The licence is not transferable and is valid only until you stop doing business or change your business address, so a move means a new licence, and closing down means filing form TC-69C rather than going quiet, or the Commission estimates tax against you with penalties and interest. Anyone running a one-off event or an event lasting six months or less needs a separate temporary licence even if they already hold a regular one. One number in the state's own explainer is now out of date: Publication 25, revised October 2024, still says you have economic presence with more than 200 sales in Utah, but the 200 transaction test was repealed effective 1 July 2025 and the statute now sets a single threshold of more than $100,000 of gross revenue. Believe the statute.", "source": "https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title59/Chapter12/C59-12-P1_1800010118000101.pdf ; https://tax.utah.gov/business/sales-tax/other-sales-tax/out-of-state-remote-sellers/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Utah treats a marketplace facilitator as the seller of everything it facilitates, and a facilitator is on the hook once it makes or facilitates more than $100,000 of Utah sales in the previous or current calendar year. For you as a seller the practical rule is generous and precise: a marketplace seller does not need a Utah sales tax licence for facilitated sales at all unless it has its own Utah nexus and makes sales outside the marketplace. If you do hold a licence, you file returns but do not report the marketplace sales on them, and you are not liable for tax the facilitator was required to collect. You also cannot opt out of having the facilitator collect for you. The trap is the same everywhere: the moment you sell direct through your own site alongside the marketplace, those direct sales are yours to licence, collect and report. Note also that an out-of-state facilitator gets a real grace period, starting collection no later than the first day of the calendar quarter that is at least 60 days after it crosses the threshold, and Utah publishes no equivalent grace for an ordinary remote seller.", "source": "https://files.tax.utah.gov/tax/forms/pubs/pub-71.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Utah publishes no rule called trailing nexus, but the statute builds one in. The economic nexus test asks whether your Utah gross revenue exceeded $100,000 in either the previous calendar year or the current one, so a single year over the line obliges you to collect through the whole of the following year even if sales collapse. Only after failing the test in both years can you stop, and stopping is something you must do actively: Utah wants notice immediately when you cease doing business in the state, closed through Taxpayer Access Point or form TC-69C, and if you simply stop filing the Commission may assess estimated tax plus late penalties and interest. Since Utah publishes no wind-down procedure specific to remote sellers, close the account explicitly rather than letting it go dormant.", "source": "https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title59/Chapter12/C59-12-P1_1800010118000101.pdf ; https://files.tax.utah.gov/tax/forms/2025/pub-25.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Utah levies no statewide gross receipts or commerce tax, so there is nothing at state level resembling Washington's B and O tax or Ohio's commercial activity tax. Do not read that as no exposure, because Utah municipalities may impose and collect their own licence fee or tax on revenues, and the Tax Commission's own guidance works an example of a city that has imposed a 2 percent gross receipts tax. The detail that surprises people is what happens next: a city-imposed tax of this kind must be added into the taxable sales you report on your Utah sales and use tax return, so on a $100 sale in that city you report $102 and charge the combined state and local sales tax on the larger figure. In other words you pay sales tax on the city's tax. Check the ordinances of every Utah city you have a physical presence in, because the state cannot tell you what they charge.", "source": "https://files.tax.utah.gov/tax/forms/2025/pub-25.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Utah Department of Commerce, Division of Corporations and Commercial Code", "url": "https://commerce.utah.gov/corporations/business-entities/foreign-limited-liability-company/", "feeLLC": 59, "feeCorp": 59, "feeNote": "$59 to register a foreign LLC and $59 for a foreign business corporation, from the Division's current published fee schedule. A foreign LLP or LP is $70. Expedited processing adds $75 per filing. Withdrawing later is free. The annual renewal is $18 for both entity types, with a $10 late fee, and a reinstatement costs $18 for every year of renewal you missed. One caveat on the fee figures: the file the Division links as its current fee schedule was last updated in August 2026 but still carries the heading 'Fiscal Year 2026 Fee Schedule, Effective July 1, 2025', so confirm before budgeting a large filing.", "note": "The cheaper and simpler route by a wide margin is the LLC. A foreign LLC's registration statement asks only for the company name, its home jurisdiction, its principal office addresses and its Utah registered agent. A foreign corporation must additionally deliver a certificate of existence from its home state dated within 90 days before the filing, so order that first and watch the clock. Both entity types need a registered agent in Utah, and neither filing has anything to do with your tax and payroll accounts: qualifying with Commerce does not open a withholding or unemployment account, and opening those does not qualify you to do business. Utah also spells out what does not count as doing business, including selling only through independent contractors, taking orders that must be accepted outside Utah, and conducting one isolated transaction. Timing note: Utah recodified its business entity statutes effective 1 October 2026, which repeals the foreign registration sections cited here and moves them, so the fee amounts should hold but the statutory citations and possibly the form names change just after this record's review date.", "source": "https://commerce.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/currentfees.pdf ; https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title48/Chapter3a/C48-3a-P9_1800010118000101.pdf ; https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title16/Chapter10A/C16-10a-P15_1800010118000101.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "tennessee": { "state": "Tennessee", "abbr": "TN", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [], "note": "Tennessee has no single payroll registration. Unemployment premiums are registered with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Employment Security. Sales and use tax and business tax are registered with the Department of Revenue through TNTAP, and Revenue is explicit that a sales tax registration is not a business tax registration and is not a business license. New hire reporting runs through a third system at tnnewhire.com, and workers compensation is bought from an insurer and policed by the Bureau of Workers' Compensation. Because there is no state income tax to withhold, an out-of-state employer often assumes there is nothing to open at all and misses the unemployment account, which is due as soon as it pays wages for work performed in Tennessee." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://www.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/hall-income-tax.html", "registerWhen": null, "note": "Tennessee taxes no wage or salary income, so there is no state withholding account, no state W-4 and no state wage tax to deduct. The old Hall income tax reached only interest and dividends and was repealed for tax periods beginning on or after January 1, 2021, so even that is gone. This is unusually hard to reverse: Article II, Section 28 of the state constitution now says the legislature shall not levy, authorize or permit any state or local tax upon payroll or earned personal income, language voters added at the November 2014 general election. You still withhold federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare as normal. Two traps follow. First, employers moving a worker to Tennessee often leave the old state's withholding switched on, which takes money the employee does not owe. Second, no withholding does not mean no payroll obligations: unemployment premiums, new hire reporting and, at 35 or more full-time equivalent employees, federal E-Verify under the Tennessee Lawful Employment Act all still apply.", "source": "https://www.capitol.tn.gov/bills/108/bill/sjr0001.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Employment Security", "url": "https://www.tn.gov/workforce/employers/tax-and-insurance-redirect/unemployment-insurance-tax/ui-tax-rates.html", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 7000, "year": "2026", "note": "Tennessee calls this an unemployment premium rather than a tax. The taxable wage base is the first $7,000 of each employee's wages for calendar year 2026, unchanged every year since 2019. You are liable, and must file the Report to Determine Status, once any of the usual tests is met: you are liable under the federal FUTA and have at least one employee in Tennessee, or you pay $1,500 or more in gross wages in a calendar quarter, or you have at least one employee in twenty different weeks of the current or preceding year. Household employers cross at $1,000 of cash wages in a quarter and agricultural employers at $20,000 in a quarter or ten workers in twenty weeks. The 2.7% figure is the new employer rate the department publishes on the LB-0441 status application instructions, which state that all industries have had a new employer rate of 2.7% since July 1, 2021. Two cautions. New employer rates are set separately for each major industry group from that group's combined reserve experience, so a construction, mining or manufacturing rate can diverge from 2.7% in a future year and a manufacturer should ask for its rate in writing. And your own rate is not the new employer rate forever: after your account has been subject to premiums and chargeable with benefits for thirty-six consecutive months ending December 31, you move to an experience rate off the reserve ratio chart, which currently runs on Premium Table 6, the lowest of the six tables, in effect continuously since July 2015 except for one half-year on Table 5.", "source": "https://lwdsupport.tn.gov/hc/en-us/articles/20035311746579-Instructions-for-Report-to-Determine-Status-Applications-for-Employer-Number", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 5, "requiredFor": [ "non-construction: five or more employees", "construction services providers: one or more employees, and the owners themselves must be covered", "coal mining: all employees, with no headcount minimum" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Bureau of Workers' Compensation, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development", "url": "https://www.tn.gov/workforce/injuries-at-work/employers/employers/who-must-carry-insurance.html", "note": "The headcount that matters is five, but who counts differs by entity type and industry. For a non-construction sole proprietorship, LLC or partnership the owners are not counted toward the five, while corporate officers who work full time are counted, though they may exclude themselves from the policy. Minors, working family members and part-time employees all count. Construction is a different regime entirely: any construction services provider with one or more employees needs coverage, admin staff included, and owners must cover themselves unless they qualify for and obtain a listing on the state Exemption Registry. A 1099 does not settle the question, because the Bureau applies a seven factor test that weighs control of the work most heavily. Two points matter specifically to an out-of-state employer. Sending a non-construction worker into Tennessee briefly, meaning no more than 14 consecutive days or 25 total days in a calendar year, may stay exempt if you carry coverage in another state, but nothing about that exemption is automatic for longer assignments or for construction. And if you are already covered and your headcount falls below five, coverage does not lapse by itself: you must file a Notice of Withdrawal from Coverage, Form I-3, and wait for the Bureau to accept it.", "source": "https://www.tn.gov/workforce/injuries-at-work/employers/employers/who-must-carry-insurance/non-construction.html", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's hire, rehire or return to work; employers reporting electronically must send two transmissions a month, not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart", "agency": "Tennessee New Hire Reporting Program, reporting to the Tennessee Department of Human Services", "url": "https://www.tn.gov/workforce/employers/staffing-redirect/hiring-regulations/new-hire-reporting.html", "note": "Report every new employee who lives or works in Tennessee within 20 days of the hire date, under Tenn. Code Ann. 36-5-1101 to 36-5-1108 and the federal PRWORA. Rehires count once a worker has been away 60 days or more, which catches seasonal staff and anyone returning from a long unpaid gap, and someone who worked a single day and quit must still be reported if they filled out a W-4. Unlike Florida and Texas, Tennessee does not require independent contractors to be reported: the program says that where the relationship is a contract rather than employment, federal law does not require a report and the contractor reports its own employees. Note who actually receives this. The Department of Labor and Workforce Development page presents new hire reporting as its own, but the program's site says the Department of Human Services matches the data against child support records before passing it to the national directory. Either way you file at tnnewhire.com, which is a separate system from your unemployment and Revenue accounts. Failing to report carries a $20 penalty per incident, rising to as much as $400 where the state finds a conspiracy to avoid reporting.", "source": "https://tnnewhire.com/faqs", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Tennessee runs no state disability insurance and no state paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no employee payroll deduction and no employer contribution for one. The Labor Standards Unit enforces six labour laws and none of them is a paid leave mandate. Any paid leave you give Tennessee staff is your own policy, and federal FMLA protection, if you are large enough to be covered, is unpaid. If you already run payroll in a state like California, New York or Delaware, do not carry that deduction across to a Tennessee employee.", "source": "https://www.tn.gov/workforce/employees/labor-laws.html", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Tennessee Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/sales-and-use-tax/registration.html", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "before conducting business in Tennessee; an out-of-state dealer that crosses $100,000 in sales to Tennessee customers must register and start collecting on the first day of the third month after the month it crossed", "note": "You apply for a Certificate of Registration through TNTAP, and you need one for each business location. No fee appears on the registration page or in the Department's Sales and Use Tax Manual, and the manual sets out the whole application without mentioning a payment step, but the Department never affirmatively says registration is free, so no amount is published here. The fee that does bite is a different one: a business with Tennessee gross sales of $100,000 or more in a jurisdiction also needs a $15 standard business licence from the county clerk or city official, and that is a separate errand from registering with Revenue. Flea market sellers are the one group with a published sales tax registration fee, at $45 a year, $15 a quarter or $5 a month. Once registered, returns and payments must be filed electronically, and if you sell or close the business you owe a final return within 15 days.", "source": "https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/revenue/documents/tax_manuals/august-2026/sales-use-tax-manual.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A marketplace facilitator that made or facilitated more than $100,000 of sales to Tennessee consumers in the previous twelve months must register and collect the tax on everything sold through its marketplace, counting its own sales toward that threshold. An out-of-state marketplace seller does not have to register in Tennessee if every one of its taxable sales goes through a facilitator that is collecting. The trap is the word every: the moment you also sell through your own site or any other channel, those sales are yours, and they count on their own against the $100,000 remote dealer threshold. Two narrow exceptions can push the duty back onto you, one where the Commissioner waives facilitator collection because substantially all of its sellers are already registered, and one where the facilitator and a large seller agree by contract that the seller will collect.", "source": "https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/revenue/documents/tax_manuals/august-2026/sales-use-tax-manual.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Tennessee's remote dealer test looks at sales to Tennessee customers during the previous tax year, so this year's duty turns on last year's numbers rather than what you are selling today. Neither the statute nor the Department's Sales and Use Tax Manual publishes a rule for how long the collection duty trails after you drop below $100,000, which is why this is left unresolved rather than guessed. What is certain is that the registration does not lapse on its own. You keep owing electronic returns until you close the account yourself through TNTAP, and a business that is sold or closed owes a final return within 15 days.", "source": "https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/revenue/documents/tax_manuals/august-2026/sales-use-tax-manual.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Business tax", "agency": "Tennessee Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.tn.gov/revenue/taxes/business-tax.html", "rateRange": "0.02% to 0.1875% of gross sales depending on classification and on whether you are a retailer or a wholesaler. The common ones are 0.1% for a Classification 1 retailer, 0.15% for a Classification 2 retailer selling tangible goods and 0.1875% for a Classification 3 service retailer. Wholesale rates are lower, mostly 0.0375%", "exclusionThreshold": 100000, "note": "Do not confuse Tennessee's two business taxes, because only one of them is a gross receipts tax. The business tax is charged on gross sales with no deduction for cost of goods or payroll, at a rate set by which of the classifications your dominant activity falls in, and it is what people mean by a Tennessee gross receipts tax. Franchise and excise tax is a different regime entirely: excise tax is 6.5% of Tennessee net earnings and franchise tax is 0.25% of Tennessee net worth with a $100 annual minimum, so neither is measured by receipts. The property based minimum measure of the franchise tax was repealed by Public Chapter 950 for tax years ending on or after January 1, 2024. On the business tax, you owe nothing in a county or city where your receipts there are under $100,000, but registration is per location and every registered taxpayer owes a minimum tax of $22 per location, $44 if the location is in a city that levies the municipal tax, even in a year with no activity. Above $100,000 of gross sales in a jurisdiction you also need a $15 standard business licence, issued by the county clerk or city official rather than by Revenue and renewed automatically when you file and pay. Between $3,000 and $100,000 you take a minimal activity licence instead. The trap for a company expanding into Tennessee is the payroll trigger: more than $50,000 of Tennessee compensation is bright-line presence, which can create substantial nexus for both business tax and franchise and excise tax. One well paid remote employee can put you inside both regimes before you have sold anything here.", "source": "https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/revenue/documents/tax_manuals/june-2026/business-tax.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Tennessee Secretary of State, Division of Business and Charitable Organizations", "url": "https://sos.tn.gov/businesses/services/business-forms-fees", "feeLLC": 300, "feeCorp": 600, "feeNote": "LLC: $50 per member, with a $300 minimum and a $3,000 maximum, on form SS-4233. The $300 recorded here is the minimum, which is what an LLC with six or fewer members pays. Corporation: a flat $600 on form SS-4431. Registering an assumed name alongside the application costs another $20.", "note": "Tennessee is expensive at this step and the LLC price is not fixed, so count your members before you budget: a twelve member LLC pays $600, not $300. Whichever form you file must arrive with a certificate of existence from your home state dated no more than two months earlier, or the Division rejects it and sends it back. Corporations, nonprofit corporations and LLCs can file online; foreign limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships must file on paper. Budget for the recurring cost too, because qualifying puts you into Tennessee's annual report cycle: $20 a year for a corporation, and for an LLC the same per member structure, a $300 minimum rising by $50 for each member above six up to $3,000. Miss an annual report and the entity can be administratively revoked.", "source": "https://sos-prod.tnsosgovfiles.com/s3fs-public/document/SS-4233%20COA%20LLC_0.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "indiana": { "state": "Indiana", "abbr": "IN", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Indiana Department of Revenue", "Indiana Department of Workforce Development", "Indiana Secretary of State", "Worker's Compensation Board of Indiana" ], "note": "Indiana gives you one front door and three separate accounts behind it. INBiz is a genuine joint portal that hands your details to the Department of Revenue, the Secretary of State and the Department of Workforce Development in a single sitting, which is more than most states offer. What comes back is still separate: a Taxpayer Identification Number from Revenue for withholding and sales tax, a SUTA account number from Workforce Development for unemployment, and separate logins for filing (INTIME for tax, Uplink Employer Self Service for unemployment). Workers compensation is outside the portal entirely, because Indiana has no state fund and no registration step: you buy a policy from a private carrier and the carrier files proof of coverage with the Worker's Compensation Board." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Indiana Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.in.gov/dor/i-am-a/business-corp/withholding/", "registerWhen": "before the first payroll on which you withhold Indiana tax; DOR publishes no fixed number of days, and the application asks for the date tax was first withheld", "note": "Two things surprise out-of-state employers. First, county income tax is not optional or occasional: withholding of county tax is required in all 92 counties, and the rate is set by where the employee lived on January 1 of the tax year, not by where your office is. If the employee lived outside Indiana on January 1 but their principal place of work was in an Indiana county, you withhold for that work county instead. Rates for 2026 run from 0.5 percent in Porter County to 3.0 percent in Randolph County, and the state rate on top is 2.95 percent for 2026, dropping to 2.90 percent in 2027. Second, Indiana's reciprocity with Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin covers state tax only. DOR states plainly that the agreements do not cover local income taxes, so a resident of one of those five states working in Indiana still owes Indiana county tax and you still have to withhold it. There is a genuine relief valve: if you run a time and attendance system that records out-of-state work locations, you need not withhold for an employee reasonably expected to work in Indiana 30 days or less in the year, and a completed Form WH-4AFF relieves you until the 30 days are exceeded. Registration itself is free.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/dor/files/dn01.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dor/files/ib28.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dor/files/new-small-business-handbook.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Indiana Department of Workforce Development", "url": "https://www.in.gov/dwd/indiana-unemployment/employers/employer-guide/rate-computation/new-employer-premium-rate/", "newEmployerRate": 0.025, "wageBase": 9500, "year": "2026", "note": "A new Indiana employer pays 2.5 percent on the first $9,500 of each employee's wages, and keeps that rate for its first four calendar years because rates are set from a 36 month experience record measured to June 30. Both figures come from statute rather than an annual schedule, which is why they are safe to publish: IC 22-4-11-2(b)(2) fixes the 2.5 percent rate and IC 22-4-4-2(b) caps the taxable wage base at $9,500 for every year after 2010. New employers are also exempt from the solvency surcharge, so the rate you are quoted is the rate you pay. The liability trigger is the harshest part and catches people who expect a federal-style threshold: under IC 22-4-7-1 an ordinary business becomes an employer once it pays one dollar or more in wages for covered employment, and you must register during the first quarter in which you are liable. There is no 20 week test and no $1,500 quarterly test for a regular business, and the state's own consumer-facing Business Owner's Guide still describes those FUTA-style thresholds, which is wrong for state unemployment purposes. Two further traps: if you already owe federal unemployment tax in another state you are immediately liable in Indiana the moment you have a worker here, and once you are liable for any quarter you must file for every quarter of that year, including quarters before you started, using the Nothing to Report option. Construction employers (NAICS 23) get the lesser of 4.0 percent or the average construction rate, which was 2.50 percent for 2025; DWD had not published the 2026 construction figure on its rate page when this was collected.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/dwd/files/Employer_Handbook.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dwd/indiana-unemployment/employers/employer-guide/rate-computation/ ; https://iga.in.gov/laws/current/ic/titles/22 (IC 22-4-11-2, IC 22-4-4-2, IC 22-4-7-1)", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every employer subject to IC 22-3-2 through IC 22-3-6, with no headcount trigger of any kind", "part-time, temporary and seasonal employees, from the first day of work" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Worker's Compensation Board of Indiana", "url": "https://www.in.gov/wcb/compliance/", "note": "Indiana sets no employee count at all. IC 22-3-5-1(a) requires every employer except those the statute exempts either to buy insurance from a carrier authorised in Indiana or to satisfy the Board of its financial ability to self insure, and the Board states that coverage applies from an employee's first day of work. The exemptions are by class of worker, not by size: IC 22-3-2-9 excludes casual labourers, farm or agricultural employees, household employees, and certain part-time youth coaches for a 501(c)(3), and IC 22-3-2-2 excludes railroad employees in train service and municipal police and fire personnel in a pension fund. So one part-time office employee obliges you; one household cleaner does not. Unlike Ohio there is no state fund, so you buy an ordinary commercial policy and there is no registration step with the state. Self insurance costs $500 to apply and $250 a year to renew. Two things bite out-of-state employers specifically. The Board can demand current proof of coverage and charge $100 per day from the date of the request if you have not produced it by the tenth day. And IC 22-3-2-22(c) requires an employer with mobile or remote employees to deliver the coverage notice, including the carrier's name and phone number, electronically or in the same way it sends other employment information, so a single remote Indiana worker creates a notice duty that a break room poster does not satisfy.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/wcb/compliance/ ; https://www.in.gov/wcb/employees/who-is-eligible ; https://iga.in.gov/laws/current/ic/titles/22 (IC 22-3-2-2, IC 22-3-2-9, IC 22-3-2-22, IC 22-3-5-1, IC 22-3-5-2.5)", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 business days of the employee's date of hire under IC 22-4-10-8(h), though both DWD and the Department of Child Services tell employers 20 days, so treat 20 calendar days as the safe deadline", "agency": "Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Indiana New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://www.in.gov/dwd/indiana-unemployment/employers/employer-guide/unemployer-insurance-employer-guide/new-hire-reporting/", "note": "The statute says 20 business days; the agencies' own employer guidance says 20 days without qualification, so the two do not quite agree and the conservative reading is 20 calendar days. A rehire counts as a new hire once the person has been off your payroll for 60 consecutive days. Unlike Ohio, Indiana's duty covers employees only, because the statute borrows the Internal Revenue Code definition, so independent contractors are not reported. Reports must be electronic. What is easy to miss is that the required fields grew in 2024: alongside name, address, Social Security number and first day of work you must now supply the employee's standardized occupational classification code and starting compensation, and the reporting centre also asks for job title and pay basis. Penalties are $25 per unreported employee, rising to $500 where employer and employee conspired to withhold or falsify the report. Note also that DWD's own Employer Handbook, revised 1 July 2025, still cites IC 22-4.1-4-2 for this duty; that section was repealed in 2015 and the live provision is IC 22-4-10-8.", "source": "https://iga.in.gov/laws/current/ic/titles/22 (IC 22-4-10-8) ; https://www.in.gov/dwd/files/Employer_Handbook.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dcs/child-support/employer-information/new-hire-reporting", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://www.in.gov/dor/files/dn01.pdf", "note": "Indiana runs no state disability insurance fund and no state paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and no extra account to open. The Department of Revenue's withholding notice and its 2026 small business tax guide between them enumerate every tax an Indiana employer withholds or registers for, and the list is state income tax and county income tax and nothing else. If you already run payroll in a state like Minnesota, Delaware or California, do not carry the leave or disability deduction across to an Indiana employee. Indiana also has no statewide paid sick leave mandate, so accrued sick time is whatever your own policy says.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/dor/files/new-small-business-handbook.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dor/files/dn01.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Indiana Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.in.gov/dor/i-am-a/business-corp/sales-tax/", "fee": 25, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "before making any taxable retail sale in Indiana; a remote seller registers once its gross revenue from Indiana sales exceeds $100,000 in the current or preceding calendar year", "note": "The permit is called a Registered Retail Merchant Certificate and it costs $25, non refundable, per place of business rather than per company. A restaurant that adds a food truck buys a second certificate for the truck. You apply on Form BT-1 through INBiz, must display a certificate at each retail location, and it is valid for two years and renews automatically at no charge. The renewal is where Indiana differs from most states in a way that matters: your certificate does not simply lapse on a date, it expires if you fall behind on filing or paying sales, use or withholding tax, and until you are reinstated you may not legally make retail sales. Wholesalers count as retail merchants and must register even if they expect every sale to be exempt. One naming trap: an RRMC is not a vendor's licence, which is a separate county clerk matter. Indiana charges no local sales tax, so the rate is a flat 7 percent statewide and you file one return. No general security deposit or bond requirement appeared on any DOR registration page that was read, so none is recorded here.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/dor/files/new-small-business-handbook.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dor/i-am-a/business-corp/business-faq/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Indiana's marketplace facilitator law is unusually favourable to small sellers, and getting it wrong costs you money in the wrong direction. The facilitator is treated as the retail merchant for everything it facilitates, and it must count those sales toward its own $100,000 threshold. Your sales on its platform do not count toward yours. DOR's own worked example has a seller with $200,000 of marketplace sales and $50,000 on its own website, and concludes the seller need not register at all, because only the website sales are tested. The one exception is where the facilitator itself has not met the threshold, in which case the sales come back to you. If you are already registered and marketplace use has pushed your direct sales below the threshold, DOR says you may close the account. The law reaches food and beverage tax and county innkeeper's tax as well as sales tax.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/dor/files/sib89.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dor/i-am-a/business-corp/remote-sellers/marketplace-facilitators/", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Indiana tests the current or preceding calendar year, so a year in which you pass $100,000 pulls the following year in with it: you keep collecting and filing through that next year even if sales collapse, and can only stop the year after. There is no period stated in days and no separate wind-down rule. What does not happen automatically is deregistration. Your Registered Retail Merchant Certificate stays open and the returns keep falling due until you close the account, so the correct move when you genuinely stop selling into Indiana is to close it rather than file zero returns forever. DOR's guidance on the 2024 repeal of the old 200 transaction threshold is the clearest illustration: sellers who qualified only on transaction count were told they could close their account in 2024 if they stayed under $100,000, but still had to file every 2024 return first.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/dor/files/sib89.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dor/i-am-a/business-corp/remote-sellers/", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://www.in.gov/dor/i-am-a/business-corp/", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Indiana has nothing resembling Washington's B&O, Ohio's CAT or Oregon's CAT, and it has been moving away from receipts taxes rather than toward them. The old gross income tax is long gone, and the Utility Receipts Tax and Utility Services Use Tax were both repealed effective 1 July 2022 by House Enrolled Act 1002, with 2022 the final filing year. The Department of Revenue's July 2026 business tax guide enumerates every tax a new business may owe and no general receipts tax appears on the list. What does exist, and does catch people, is a set of narrow local taxes on specific trades rather than on business generally: a county Food and Beverage tax and a County Innkeeper's Tax collected on top of sales tax by restaurants and lodging, plus excise taxes at 4 percent on short-term vehicle rental, 2.25 percent on heavy equipment rental and 2 percent on peer-to-peer vehicle sharing. If you are not in one of those trades, there is no receipts-based cost of doing business in Indiana at all.", "source": "https://www.in.gov/dor/files/new-small-business-handbook.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/dor/files/gb201.pdf ; https://www.in.gov/oucc/featured-topics/utility-receipts-tax-repeal/", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Indiana Secretary of State, Business Services Division", "url": "https://www.in.gov/sos/business/division-forms/business-forms/", "feeLLC": 125, "feeCorp": 125, "feeNote": "Indiana uses one Foreign Registration Statement, State Form 56369, for every out-of-state entity type, and the current edition (R8 / 01-26) prints the paper fee as $125.00 for for-profit entities, $75.00 for nonprofit corporations and $250.00 for a foreign master LLC. Filing online through INBiz is cheaper, not dearer: the Secretary of State's own fee calculator returns $105.00 for a foreign LLC, a foreign for-profit corporation and a foreign limited partnership alike, and $40.00 for a foreign nonprofit, with a card or e-check processing fee added at checkout of at least $1 and no more than 2.15 percent. The stored figures are the paper fees printed on the current official form; deduct $20 if you file online, which is how most people file. Nothing scales with authorized shares.", "note": "One form covers LLCs, corporations, limited partnerships, LLPs and series entities, and a corporation must attach a certificate of existence from its home state issued within the last 60 days. Hiring one person in Indiana will normally put you over the line into transacting business, but selling into the state will not: DOR states in its remote seller bulletin that a remote seller generally does not need to register with the Secretary of State at all, so an out-of-state web seller can owe sales tax without owing a qualification fee. Qualifying opens no tax accounts, so withholding, unemployment and any retail merchant certificate remain separate registrations afterwards, and you must appoint an Indiana registered agent. Once qualified you also inherit Indiana's biennial business entity report, which is an ongoing obligation and not a one-time cost.", "source": "https://forms.in.gov/Download.aspx?id=17073 ; https://inbiz.in.gov/Inbiz/FeeCalculator/Index ; https://www.in.gov/dor/files/sib89.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "connecticut": { "state": "Connecticut", "abbr": "CT", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales and use tax", "corporation business tax and the other Department of Revenue Services tax types" ], "note": "One application with the Department of Revenue Services, Form REG-1 filed through myconneCT, opens withholding, sales and use tax, corporation business tax, pass-through entity tax and the rest of the DRS list at once, so you do not register separately for those. It stops there. Unemployment insurance is a separate registration with the Department of Labor in its own ReEmployCT system. CT Paid Leave is a third registration, with the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority at ctpaidleave.org, and it is the one out-of-state employers most often miss because it is a quasi-public authority rather than a department. Workers compensation is not a state account at all, it is a policy you buy from a private insurer. Budget for four errands, not one, and note that the DRS application charges a fee for some tax types, so have bank details ready." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Connecticut Department of Revenue Services", "url": "https://portal.ct.gov/drs/withholding-taxes/new-employer-information", "registerWhen": "Before your first Connecticut payroll; the duty attaches to anyone who maintains an office or transacts business in Connecticut and is an employer for federal withholding purposes", "note": "Circular CT puts it plainly: you must withhold whether or not your payroll department sits in Connecticut. All wages of a Connecticut resident are subject to withholding even when the resident works outside the state, with a credit mechanism if you also withhold for another qualifying jurisdiction where you do business. A nonresident is caught only on wages for services performed in Connecticut, and you withhold on all of that person's wages unless they hand you Form CT-W4NA apportioning them. The reverse trap is the convenience of the employer test: a resident of a state that applies one is treated the same way for work done for a Connecticut employer, so a remote worker can create Connecticut withholding without ever crossing the border. There is no published fee for the withholding registration itself, but once registered you file and pay electronically and keep filing even in periods with nothing withheld.", "source": "https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/drs/publications/pubsip/2026/ip-2026-1.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Connecticut Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance Tax Division", "url": "https://portal.ct.gov/dol/divisions/unemployment-insurance-tax/information-on-unemployment-tax-rate-for-calendar-year-2026", "newEmployerRate": 0.019, "wageBase": 27000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 the Department of Labor publishes a new employer rate of 1.9% and a taxable wage base of $27,000, up from $26,100. Read the 1.9% as a floor rather than the whole bill. The same reforms set a fund solvency rate, called the fund balance tax rate in the employer guide, at 1.0% for 2026, and the guide says that rate is added to the charged rate of all employers to obtain the contribution rate, which is why the published minimum and maximum contribution rates for 2026 are 1.1% and 9.9% rather than 0.1% and 8.9%. The Department does not state anywhere we could find whether a newly liable employer's 1.9% already includes that 1.0% or has it added on top, so plan for up to 2.9% until your first rate notice arrives. Two Connecticut specifics matter more than the rate. You become liable once you pay $1,500 of wages in any calendar quarter, or employ at least one person for part of a day in each of twenty different weeks, in the current or preceding year, and liability then reaches back to the first day of the year or of business. And Connecticut does not recognise professional employer organisations for unemployment tax: it is a client reporting state, so wages of workers a PEO supplies you are reported under your own name, number and rate, not the PEO's. Both the rate and the wage base are reset every January, and the wage base is now indexed rather than fixed.", "source": "https://portal.ct.gov/dol/-/media/dol/2022-new-design-system/about/divisions/unemployment-insurance-tax/updated-employer-guide-april-23-2026.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Connecticut Workers' Compensation Commission", "url": "https://portal.ct.gov/wcc/knowledge-base/articles/employers/workers-compensation-insurance", "note": "There is no free headcount. The Workers Compensation Act defines an employer as any person or entity using the services of one or more employees for pay, so coverage is required from the first person you pay. The statutory exclusions are narrow and specific: work of a casual nature outside the employer's trade or business, a family member living in the employer's house, domestic service in a private dwelling for not more than twenty-six hours a week, and a corporate officer who elects out in writing to both the employer and the administrative law judge. Sole proprietors, partners and LLC members are outside the Act for themselves but must cover anyone else. The penalty for going without is assessed by an administrative law judge after a hearing: not less than $500 per employee or $5,000, whichever is less, and up to $50,000, plus a further $100 for every day of continued noncompliance, with an aggregate cap of $50,000. Unpaid penalties can be doubled by civil action after ninety days.", "source": "https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_568.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date of hire, which is the first day compensated services are performed", "agency": "Connecticut Department of Labor", "url": "https://business.ct.gov/knowledge-base/articles/new-hire-reporting", "note": "Connecticut folds new hire reporting into a form you already have to collect: you report by sending the employee's completed Form CT-W4 to the Department of Labor within 20 days of the date of hire. Employers who file by secure FTP report on a shorter 14 day cycle. Someone returning to your payroll after a separation of 60 days or more counts as a new hire. The catch for anyone using contractors is that Public Act 03-89 treats an independent contractor as an employee for this purpose: you must report a 1099 worker whose services are valued at $5,000 or more and who is not itself registered with the Department of Labor for unemployment tax or an employee of a registered employer.", "source": "https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/drs/publications/pubsip/2026/ip-2026-1.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 1, "employeeContributionRate": 0.005, "employerContributionRate": 0, "year": "2026", "agency": "Connecticut Paid Leave Authority", "url": "https://www.ctpaidleave.org/how-ct-paid-leave-works/contributions", "note": "CT Paid Leave is funded entirely by workers, so the employer rate is genuinely zero, but you are the one legally required to take the deduction, register with the Authority and remit. The Board held the rate at 0.5% for 2026, which is also the statutory ceiling: the law caps the contribution at one half of one per cent and stops it at the Social Security contribution and benefit base, $184,500 for 2026, giving a maximum of $922.50 per employee for the year. Almost every employer with one or more employees in Connecticut is covered, with no small employer exemption, and a private plan can be substituted only with approval. Contributions are remitted quarterly; the Authority does not charge penalties or interest if payment arrives by the last day of the month following the quarter, after which it can charge the greater of 10% of the amount owed or $50, plus 1% non-compounding monthly interest. Note that Connecticut has no separate state temporary disability insurance scheme of the New York or New Jersey kind: this single programme is the whole of the state paid leave cost. The Authority may revise the rate each 1 November for the following January, so re-check it every autumn.", "source": "https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_557.htm", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Connecticut Department of Revenue Services", "url": "https://portal.ct.gov/drs/sales-tax/tax-information", "fee": 100, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before making any sales, including a single day of selling at a fair, flea market, craft show or trade show in Connecticut", "note": "Connecticut is one of the few states that charges for the permit: $100 to register to collect sales and use tax, payable when you file the registration. After that the Sales and Use Tax Permit expires every two years and is renewed and posted to you at no cost as long as the account is active and in good standing with no outstanding returns or liabilities. Operating without one is expensive and is both a civil and a criminal matter: a civil penalty of $250 for the first day and $100 for each day after, and a fine of up to $500 or up to three months imprisonment for each offence. DRS publishes no bond or security deposit requirement for a sales tax registrant, so none is recorded here. Closing down is a positive act: you close the account in myconneCT, file returns through the date of closure, and destroy the permit.", "source": "https://portal.ct.gov/drs/sales-tax/other-helpful-information", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Connecticut has required marketplace facilitators to collect and remit on the sales they facilitate since 1 December 2018. A facilitator is anyone who facilitated at least $250,000 of retail sales in the prior twelve months through a forum, collects the money and takes a fee, whether it sits inside or outside Connecticut. The rule that catches sellers here is the opposite of the comfortable one: your marketplace sales still count toward your own registration threshold, so a seller entirely covered by Amazon or Etsy collection can still be required to register. If you do register but sell only through facilitators, tick the marketplace-only box on Form REG-1 and DRS puts you on an annual filing frequency. You still report the sales, as gross receipts with the facilitated portion deducted on the same line as a sale for resale, and you protect yourself either by a contract that says the facilitator will collect, or by requesting Form DRS-055, Certificate of Collection, from it. Be careful with the guidance document itself: OCG-8 is still written around the pre-July 2019 threshold of 200 sales and $250,000, which the statute has since lowered.", "source": "https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/DRS/Publications/OCG/OCG-8.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Connecticut publishes no trailing nexus policy as such, but the statute builds one into the definition of a retailer. An out-of-state seller is a retailer if it had at least $100,000 of gross receipts and made 200 or more retail sales into Connecticut during the twelve-month period ended on the 30 September immediately before the monthly or quarterly period being tested. The test is therefore taken once a year against a fixed window, not continuously: cross the line in the year to 30 September and you collect through the following year regardless of what happens to your sales, and you only fall out at the next 30 September measurement. Falling below the line does not close anything either. The permit stays live and returns stay due until you close the account in myconneCT, so treat deregistration as a separate decision from the threshold test. Note that the current $100,000 and 200 sales figures come from the statute; several DRS guidance pages still carry the higher $250,000 figure that applied before July 2019.", "source": "https://www.cga.ct.gov/current/pub/chap_219.htm", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Connecticut has no general gross receipts tax in the mould of Washington's business and occupation tax or Ohio's commercial activity tax, and the $250 biennial business entity tax that used to catch every LLC was repealed for periods beginning after 2019. What replaces it is the corporation business tax, charged at 7.5% on net income with a minimum tax of $250, a capital base component being phased out, and a 10% surtax on companies with $100 million or more of total income or that file as part of a combined unitary group, which the legislature has extended through the income year beginning in 2028. Two narrower gross earnings taxes do exist and are easy to walk into because they appear on the same DRS registration form as sales tax: the petroleum products gross earnings tax at 8.1% of gross earnings from the first sale of petroleum products in Connecticut, which reaches distributors and importers rather than only refiners, and the utility companies tax on gas and electric companies. A trucking business should also look at the separate highway use fee.", "source": "https://portal.ct.gov/drs/corporation-tax/tax-information", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Connecticut Secretary of the State, Business Services Division", "url": "https://business.ct.gov/knowledge-base/articles/foreign-limited-liability-companies-forms-and-fees", "feeLLC": 120, "feeCorp": 385, "feeNote": "A foreign LLC files a Foreign Registration Statement for $120. A foreign stock corporation files an Application for Certificate of Authority for $385, which the form itself says includes a $285 license fee; a foreign nonstock corporation pays $40 for the same filing.", "note": "Connecticut sets no deadline in days. The rule is simply that a foreign LLC may not transact business in the state until it registers, and the sanction is procedural rather than financial: an unregistered foreign LLC cannot maintain an action or proceeding in a Connecticut court until it registers, it is deemed to have appointed the Secretary of the State as its agent for service, and the Attorney General can seek an injunction. There is no per-day fine in the LLC act. The real money is in the years after, and it is lopsided by entity type: a foreign LLC's annual report is $80, but a foreign stock corporation's is $435, far above what most states charge and above Connecticut's own domestic rate. Getting out costs $120 for an LLC certificate of withdrawal and nothing for a corporation. Registering with the Secretary of the State is a separate step from your DRS, Department of Labor and CT Paid Leave accounts and registers you for no tax at all.", "source": "https://business.ct.gov/knowledge-base/articles/foreign-stock-corporations-forms-and-fees", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "kentucky": { "state": "Kentucky", "abbr": "KY", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Kentucky Department of Revenue", "Kentucky Office of Unemployment Insurance (Education and Labor Cabinet)", "Kentucky Department of Workers' Claims (Education and Labor Cabinet)", "Kentucky Office of the Attorney General (new hire reporting)", "Kentucky Secretary of State", "Each city, county, school district or special district that levies an occupational licence tax" ], "note": "Kentucky has no single payroll account, and the count of registrations is higher here than almost anywhere else. One Tax Registration Application, Form 10A100 filed through MyTaxes.ky.gov, opens your withholding account together with sales and use tax, corporation income tax and the limited liability entity tax, so that part really is one form. Unemployment insurance is a separate registration in KUIP, the portal that replaced the old KEWES system in summer 2026. Workers compensation is not a state registration at all: you buy a policy from a carrier and the carrier files proof for you. New hire reports go to the Attorney General. On top of all of that sit the local occupational licence taxes, each of which is its own registration with its own city or county." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Kentucky Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.ky.gov/Business/Pages/Employer-Payroll-Withholding.aspx", "registerWhen": "Before you pay a Kentucky employee's first wages. Kentucky publishes no day-count deadline for opening the withholding account, and paper applications take up to three weeks to process, so register ahead of your first payroll rather than after it", "note": "Kentucky withholds at a flat 3.5% for 2026, down from 4% in 2025, and an employee is anyone you pay wages to, including part-time help, family members and corporate officers who take compensation. Residents of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin who work in Kentucky can be taken out of Kentucky withholding by filing Form 42A809 with you, with two catches: the Virginia exemption only works for a daily commuter, and the Ohio exemption does not cover a 20% or greater S corporation shareholder-employee. The real trap is the layer underneath the state. Kentucky cities, counties, school districts and special districts levy their own occupational licence taxes on wages earned for work performed in the jurisdiction, and the Secretary of State's statutory database at web.sos.ky.gov/occupationaltax lists 227 such tax districts. None of it runs through your state account: you register, withhold and file separately with each one. Rate ceilings are set by county size and cities have none at all, so counties of 30,000 or more are capped at 1% and Jefferson County at 1.25%, while a city can levy whatever its ordinance says. Districts overlap and stack, which is how Louisville Metro reaches 2.2% for a resident and 1.45% for a non-resident and Lexington-Fayette charges 2.25%. Two things routinely catch out-of-state employers: the state reciprocity agreements above are agreements about the Kentucky income tax only and do nothing to the local fee, so an Indiana resident working in Louisville still pays Louisville; and there is no standard statewide payroll form, because the Secretary of State's standard forms cover only the business's own net profits return. A standard payroll return is now mandated but does not exist yet, so budget for each district's own form today.", "source": "https://revenue.ky.gov/Business/Pages/Employer-Payroll-Withholding.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Kentucky Office of Unemployment Insurance, Education and Labor Cabinet", "url": "https://ui.ky.gov/", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 12000, "year": "2026", "note": "A new employer pays 2.7% on the first $12,000 each worker earns in 2026, which the agency's own worked example puts at no more than $324 per covered employee for the year. You cannot rate below 2.7% until you have accrued three years of Kentucky experience, though you can rate above it, and rate notices go out each December for the following year. Contract construction is the exception and it is an expensive one: a new construction employer is assigned the highest rate on the schedule in force, which is 9.0% under Schedule A for 2026, and stays there until it has employed workers in Kentucky for at least 12 consecutive calendar quarters. You become liable once you pay $1,500 in gross wages in a single calendar quarter or have at least one worker in any part of 20 different weeks in a year, and if you already have federal or out-of-state unemployment liability you are automatically liable for any Kentucky employment from day one. Two dated changes: the $12,000 wage base is now at its statutory ceiling under KRS 341.030(7)(a), so it cannot rise again without legislation, and the SCUF surcharge is 0% for 2026 but returns on 1 January 2027 at 0.0115%, carved out of your rate rather than added to it.", "source": "https://ui.ky.gov/Documents/KY-OUI_Employer%20Guide_2026.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "any employer, other than one engaged solely in agriculture, with one or more employees in Kentucky, so coverage begins with your first hire", "out-of-state employers performing work in Kentucky, who need a policy that actually provides Kentucky coverage rather than an all states endorsement", "counts that reach one only by including family members, temporary workers or part-time workers, all of whom the Department treats as employees" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no headcount waiver. The statute exempts particular classes of worker rather than small employers: agricultural workers, domestic servants where fewer than two are regularly employed 40 or more hours a week, someone doing up to 20 consecutive work days of maintenance or remodelling, workers paid only in aid or sustenance by a religious or charitable body, and people covered by a federal liability scheme. KRS 342.650(6) also lets an individual who would otherwise be covered elect out under regulations set by the commissioner; the specific election form and eligibility rules live in the Department's regulations and were not read for this record. Separately, KRS 342.420 forbids deducting the premium from anyone's wages, and KRS 342.610(6) requires a posting notice at every location where employees report for payroll.", "agency": "Kentucky Department of Workers' Claims, Education and Labor Cabinet", "url": "https://elc.ky.gov/Workers-Compensation/Pages/Employer-Frequently-Asked-Questions.aspx", "note": "Kentucky is a first-employee state and the definition of employee is deliberately wide: the Department says family members, temporary workers and part-time workers all count. You cannot satisfy this from your home state's policy. Because Kentucky requires a policy to cover the employer's entire Kentucky liability, an all states endorsement does not qualify and an out-of-state employer sending anyone in to work needs Kentucky coverage written on the policy. There is no state fund and no state registration step: you buy from any carrier authorised to write workers compensation in Kentucky, and the carrier files evidence of coverage with the Department within ten days of issuing the policy. Self-insuring is not a realistic escape for a small employer, since one of the criteria is assets exceeding liabilities by $10,000,000. Going without is the expensive option: $100 to $1,000 per employee per day uninsured, reimbursement of anything the Uninsured Employers' Fund pays out, and loss of the exclusive remedy protection, which means the injured worker can sue you in court for pain and suffering and punitive damages.", "source": "https://elc.ky.gov/Workers-Compensation/Pages/Employer-Frequently-Asked-Questions.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the hiring or return to work of the employee", "agency": "Kentucky Office of the Attorney General", "url": "https://ky-newhire.com/", "note": "Twenty days from hire, and the clock restarts for a rehire: the statute covers anyone you bring back after a layoff, furlough, separation, unpaid leave or termination, not just genuinely new faces. The reach is wider than most states in one direction and narrower in another. Wider, because it captures an employee who resides or works in Kentucky, so a Kentucky resident you hire to work elsewhere is reportable; narrower, because unlike Virginia the statute says nothing about independent contractors, so 1099 workers are not covered. Sending a copy of the employee's W-4 satisfies the requirement. One thing to watch when you search for guidance: the statute directs the report to the Office of the Attorney General, but older Kentucky new hire forms still name the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the state's business portal calls it the Kentucky New Hire Reporting Center. Believe the statute; the reporting portal is the same one either way. The penalty for a conspiracy between employer and employee to avoid reporting is $250 per calendar month.", "source": "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=54384", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Kentucky has no state disability insurance and no state paid family and medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of this kind and no extra account to open. The Kentucky Tax Registration Application enumerates every state tax account a Kentucky business can register for and there is no disability or paid leave line among them. If you are moving payroll from California, New Jersey or Delaware this is one deduction you can drop, and unlike Virginia there is no enacted programme with a future start date waiting for you either.", "source": "https://revenue.ky.gov/Forms/10A100(P)(4-25)_FINAL_locked%20Fill-in.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Kentucky Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.ky.gov/Business/Sales-Use-Tax/Pages/default.aspx", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": "Kentucky can demand security but, unlike California and Texas, it is capped by statute: no more than twice the estimated average liability of a quarterly filer or three times that of a monthly filer, rising to three and five times respectively for a habitually delinquent taxpayer.", "registerBy": "Before you engage in business as a retailer or seller in Kentucky. A remote retailer that crosses the economic nexus threshold must register and start collecting no later than the first day of the calendar month that falls at most 60 days after the threshold is reached", "note": "Kentucky's sales and use tax is 6% and the permit is issued for each place of business. No fee is published here. The permit is almost certainly free, because neither KRS 139.240 nor KRS 139.250 imposes a charge and the Tax Registration Application asks for no payment, but that is the absence of a fee provision rather than a statement that the permit is free, and no Department page says so. A confirmed zero and an unknown render the same way, so this stays blank rather than assert a figure. The important thing to get right in 2026 is the registration trigger, because the Department's own explainer page is behind the law. That page still describes the remote seller test as 200 or more sales or $100,000 in gross receipts. The statute no longer says that: 2026 Ky. Acts ch. 161, effective 1 August 2026, struck the 200-transaction test out of KRS 139.340(2)(g), leaving a single $100,000 gross receipts test measured over the previous or current calendar year. Believe the statute. In practice this only relaxes the rule, so a seller with many small Kentucky orders that never reach $100,000 no longer has to register, but do not let the stale page talk you into registering when you need not, and do not rely on a transaction count you read on a state page as a reason you are safe. The 60-day clock is generous compared with the 30 days some states give.", "source": "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=58190", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The platform, not you, registers and collects on sales it facilitates into Kentucky once its combined facilitated and own sales exceed $100,000, and the statute expressly relieves the marketplace retailer of all liability for collecting and remitting on those sales. The same August 2026 amendment removed the 200-transaction alternative here too, so the marketplace test is now $100,000 only. The trap is mixed channels. Sales through your own website are still yours, and if those direct sales alone cross $100,000 you must register and collect on them while the platform keeps handling its own. Note also that your marketplace sales still count toward your own remote retailer threshold under KRS 139.340(2)(g), which expressly includes retail sales facilitated by a marketplace provider on your behalf, so a strong Amazon year can push you over the line even though Amazon is the one remitting.", "source": "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=58184", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Kentucky publishes no trailing nexus rule and no procedure for a remote retailer to stop collecting, so this is recorded as unknown rather than guessed. The statute does carry a tail of its own: the test is met if receipts exceed $100,000 in the previous calendar year or the current one, so a year in which you cross obliges you to keep collecting through the following calendar year even if that year's Kentucky sales collapse. When you genuinely are done, the mechanism is to cancel the account through MyTaxes.ky.gov or Form 10A104 rather than simply stopping your filings, because an open account keeps generating return obligations. Ask the Department before you go quiet.", "source": "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=58190", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Limited Liability Entity Tax (LLET), plus local occupational licence taxes on net profits levied by cities and counties", "agency": "Kentucky Department of Revenue for the LLET; individual cities, counties, school districts and special districts for the local net profits tax", "url": "https://revenue.ky.gov/Business/Corporation-Income-and-Limited-Liability-Entity-Tax/Pages/default.aspx", "rateRange": "LLET is the greater of $175 or the lesser of 0.095% of Kentucky gross receipts and 0.75% of Kentucky gross profits, with a sliding reduction between $3 million and $6 million of receipts or profits from all sources", "exclusionThreshold": 3000000, "note": "Every corporation and every limited liability pass-through entity doing business in Kentucky owes the LLET, whatever its profit. If receipts or profits from all sources are $3 million or less you pay the $175 minimum and nothing more, which makes this a nuisance rather than a burden for a small employer, but you owe the $175 in a loss year too and no tax credit can reduce it below that floor. What decides whether you owe it is nexus, and Kentucky's nexus regulation is broad: performing services in Kentucky is doing business, whether you do it yourself or direct a third party to do it, and the federal Public Law 86-272 shield only ever covered solicitation of orders for tangible goods, never services. So one Kentucky employee doing real work usually creates both an LLET and a corporation income tax filing obligation. Underneath the state tax sits a second, separate layer that catches people expanding into Kentucky: cities and counties levy their own occupational licence tax on the net profits of the business, apportioned to the jurisdiction, in addition to the payroll fee they take from your employees. Rates are capped for counties, at 1% for counties of 30,000 or more and 1.25% for Jefferson County, but cities have no statutory ceiling, and you owe separately in each district where you do business. The Secretary of State prescribes standard forms for this return, OL-S for a single district and OL-D for two, but KRS 67.767(7) is explicit that the standard form changes nothing about a district's own deadlines, rates or procedures.", "source": "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=57941", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Kentucky Secretary of State", "url": "https://www.sos.ky.gov/bus/business-filings/Pages/fees.aspx", "feeLLC": 90, "feeCorp": 90, "feeNote": "Kentucky charges one flat $90 application for a certificate of authority and does not split it by entity type: the fee schedule lists foreign corporations and foreign limited liability companies together at $90, and a foreign limited partnership or business trust pays the same. The organisation tax that scales with authorised shares under KRS 136.060 attaches to forming a domestic profit corporation in Kentucky, not to a foreign entity qualifying, so unlike Virginia or Delaware a large share count does not inflate the bill. Budget $15 a year afterwards for the annual report.", "note": "Foreign qualification means registering an entity you already formed elsewhere so it can legally transact business in Kentucky, and it is a different filing from forming a Kentucky entity. The statute lists what does not count as transacting business, including maintaining bank accounts, selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that require acceptance outside the state, owning property without more, and an isolated transaction completed within 30 days. Hiring an employee to perform work in Kentucky is not on that list. If you transact business without a certificate you cannot bring or maintain a proceeding in any Kentucky court until you obtain one, and you accrue a civil penalty of $2 for each day you go without. The subtlety worth knowing is that KRS 14A.9-010(5) says this test does not decide whether Kentucky can tax you, so qualifying and being taxable are two independent questions and answering one does not answer the other.", "source": "https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/statute.aspx?id=44318", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "rhode-island": { "state": "Rhode Island", "abbr": "RI", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales and use tax permit to make sales at retail", "unemployment insurance, temporary disability insurance and job development fund" ], "note": "One form does most of the work. The Business Application and Registration, the BAR, filed online at ri.gov/taxation/BAR, opens your Division of Taxation accounts for income tax withholding and the permit to make sales at retail, and at the same time opens your Department of Labor and Training account for unemployment insurance, temporary disability insurance and the job development fund. That is unusually tidy for a state that splits payroll between two departments, and it is the reason a Rhode Island employer does not have to file separately with the Department of Labor and Training. Two things are not in it. Workers compensation is not a state account at all, it is a policy you buy from a private insurer or an approved self insurance arrangement. And registering an out-of-state entity with the Department of State is a separate filing that registers you for no tax whatsoever, so a certificate of registration or certificate of authority is never the end of the job. Note also that your Rhode Island withholding identification number is simply your federal employer identification number, so there is no separate withholding number to chase." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Rhode Island Division of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.ri.gov/tax-sections/withholding-tax", "registerWhen": "Before your first Rhode Island payroll, through the Business Application and Registration; the employer identification number used for Rhode Island withholding is the federal EIN already issued to you", "note": "The test in the 2026 employer booklet has two limbs that both have to be true: the wages are subject to federal income tax withholding, and any part of the wages is for services performed in Rhode Island. Residency of the worker is not the trigger, so a Rhode Island employer withholds from a resident of another state to the extent that person is paid for Rhode Island employment. The reverse case, an employer in another state with a Rhode Island worker, is described by the Division as convenience withholding, something you may do for the employee rather than something the booklet compels, and the Division asks you to contact it about the arrangement. Do not treat a federal Form W-4 as sufficient: since 1 January 2020 Rhode Island requires its own Form RI W-4 and the employer must keep it on file. Supplemental wages such as bonuses and commissions are withheld at 5.99%. Your filing frequency follows the size of the withholding, not the size of the business: $600 or more in a calendar month puts you on weekly returns due the Monday after payday and paid electronically, $50 to $599 puts you on monthly Form WTM with quarterly Form RI-941 in March, June, September and December, and under $50 puts you on quarterly Form RI-941 alone. Electronic filing becomes mandatory once average monthly withholding for the prior year reaches $200, or the entity owes $5,000 across all Division taxes, or its gross income passes $100,000. Form RI W-3 reconciles the year by 31 January.", "source": "https://tax.ri.gov/sites/g/files/xkgbur541/files/2025-12/2026%20Withholding%20Tax%20Booklet.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, Employer Tax Unit", "url": "https://dlt.ri.gov/press-releases/2026-tax-rates-unemployment-insurance-and-temporary-disability-insurance", "newEmployerRate": 0.0121, "wageBase": 30800, "year": "2026", "note": "Two Department of Labor and Training documents describe the 2026 new employer rate differently and they reconcile rather than conflict. The rate announcement says the new employer rate is 1.21% for calendar year 2026. The Department's own 2026 UI and TDI Quick Reference sheet says the new employer rate is 1.00% not including the 0.21% job development assessment. Add the two components and you get the 1.21% headline, which is what is recorded here because it is the whole employer cost. The same arithmetic runs through the schedule: Rhode Island is on Tax Schedule F for 2026 with published rates of 0.90% to 9.40%, of which the employment security portion is 0.69% to 9.19% and the job development assessment is a flat 0.21% on top. The taxable wage base is $30,800 for most employers, but an employer sitting at the highest tax rate pays on a base set $1,500 higher, $32,300, which is a quiet penalty most states do not have. Liability is unusually early here. There is no dollar threshold for ordinary employment: the statutory definition of employer catches an employing unit that has one or more individuals in employment for some portion of a day in a calendar year, and the Department treats your liability date as the first date wages were paid in Rhode Island. Only domestic service has a threshold, $1,000 of cash wages in a calendar quarter. Quarterly tax and wage reports are due 31 January, 30 April, 31 July and 31 October, and your experience rate notice arrives by 1 April. Both the rate and the wage base are reset every January, so re-check before the first payroll of the year.", "source": "https://dlt.ri.gov/media/13506/download?language=en", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, Division of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://dlt.ri.gov/workers-compensation/employers", "note": "There is no free headcount. The Department states that employers with one or more employees must carry coverage, and the statute backs that up: the act applies to every person, firm and private corporation that regularly employs employees, and neither the definition section nor the application section carries an exemption keyed to number of employees or size of payroll. The exclusions are about who counts as an employee rather than how many there are. Individual owners, sole proprietors and general or limited partners are outside the act for themselves, though they must still cover anyone they employ. Corporate officers are the trap: an officer who was already an employee is covered by default, and getting out means filing form DWC-11, the Notice of Claim of Common Law Rights. Filing it is not free of consequence, because the Department warns that an officer who waives coverage also loses payment by their health plan for medical bills arising from a work injury, in exchange for the right to sue the employer at common law. Going uninsured is expensive and can be criminal: up to $1,000 for each day without coverage, plus felony exposure carrying up to $10,000 in fines and two years imprisonment, and the Director can close the business. Two smaller penalties catch people who do have a policy: $250 for failing to display the poster naming your insurer or adjusting company, and $250 for failing to report an injury to your carrier.", "source": "https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE28/28-29/28-29-6.HTM", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 14, "deadline": "within 14 days of the hire or rehire when reporting on a W-4 or its equivalent; employers reporting electronically or magnetically instead send two transmissions a month, not less than 12 and not more than 16 days apart", "agency": "Rhode Island Office of Child Support Services, Rhode Island State Directory of New Hires", "url": "https://ocss.ri.gov/employer-info/new-hire-reporting", "note": "Fourteen days is tighter than the twenty most neighbouring states allow, so a new employer moving into Rhode Island from Connecticut or New Jersey should reset the calendar rather than assume. The programme is run by the Office of Child Support Services, not the Department of Labor and Training, which is the first place people look. Reportable people are employees in the ordinary sense, a natural person performing labour in the state for compensation from which taxes are withheld, and both new hires and rehires count. Independent contractors are the notable difference from several other states: the Office of Child Support Services says that if the work is being performed under a specific contract you are not required to report it, so Rhode Island does not sweep 1099 workers in the way Connecticut and New Jersey do. Penalties are small but real, $20 for each violation, rising to $500 where it is shown that the employee and the employer conspired over the report. The report needs the employer name, address and federal identification number, the employee name, address and social security number, whether dependent health coverage is available and when the employee qualifies for it, and the address for income withholding orders and garnishments.", "source": "https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE15/15-24/15-24-5.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 1, "employeeContributionRate": 0.011, "employerContributionRate": 0, "year": "2026", "agency": "Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, Employer Tax Unit", "url": "https://dlt.ri.gov/individuals/temporary-disability-caregiver-insurance/employers", "note": "Rhode Island runs the oldest state disability programme in the country and it is financed entirely by payroll deductions from workers, so the employer contribution is genuinely zero rather than unknown. What the employer owes is the mechanics: you deduct the tax when wages are paid and remit it quarterly to the Employer Tax Unit alongside unemployment insurance and the job development fund, on the same account the Business Application and Registration opened. If you fail to deduct properly the Department's guidance is blunt, the employer alone becomes liable for those contributions afterwards, so this is not a deduction to leave until the quarter closes. For 2026 the rate is 1.1% on the first $100,000 of a worker's earnings, a maximum of $1,100 for the year. Read that pair of numbers together rather than separately: the rate fell from 1.3% in 2025 but the taxable wage base jumped 12.5%, from $89,200 to $100,000, so a high earner's contribution barely moves while a middle earner's falls. Temporary Caregiver Insurance is not a separate programme or a separate tax, it is the family leave arm of the same TDI fund, and for 2026 it runs up to 8 weeks against TDI's 30. The job protection differs sharply between the two: Rhode Island law does not generally require you to hold a job open for someone on TDI, but for TCI you may not take adverse action against the employee and must restore them to the position or a comparable one with equivalent seniority, status, benefits and pay, with 30 days written notice from the employee where the leave is foreseeable. You must display the Notice to All Employees poster. Both the rate and the wage base are reset each January. We found no primary Department page describing a private plan substitution of the New Jersey or New York kind, so do not assume one exists.", "source": "https://dlt.ri.gov/media/13506/download?language=en", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Rhode Island Division of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.ri.gov/tax-sections/sales-excise-taxes/sales-use-tax", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before you begin making retail sales in Rhode Island; there is no minimum sales volume, and each place of business needs its own permit", "note": "The permit is free, and this is a confirmed zero rather than a blank. The statute now says in terms that there shall be no fee for this permit, and the Division's 2021 notice explains why: legislation passed that year removed the ten dollar application and renewal fee for every permit period beginning on or after 1 July 2022. Free does not mean set and forget. The permit runs from 1 July to 30 June and must be renewed every year, with the renewal application due on or before 1 February, and the Division only mails renewed permits to holders who filed on time and are not delinquent on any Rhode Island tax. Older pages and vendor summaries still quote the $10 fee, so believe the statute and the notice. The Division publishes no bond or security deposit requirement for a sales permit, so none is recorded here. If you have more than one location, each one needs its own permit.", "source": "https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE44/44-19/44-19-1.HTM", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Rhode Island puts the duty squarely on the platform. The statute says a marketplace facilitator shall collect sales and use tax on all sales made through the marketplace to purchasers in this state, whether or not the marketplace seller has or is required to have a permit to make sales at retail, and whether or not that seller would itself have had to collect had the sale not gone through the facilitator. So if every Rhode Island sale you make goes through Amazon or Etsy, the platform collects. The law also reaches referrers, sites that pass a customer on for a commission rather than processing the sale, which is a wider net than most states cast. The collection duty took effect on 1 July 2019. One caution about the Division's own remote sellers page: it still frames the threshold around calendar year 2018 performance, which was the original transition wording, so use the statute for the live test.", "source": "https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE44/44-18.2/44-18.2-3.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Rhode Island publishes no trailing nexus policy under that name, but the statute builds one in by measuring against a closed year. A remote seller must register and collect if, in the immediately preceding calendar year, it had $100,000 or more of gross revenue from sales into the state or made 200 or more separate transactions into it. Because the test looks backwards at a whole calendar year, crossing the line in one year obliges you to collect through the whole of the next regardless of what your sales do in the meantime, and you only fall out at the following January's measurement. Falling below the threshold also does nothing to the permit itself: it stays live, renewals stay due each 1 February and returns stay due, until you close the account with the Division. Treat deregistration as a separate decision from the threshold test.", "source": "https://webserver.rilegislature.gov/Statutes/TITLE44/44-18.2/44-18.2-3.htm", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Rhode Island has no general gross receipts tax, so there is nothing here resembling Washington's business and occupation tax, Ohio's commercial activity tax or Oregon's corporate activity tax. Business profit is reached through the business corporation tax instead, at 7% of net income apportioned to Rhode Island. The number that actually matters to a small out-of-state business is the floor rather than the rate: the tax is 7% of apportioned net income or a minimum of $400, whichever yields the greater tax, and the Department of State tells foreign registrants plainly that every registered for-profit entity, corporation, limited liability company or limited partnership, owes at least that $400 a year to the Division of Taxation whether or not it conducted business or made a profit. So the real annual cost of being registered in Rhode Island is the $400 minimum tax plus the $50 annual report, not the $150 or $310 you paid to get in. Pass-through entities have their own trap: a partnership or non-corporate LLC must withhold on income allocated to nonresident members, at the highest individual rate, or 7% where the member is a corporation.", "source": "https://tax.ri.gov/resources/businesses/corporate", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Rhode Island Department of State, Business Services Division", "url": "https://www.sos.ri.gov/divisions/business-services/foreign-business/business-basics/costs-and-fees", "feeLLC": 150, "feeCorp": 310, "feeNote": "A foreign LLC files Form 450, Application for Registration, for a flat $150. A foreign business corporation files Form 150, Application for Certificate of Authority, and the form states $310.00 minimum: the fee is a floor, not a price, because a licence fee under the general laws is computed from a worksheet that apportions the corporation's property and its gross business to Rhode Island, so a corporation with substantial activity here pays more than $310. A foreign limited partnership is $100 and a foreign limited liability partnership is $150. Add $50 if your name is unavailable in Rhode Island and you must file a fictitious business name statement with the application.", "note": "Rhode Island sets no deadline in days for qualifying, but two practical constraints bite. Your application must be accompanied by a certificate of good standing or letter of status from your home state dated within 60 days of filing, so the paperwork has a shelf life and you cannot sit on it. And you must appoint a resident agent with a real Rhode Island street address, never a post office box, with the Department of State standing in as agent for service if that agent cannot be found. Ongoing cost is where Rhode Island is more expensive than it looks: an annual report is due each year between 1 February and 1 May and costs $50 for both an LLC and a corporation, missing it starts revocation proceedings, and every registered for-profit entity separately owes the $400 minimum tax to the Division of Taxation even in a year with no Rhode Island activity. Registering with the Department of State registers you for no tax at all, so the Business Application and Registration with the Division of Taxation and the Department of Labor and Training is still ahead of you. Professional practices have extra gates: engineering, medicine, land surveying, architecture, landscape architecture and accountancy each require evidence of licensure or application at the time of filing.", "source": "https://docs.sos.ri.gov/documents/BusinessServices/150-certificate-of-authority.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "iowa": { "state": "Iowa", "abbr": "IA", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Iowa Department of Revenue", "Iowa Workforce Development, Unemployment Insurance Tax Bureau", "Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, Centralized Employee Registry", "Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing, Workers' Compensation Division", "Iowa Secretary of State, Business Services" ], "note": "Iowa gives you no single payroll account and no joint application. Income tax withholding is a permit from the Department of Revenue, obtained through GovConnectIowa. Unemployment insurance is a separate account from Iowa Workforce Development, obtained through a different system called myIowaUI, and the two systems do not talk to each other. New hire reporting goes to a third agency, the Centralized Employee Registry at Health and Human Services. Workers compensation is a fourth thing again: Iowa has no state fund and no registration step, so you buy a policy from a private carrier and the Workers' Compensation Division verifies coverage through a National Council on Compensation Insurance database rather than through anything you file. Budget for two portals, two account numbers and one insurance policy. There is a fifth step that only applies to one trade and catches out-of-state firms hard. Anyone earning $2,000 a year or more from construction work in Iowa, including every subcontractor separately, must register with the Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing under Iowa Code chapter 91C, renew every year, and pay $50. Registration is conditioned on already holding an Iowa unemployment insurance number, which the department requires even of a contractor with no employees at all, and a contractor whose principal place of business is outside Iowa must additionally file a $25,000 surety bond on the department's own form. A branch office in Iowa does not make you an in-state contractor if the business is primarily based elsewhere. First violation is a $500 citation and a repeat is up to $5,000." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Iowa Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/withholding-tax/iowa-withholding-tax-information", "registerWhen": "before the first Iowa payroll; the Department states that every employer who maintains an office or transacts business in Iowa and is required to withhold federal tax on pay for services performed in Iowa must withhold Iowa tax, and sets no grace period in days, but the separate 15 day deadlines for the IA W-4 and the new hire report make the first pay period the practical limit", "note": "Iowa is now a flat rate state, which makes this simpler than most. The individual rate is 3.8 percent for 2025 and later, and supplemental wages paid separately are withheld at that same 3.8 percent. There is no local income tax on wages, though residents pay school district and emergency medical services surtaxes on their own returns rather than through your payroll. Two things trip up out-of-state employers. First, Iowa's only reciprocal agreement is with Illinois, and the Department says so in those words, so an Illinois resident working in Iowa has no Iowa tax withheld once they hand you Form 44-016, the Employee's Statement of Nonresidence in Iowa, and everybody else has Iowa tax withheld on Iowa work. Nebraska, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota and Wisconsin residents get no relief. Second, every new hire and rehire must complete an Iowa W-4, Form 44-019, within 15 days, and if they do not you must withhold at an allowance amount of zero. The Centralized Employee Registry new hire report is printed on that same form, which is why the two deadlines match. Registering costs nothing: the Department states plainly that its business permits are free of charge.", "source": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/withholding-tax/iowa-withholding-tax-information ; https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/individual-income-tax/iowa-illinois-reciprocal-agreement ; https://revenue.iowa.gov/permits-licensing/business-permit-registration", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Iowa Workforce Development, Unemployment Insurance Tax Bureau", "url": "https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/unemployment-insurance/unemployment-insurance-employer-handbook/unemployment-insurance-taxes", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 20400, "year": "2026", "note": "A new Iowa employer that is not in construction pays 1.000 percent for 2026 on the first $20,400 of each worker's wages. A new construction employer pays 5.400 percent on the same base, which is the top of the table, so the trade you are in changes the cost by more than five times. The wage base is the number to watch, because it did not drift, it collapsed: Senate File 607 cut it from $39,500 in 2025 to $20,400 in 2026, so an Iowa payroll estimate carried over from last year overstates the tax by roughly half. Mechanically, new non-construction employers take the Rank 4 rate from whichever of the four contribution tables is in force but never less than 1.000 percent, and new construction employers take the Rank 9 rate; 2026 runs on Table D, the lowest table allowed by law, and Iowa Workforce Development announced on 2 September 2026 that Table D is triggered again for 2027 with the same 5.4 percent statutory maximum. The 2027 wage base had not been published on the handbook page when this was collected, so it is not recorded here. The liability trigger is as harsh as it gets and there is no federal-style threshold to hide behind: Iowa Code section 96.1A(14)(a) makes you an employer once you pay any wages for covered employment in any calendar quarter of the current or preceding year, and liability is retroactive to the first quarter in which wages were paid. Only agricultural employers ($20,000 in a quarter, or 10 workers in 20 weeks) and domestic employers ($1,000 in a quarter) get a dollar threshold. Iowa Administrative Code rule 871-22.9(1) gives you 30 days from commencing business in the state to register, and once you are liable you file a contribution and payroll report every quarter even in quarters with no employees and nothing due.", "source": "https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/unemployment-insurance/unemployment-insurance-employer-handbook/unemployment-insurance-taxes ; https://workforce.iowa.gov/employers/unemployment-insurance/unemployment-insurance-employer-handbook/employers-covered-under-law ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/96.pdf (section 96.1A(14)) ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/iac/chapter/871.22.pdf (rule 871-22.9) ; https://workforce.iowa.gov/press-release/2026-09-02/iowa-announces-fifth-consecutive-year-lowest-possible-ui-tax-rates-employers", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every employer subject to Iowa Code chapters 85, 85A, 85B and 87, with no headcount trigger of any kind", "part-time, temporary and seasonal employees, from the first day of work", "construction contractors, who must additionally prove coverage annually to keep their chapter 91C registration" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals, and Licensing, Workers' Compensation Division", "url": "https://dial.iowa.gov/hearings/workers-comp/compliance", "note": "Iowa sets no employee count. Section 87.1 requires every covered employer to insure its liability with a carrier approved by the insurance commissioner, and section 87.14A goes further than most states by making it a crime rather than a fine: an employer must not engage in business at all without first obtaining coverage or relief from the requirement, and willfully and knowingly doing so is a class D felony. The only alternative to a policy is relief under section 87.11, which means satisfying the insurance commissioner of your solvency or depositing security, which is out of reach for a small business. There is no state fund, so you buy an ordinary commercial policy and there is nothing to register with the state. The exemptions in section 85.1 are by class of worker, not by size: service in or about a private dwelling and casual employment not for the purpose of the employer's trade or business are both exempt only while the worker earns under $1,500 from you in the preceding twelve months, agricultural employees are exempt unless the employer's cash payroll to non-family workers reached $2,500 in the preceding calendar year, and up to four corporate officers may reject coverage under section 87.22, while proprietors, partners and LLC members may non-elect. Read the statute rather than the agency FAQ on the casual-labour point: the department's public FAQ describes the casual exemption as applying to work in or around the employer's home, but section 85.1(2) contains no such limit and the private dwelling test is a separate subsection. The department also warns that an out-of-state carrier or self-insurer must keep a representative in Iowa who knows Iowa law and can expedite claims, and changes to that contact must be reported within 10 days.", "source": "https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/87.pdf (sections 87.1, 87.11, 87.14A) ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/85.1.pdf ; https://dial.iowa.gov/hearings/workers-comp/compliance ; https://dial.iowa.gov/workers-comp/eligibility", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 15, "deadline": "within 15 calendar days of the hire or rehire; an employer filing electronically may instead transmit in batches not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart", "agency": "Iowa Department of Health and Human Services, Centralized Employee Registry", "url": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/withholding-tax/iowa-withholding-tax-information", "note": "Iowa Code section 252G.3 gives you 15 days, and section 252G.1(6) defines days as calendar days, so unlike Indiana there is no business-day ambiguity to hedge against. Two Iowa specifics matter more than the deadline. First, the definition of a rehire is unusually short: section 252G.1(15) counts a returning worker as a new hire after a termination of only six consecutive weeks, where most states use 60 days, and a temporary layoff or unpaid leave does not restart the clock. Second, Iowa reaches independent contractors, which most states do not. Section 252G.4 requires a payor of income to report a contractor within 15 days of the point where payments to that person exceed the 1099-MISC filing threshold and are made in something other than a single lump sum, though you never file more than one report per contractor. The report itself is the Centralized Employee Registry portion of the Iowa W-4, Form 44-019, so in practice the new hire report and the state W-4 are one piece of paper. Reporting must include the employee's date of birth and whether dependent health coverage is available, which are fields some multistate payroll feeds omit. Enforcement is unusual too: there is no flat per-employee penalty, but a state agency or the attorney general may sue, and a willful failure is punishable as contempt of court. One naming trap in the source material: the Department of Revenue's withholding page still routes the form to the Iowa Department of Human Services, while section 252G.1(7) now defines the department as health and human services after the 2022 agency merger. Same registry, current name.", "source": "https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/252G.pdf (sections 252G.1, 252G.3, 252G.4) ; https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/withholding-tax/iowa-withholding-tax-information", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/general/iowa-taxfee-descriptions-and-rates", "note": "Iowa runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and no third account to open. The Department of Revenue's own catalogue of every Iowa tax and fee lists withholding tax and unemployment taxes as the only two payroll items and contains nothing resembling Minnesota Paid Leave, New Jersey temporary disability or the Delaware programme. Nor is there a statewide paid sick leave mandate, and there will not be a city one either: Iowa Code section 364.3(12) forbids a city from adopting or enforcing any ordinance on a minimum or living wage, any form of employment leave, hiring practices, employment benefits or scheduling practices that exceeds or conflicts with state or federal law, and voided every such ordinance adopted before 30 March 2017. So an employer with staff in Des Moines, Iowa City and Cedar Rapids faces one rule, not three. If you already run payroll in a state with a leave deduction, do not carry it across to an Iowa employee.", "source": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/general/iowa-taxfee-descriptions-and-rates ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/364.3.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Iowa Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/permits-licensing/business-permit-registration", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "Not a condition of registration. Iowa Code section 423.35 lets the director require a retailer to file a surety bond, or deposit approved securities instead, in an amount the director fixes, but only when necessary and advisable to secure collection. No cap is stated in the statute and nothing on the Department's registration pages makes a bond part of an ordinary application. A separate $25,000 bond does apply to out-of-state construction contractors, but that is a licensing requirement under Iowa Code chapter 91C, not a sales tax one.", "registerBy": "before making any taxable retail sale in Iowa; a remote seller that crosses $100,000 in gross revenue from Iowa sales must register and begin collecting on the first day of the next calendar month that starts at least 30 days after the day it crossed", "note": "The Department states on its registration page that its business permits are free of charge, so this is a confirmed zero rather than an unknown. You need a permit for each place of business in Iowa under section 423.36(3), but an out-of-state seller with no Iowa location gets a single permit covering all its sales into the state. The permit does not expire and there is no renewal: it runs until you cancel it or the Department revokes it. Two Iowa quirks are worth budgeting for. There are no temporary or seasonal permits, so a business that only sells at fairs and craft shows still holds the same permanent permit year round. And there is no reinstatement: if your permit is revoked for delinquency you must apply for a brand new one, and section 423.36(6) lets the Department impose a waiting period of up to 90 days before it will issue one, during which you cannot lawfully sell. The state rate is 6 percent with local option sales tax of up to 1 percent on top, so the combined rate varies by jurisdiction and Iowa publishes a lookup. Iowa is a Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement state, so you may register through the Streamlined system instead of directly.", "source": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/permits-licensing/business-permit-registration ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/423.36.pdf ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/423.pdf (section 423.35) ; https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/general/iowa-taxfee-descriptions-and-rates", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Iowa's law has been in force since 1 July 2019 and it is stricter than most in one direction and more generous in another, so read both halves. Stricter: a marketplace facilitator that makes or facilitates $100,000 or more in Iowa sales must collect on every taxable sale through its marketplace regardless of where the underlying seller sits or how small that seller is, and the Department states flatly that Iowa law does not allow a facilitator and a seller to agree between themselves about who collects. Do not go looking in your platform's terms for an arrangement that shifts the duty back to you; Iowa will not honour it. More generous: if a marketplace that collects Iowa tax is your only Iowa channel, you do not need an Iowa sales tax permit and do not file Iowa returns at all, even on $200,000 of sales, because the facilitator reports it. The catch that costs money is the threshold arithmetic. Unlike Indiana, Iowa makes you count facilitated sales toward your own $100,000 test even though the facilitator already taxed them. The Department's worked example has a seller with $400,000 of Iowa sales, $325,000 of it through a marketplace, and concludes the seller must register and collect on the $75,000 of its own website sales, then report $400,000 gross and deduct the $325,000. So a marketplace-heavy seller with a small direct channel can be pulled over the line by revenue it never touched. Marketplace facilitators in Iowa include consignment stores, auctions, and the sponsors of trade shows, flea markets, farmers markets and craft fairs, so a physical event organiser can be one without realising it.", "source": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/sales-use-excise-tax/remote-sellers-marketplace-facilitators ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/423.14A.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Iowa commits you for the rest of the year you crossed the threshold plus the whole of the following calendar year, which in the worst case is nearly two years of returns from a single good quarter. The Department's own example: a seller that first exceeds $100,000 on 15 September 2023 must register, must begin collecting on 1 November 2023, being the first day of the next calendar month starting at least 30 days after it crossed, and must keep collecting through at least 31 December 2024. Whether it collects after that depends on its 2024 volume. Note what the threshold counts, because it is broader than the taxable base: the $100,000 is gross revenue from Iowa sales including exempt sales, wholesale sales, sales for resale, and sales on which a marketplace already collected the tax. Iowa dropped the old 200 transaction test, so volume alone no longer catches you. The permit does not lapse on its own when the period ends. Section 423.36(5) keeps it effective until you cancel it or the Department revokes it, and the Department says a business that stops selling must cancel its permits and file returns through the cancellation date, so the right move on exit is to cancel rather than to go quiet.", "source": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/sales-use-excise-tax/remote-sellers-marketplace-facilitators ; https://revenue.iowa.gov/permits-licensing/business-permit-registration ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/423.36.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/general/iowa-taxfee-descriptions-and-rates", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Iowa has nothing like Washington's B&O, Ohio's CAT or Oregon's CAT. The Department of Revenue publishes a catalogue of every Iowa tax and fee it administers, and no general receipts or business activity tax appears anywhere on it. The word franchise is a false friend here: Iowa's franchise tax is an income tax on financial institutions only, banks, savings and loans and production credit associations, charged at 3.8 percent for 2026 and falling to 3.5 percent for 2027 and later, so an ordinary business never sees it. Corporate income tax for 2026 is 5.5 percent on the first $100,000 and 7.1 percent above that, with a statutory mechanism that ratchets the top rate down toward a flat 5.5 percent in years when net corporate receipts exceed $700 million. There is also no city-level gross receipts or earnings tax of the Missouri or Ohio kind on Iowa businesses. The real Iowa-specific cost of doing business sits outside the tax code entirely, in the chapter 91C construction contractor registration and the $25,000 out-of-state contractor bond described under the employer section.", "source": "https://revenue.iowa.gov/taxes/tax-guidance/general/iowa-taxfee-descriptions-and-rates", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Iowa Secretary of State, Business Services", "url": "https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "Iowa charges $100 either way and nothing scales with authorized shares. The corporation figure is fixed in statute at Iowa Code section 490.122(1)(v), which sets the fee for a foreign registration statement at $100, and the Secretary of State's forms and fees page prints the same $100 for a foreign limited liability company under section 489.903. Foreign limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships are also $100; a foreign nonprofit corporation is $25. An amended foreign registration statement costs another $100 and withdrawal costs $10. Watch the filing channel: the Secretary of State marks the foreign LLC registration statement as filable online through Fast Track Filing but does not mark the profit corporation one, so a corporation may have to file on paper. No online surcharge or discount is published either way. The ongoing cost is the biennial report, which foreign entities file on the same schedule as domestic ones: $60 for a profit corporation in even numbered years, and $30 online or $45 on paper for an LLC in odd numbered years, both due by 1 April.", "note": "Iowa replaced the old certificate of authority with a foreign registration statement, so search for that name rather than the certificate. A foreign corporation must not do business in Iowa until it registers, and both sections 489.903 and 490.1503 require you to attach a certificate of existence from your home state dated no earlier than 90 days before the filing, which is the step that adds a week to the timeline. You also need an Iowa registered agent with a street address in the state. The penalty for skipping it is procedural rather than financial and is worse than it sounds: sections 489.902(2) and 490.1502(2) bar an unregistered foreign company from maintaining any proceeding in an Iowa court until it registers, so you cannot sue an Iowa customer who does not pay. It does not void your contracts, does not stop you defending a suit, and does not pierce the liability shield. Neither statute defines doing business affirmatively; each lists what does not count, and the safe harbours are the familiar ones: selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that require acceptance outside Iowa, holding property, collecting debts, an isolated transaction, and interstate commerce. Employing a person in Iowa is not on that list. Selling into Iowa often is: a remote seller with no Iowa presence can owe sales tax under the $100,000 economic threshold without any Secretary of State filing, because section 489.905(2) says the doing-business safe harbours do not govern taxation. Qualifying opens no tax accounts, so withholding, unemployment insurance, workers compensation and any sales tax permit are all still ahead of you.", "source": "https://sos.iowa.gov/business/formsandfees.html ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/490.122.pdf ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/490.1503.pdf ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/489.903.pdf ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/489.905.pdf ; https://www.legis.iowa.gov/docs/code/490.1502.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "montana": { "state": "Montana", "abbr": "MT", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [], "note": "There is no single Montana business registration. Hiring one person in Montana means four separate sign-ups with four separate logins: a wage withholding account with the Department of Revenue through the TransAction Portal at tap.dor.mt.gov, an unemployment insurance account with the Department of Labor and Industry at uieservices.mt.gov, a workers compensation policy bought from Montana State Fund or a private insurer, and new hire reporting to the Child Support Services Division inside the Department of Public Health and Human Services. Montana also has no statewide general business license, so there is no fifth licence step, and the Secretary of State registration is about your entity rather than your payroll. Get your federal EIN first, because both tax registrations ask for it." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Montana Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/withholding-tax/accounts", "registerWhen": "Before your first Montana payroll. Montana publishes no deadline in days, so the first paycheck is the real cut-off", "note": "Montana taxes wages for services performed in the state, and the Department's own employer guide says plainly that having no physical presence does not get you out of it: an out-of-state company with someone working remotely in Montana can pick up withholding, filing and payment duties. Three exemptions matter more than the rest. First, a genuine thirty day rule: you need not withhold for a nonresident who worked in Montana fewer than 30 days and also worked in another state, but it is voided if the person works only in Montana, works more than 30 days, is a construction worker, a professional athlete, an entertainer, paid per event, or a key employee earning over $500,000 in the prior year. Second, North Dakota residents are covered by a reciprocity agreement and are not taxed on Montana wages at all, provided the employee files Form MW-4 line 5. Third, agricultural labourers carry no Montana withholding duty, though cannabis workers are expressly not agricultural labourers. Every new employee completes Form MW-4, and employers submit new or updated MW-4s through the portal by the last day of the payroll period in which they were handed in. How often you pay is set by a lookback: $12,000 or more withheld puts you on the accelerated federal schedule, $1,200 to $11,999 is monthly on the 15th of the following month, and $1,199 or less is annual on 31 January. Whatever the payment schedule, Form MW-3 and the W-2s are always due 31 January. House Bill 337 of 2025 cut the top individual rate and widened the brackets for 2026 and again for 2027, so the withholding tables move two years running.", "source": "https://revenuefiles.mt.gov/files/Forms/Montana_Employer_and_Information_Agent_Guide_with_Tax_Tables.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Unemployment Insurance Division, Contributions Bureau", "url": "https://uid.dli.mt.gov/employers/schedule-of-contribution-rates", "newEmployerRate": null, "wageBase": 47300, "year": "2026", "note": "No single new employer rate is published here because Montana does not have one. A new employer, meaning one with a positive reserve and less than three full federal fiscal years of experience, is assigned the average rate of its industry, and for 2026 those ten published rates are 1.30 percent for agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing, 1.30 percent for mining, 2.00 percent for construction, 1.00 percent for manufacturing, 1.00 percent for utilities, transportation and warehousing, 1.00 percent for wholesale trade, 1.00 percent for retail trade, 1.00 percent for finance, insurance and real estate, 1.10 percent for services, and 2.00 percent for unclassified establishments. Add the Administrative Fund Tax of 0.18 percent on top, which every experience rated employer pays, so a new construction employer is really at 2.18 percent and a new retailer at 1.18 percent. Tax applies to the first $47,300 of each employee's wages in 2026, which is 80 percent of the 2024 Montana average annual wage of $59,106.64 rounded to the nearest $100, and it is recalculated every January. Montana sits in rate Schedule 1 for 2026, the cheapest of twelve schedules, so experience rated employers run from 0.00 percent to 6.12 percent and over 7,200 employers were given a zero rate. Two things catch employers out. The liability trigger is very low: total annual payroll of $1,000 or more in the current or preceding calendar year makes you a covered employer, and once you cross it you owe tax retroactively to 1 January of that year and for the whole of the next year regardless of payroll. And a penalty rate, 50 percent higher than your assigned rate, is applied to any employer with unfiled reports or unpaid tax when rates are calculated in December. Employees contribute nothing and the handbook states it is against the law to deduct unemployment insurance tax from their wages. Quarterly reports are due 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January, and employers who reported 20 or more employees in any quarter of the prior year must file electronically.", "source": "https://uid.dli.mt.gov/_docs/contributions-bureau/Rate-Explanation.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "any employer with any employee in service under an appointment or contract of hire, expressed or implied, oral or written, per 39-71-401 MCA", "construction contractors with employees, who must also register as a construction contractor with the Department of Labor and Industry" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Montana Department of Labor and Industry, Employment Relations Division", "url": "https://erd.dli.mt.gov/work-comp-regulations/", "note": "There is no free headcount. Section 39-71-401 MCA says the Workers' Compensation Act applies to all employers and to all employees, and an employer with any employee under a contract of hire must elect to be bound by compensation plan No. 1, 2 or 3. Plan 1 is self insurance and is realistic only for very large companies, Plan 2 is a private insurer, and Plan 3 is Montana State Fund. That third option is the part worth understanding, because Montana runs a competitive state fund rather than a monopoly one. Section 39-71-2313 MCA creates the state fund as a nonprofit independent public corporation and requires it to insure any employer in the state that asks, with the single exception of an employer whose principals have defaulted on a state fund obligation that is still unpaid. So Montana is a guaranteed market: you cannot be turned away for being new, small, seasonal or high hazard, and there is no assigned risk pool to fall into. You can still shop the private market on price. Going uninsured is expensive: the Uninsured Employers Fund can assess double the premium you would have paid, with a minimum of $200, and it pays the injured worker's benefits and then comes after you. Section 39-71-401(2) exempts a long list, including household or domestic employment, casual employment, a dependent family member you can claim under the Internal Revenue Code, sole proprietors and working members of partnerships and member-managed LLCs, commission-only real estate, securities and insurance salespeople with no guaranteed minimum, and corporate officers or manager-managed LLC managers who own 10 percent or more. Note there is no dollar threshold on the household exemption, unlike most states. Naming someone an independent contractor does not work by itself: the exemption at 39-71-401(2)(x) is for a person working under an Independent Contractor Exemption Certificate issued by the department under 39-71-417 MCA, which costs $125, lasts two years and must be applied for by the contractor, not by you. Two Montana specific traps. An out-of-state employer sending people in temporarily may qualify for extraterritorial coverage for up to six months under reciprocal agreements with North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Wyoming and Utah, but the request must be approved before work starts, and construction is excluded except for contractors from Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota and Utah, so a construction firm from anywhere else must buy a Montana policy. And every employer must post a departmental sign at the workplace stating its current coverage, with a $50 fine per citation for purposely or knowingly failing to do so. Separately, all construction contractors with employees must register as a construction contractor with the Department of Labor and Industry; that programme moved to a new licensing system on 1 January 2026 when the old Title 39 chapter 9 was repealed, so confirm the current fee with the department rather than relying on an older form.", "source": "https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0390/chapter_0710/part_0040/section_0010/0390-0710-0040-0010.html", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date the employee is hired or rehired, or twice monthly between 12 and 16 days apart if you report electronically", "agency": "Montana Child Support Services Division, Department of Public Health and Human Services", "url": "https://dphhs.mt.gov/cssd/employerinfo/newhirereporting", "note": "Section 40-5-922 MCA and federal law at 42 USC 653(a) require every new hire and rehire to be reported within 20 days, whether or not the person has a child support obligation, and even if they quit or are terminated before you got around to reporting them. A rehire only counts again after a break of 60 days or more, so a seasonal layoff or unpaid leave shorter than that is not a new report. Two Montana quirks are worth knowing. Its statutory definition of employee is a person 18 years of age or older, which is narrower than most states. And unlike Oregon, independent contractors are not reportable here: the guide says that if the work is under a contract rather than an employment relationship you do not report, and the contractor reports its own employees instead. Everything you need is on the W-4. Reports go to the Child Support Services Division rather than to Revenue or Labor, through the online system using an OKTA Montana login or the state File Transfer Service, and the division tells employers in capitals not to email new hire reports. A multistate employer that reports electronically may designate one state for all its reports by notifying the federal Secretary of Health and Human Services.", "source": "https://dphhs.mt.gov/assets/cssd/Newhireemployerreportingguide.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://erd.dli.mt.gov/human-rights/human-rights-laws/sex-discrimination/pregnant-employees", "note": "Montana runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family and medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction and no employer contribution to budget for, and no third state agency to register with. There is also no statewide paid sick leave mandate. What does exist is the Montana Maternity Leave Act, which is an unfunded obligation on you rather than a premium you remit: an employee is entitled to a reasonable leave of absence for the temporary disabilities associated with childbirth, delivery and related medical conditions, and may use any disability benefits, sick leave, vacation, annual leave or compensatory time she has accrued. If you maintain no such plans, the leave is unpaid. Leave for fathers and for parents of adopted children is not required by Montana law for private employers, though the federal Family and Medical Leave Act may still apply.", "source": "https://erd.dli.mt.gov/human-rights/human-rights-laws/sex-discrimination/pregnant-employees", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": false, "permit": { "agency": null, "url": "https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/general-sales-tax", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": null, "note": "Montana has no general sales tax, so there is no permit to apply for, no rate to charge, no return to file and, as the Department puts it, no sales tax exemption certificate either. An out-of-state seller shipping goods into Montana registers for nothing and collects nothing. Three narrow taxes survive and they are the reason this is not simply a blank entry. Lodging is taxed twice, a 4 percent lodging facility use tax plus a 4 percent lodging facility sales tax for a combined 8 percent, and it reaches hotels, motels, campgrounds, resorts, guest and dude ranches, hostels, bed and breakfasts and vacation rentals of a home, apartment, timeshare or single room; every accommodation required to collect must apply for a seller's permit before doing business, and online hosting platforms and short-term rental marketplaces must register and collect as sellers of accommodations in their own right. Renting out vehicles carries a 4 percent rental vehicle tax on base rental charges for cars, motorcycles, motorboats, sailboats and off-highway vehicles rented for under 30 days without an operator, and third-party platforms must hold a seller's permit and remit it too; farm equipment, travel trailers, motor homes, aeroplanes, snowmobiles and golf carts are outside it. Finally, about a dozen small tourist communities including Red Lodge, West Yellowstone, Whitefish and Big Sky levy a local resort tax of up to 3 percent on lodging, restaurants, bars, destination recreation and luxury goods; the Department of Revenue does not administer it, so you deal with the town, not the state. No fee is published for the lodging or rental vehicle seller's permit, so none is recorded here. Running the other way, a Montana business buying from vendors in sales tax states can hand over the Montana Business Registry Resale Certificate, which vendors may accept but are not obliged to.", "source": "https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/general-sales-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": false, "note": "A marketplace facilitator law exists to shift the duty to collect a sales tax onto the platform, and Montana has no general sales tax to collect, so Amazon, Etsy and eBay remit nothing to Montana on your behalf and you pick up no Montana filing duty from marketplace sales of goods. Do not generalise that to lodging or vehicle rental. Montana does impose a platform collection duty in those two corners: online hosting platforms and short-term rental marketplaces must register for a seller's permit and collect the 8 percent lodging taxes as sellers of accommodations, and third-party rental vehicle platforms must do the same for the 4 percent rental vehicle tax. So a host listing a Montana cabin on a booking site and a peer-to-peer car rental host are in a genuine facilitator regime, while a Montana merchant selling physical goods online is in none.", "source": "https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/miscellaneous/lodging-facility", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "none", "note": "There is no sales tax registration and no economic nexus threshold in Montana, so nothing trails after you stop selling into the state. The equivalent loose end sits elsewhere. A withholding account and an unemployment insurance account both stay open until you tell the agency you have stopped, and Montana requires Form MW-3 and the W-2s within 30 days of your cease date rather than at the usual January deadline. If you hold a lodging or rental vehicle seller's permit, that has to be closed too.", "source": "https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/withholding-tax/accounts", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/corporate-income-tax", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Montana is the rare no sales tax state that did not replace it with a tax on revenue. There is no Montana equivalent of Delaware's gross receipts tax, Washington's business and occupation tax, Ohio's commercial activity tax, Nevada's commerce tax or Oregon's corporate activity tax, so a low margin or loss making business is not taxed on turnover here. What Montana taxes instead is profit: a C corporation doing business in Montana files Form CIT and pays 6.75 percent, or 7 percent under a water's edge election, with a $50 minimum tax that is owed even in a loss year. There is one provision a remote seller should know about, because it behaves like a gross receipts tax and is easy to miss. A corporation whose only Montana activity is sales, which owns no real or tangible property in the state, and whose Montana gross sales are $100,000 or less, may elect an alternative rate of 0.5 percent charged on those gross sales rather than on income. That is a simplification for small out-of-state sellers, not an extra tax.", "source": "https://revenue.mt.gov/taxes/corporate-income-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Montana Secretary of State, Business Services", "url": "https://sosmt.gov/business/fees/", "feeLLC": 70, "feeCorp": 70, "feeNote": "$70 for a foreign LLC Certificate of Authority, plus $50 for each series member named in a series LLC, and $70 for a foreign profit corporation, which Montana now calls a Foreign Registration Statement rather than a certificate of authority. A foreign nonprofit corporation is $20 and a foreign limited partnership only $10. Amending either filing later is $15. Montana adds no franchise tax and no initial report, so the $70 is genuinely the whole entry cost, which makes it one of the cheapest states to qualify into.", "note": "The ongoing cost is where Montana currently looks unusual. Every LLC and corporation, domestic or foreign, must file an annual report by 15 April to stay active. The printed fee schedule on the Secretary of State's site is dated 7-1-2022 and still shows $20 for a report filed before 15 April, but the live fee table and the Secretary's own announcements show that fee waived, and 2026 is the third consecutive year of the waiver, applied automatically to reports filed between 1 January and 15 April. Treat the waiver as an annual discretionary decision rather than a permanent change in the law: it can lapse, and the $35 late fee for filing after 15 April has never been waived. You also need a Montana registered agent with a street address in the state. One point worth checking before assuming you can skip this step: the list at 35-14-1505 MCA of activities that do not amount to doing business in Montana covers things like defending a lawsuit, holding board meetings, keeping bank accounts, selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that are accepted outside the state, and isolated transactions completed within 30 days. Having employees in Montana is not on that list, so a single remote worker in Bozeman generally does put an out-of-state company into the registration requirement. Registering with the Secretary of State opens no tax account: withholding, unemployment insurance and workers compensation are all separate and none of them accept your Secretary of State filing number.", "source": "https://sosmt.gov/business/fees/", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "maine": { "state": "Maine", "abbr": "ME", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Maine Revenue Services (one Application for Tax Registration covering income tax withholding, sales and use tax and the other MRS tax types)" ], "note": "Maine gives you one combined application, but it only covers the Maine Revenue Services taxes. The Application for Tax Registration is explicitly a combined form: Section 1 is taxpayer information, Section 2 opens income tax withholding, Section 3 opens sales and use tax, and Sections 5 to 9 cover fuel, special and insurance taxes, so most employers who also sell do a single errand at revenue.maine.gov. Nothing else rides on it. Unemployment insurance is a separate registration with the Department of Labor's Bureau of Unemployment Compensation in ReEmployME. Paid Family and Medical Leave is a third registration, in the Maine Paid Leave Portal at pfml.maine.gov, and it is the one out-of-state employers miss because it is new and because it covers workers that unemployment insurance does not. Workers compensation is not a state account at all, it is a policy bought from a private insurer. Budget for three registrations plus an insurance policy. One historical trap: the Service Provider Tax section of the paper registration booklet is now dead, because that tax was repealed on 1 January 2026 and its services moved into sales and use tax." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Maine Revenue Services", "url": "https://www.maine.gov/revenue/taxes/income-estate-tax/employer-withholding", "registerWhen": "Before your first Maine payroll; the duty attaches to any person who maintains an office or transacts business in Maine and is required to withhold federal income tax from the payment", "note": "The test is short and catches remote employers: anyone who maintains an office or transacts business in Maine and who must withhold federal income tax from a payment must also withhold Maine tax, unless Maine law excludes the income. Agricultural workers are inside the rule, not outside it. The detail worth knowing before you hire is the nonresident de minimis rule. Maine-source income of a nonresident may fall below a threshold set by 36 M.R.S. section 5142(8-B) and MRS Rule 806, and the instructions state the working rule plainly: if a nonresident employee works in Maine more than twelve days and earns more than $3,000 in the year, you must ordinarily withhold. Below that you generally do not, which is why a short project visit is not automatically a Maine payroll. Every new employee must also give you a Maine Form W-4ME on the same date as the federal W-4, because Maine allowances are no longer derived from the federal form. Register on the Maine Tax Portal at revenue.maine.gov; no registration fee is stated. Your filing frequency is assigned, not chosen: under $18,000 of Maine withholding in the twelve months ending 30 June of the prior year puts you on quarterly Form 941ME, and above that on a semiweekly schedule with Form 900ME. Electronic filing is required for all registered withholding accounts absent a hardship waiver, and the annual Form W-3ME reconciliation was discontinued after 2023.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/26_wh_tab_instr.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/faq/income-tax-withholding", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Maine Department of Labor, Bureau of Unemployment Compensation", "url": "https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/employers/", "newEmployerRate": 0.0254, "wageBase": 12000, "year": "2026", "note": "Maine's taxable wage base is $12,000, one of the lowest in the country, and it did not move for 2026. The rate stored here is the combined figure the state itself publishes for a new employer on the 2026 rate array: 2.23 percent unemployment insurance plus a Competitive Skills Scholarship Fund assessment of 0.14 percent plus an Unemployment Program Administrative Fund assessment of 0.17 percent, for 2.54 percent in total. Both assessments are structured as carve-outs rather than surcharges, because 26 M.R.S. section 1167 requires unemployment contributions to be reduced by a percentage equal to the fund assessment, which is why the array's unadjusted rate is also 2.54 percent. There is a conflict between two current-year state documents on one of these: the 2026 rate array sets the administrative fund assessment at 0.17 percent while the 2026 Form ME UC-1 instructions still print 0.16 percent at line 7c. The rate array is the rate-setting document for 2026 and is internally consistent, so its figure is used, but expect your own rate notice to govern. Maine stayed on Schedule A for 2026, the lowest schedule the law allows, and the department expects an average of $267.60 per employee for the year. You become liable once you pay $1,500 or more in gross wages in a calendar quarter, or employ someone for any part of a day in 20 weeks of the calendar year; agricultural labor is tested differently, at $20,000 in a quarter or 10 workers in 20 weeks. Register in ReEmployME, wait for the Notice of Unemployment Insurance Liability, which becomes final 30 days after it is mailed unless you appeal, and file Form ME UC-1 by the last day of the month after each quarter. Every figure here is reset each January.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/docs/2026/employers/uitaxrates2026.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/docs/2026/employers/2026_ME_UC1_instructions.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/docs/2024/taxpublications/I47EmployerGuide.pdf ; https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/26/title26sec1167.html", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every private employer, including an independent contractor who hires and pays employees, from the first employee", "the State, counties, cities, towns, water districts, other quasi-public corporations, municipal school committees and design professionals" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Maine Workers' Compensation Board", "url": "https://www.maine.gov/wcb/", "note": "There is no free headcount. Title 39-A section 401 makes every private employer subject to the Act and requires it to secure payment of compensation by buying a policy or being approved to self insure, so the duty starts with the first person you pay. The exemptions are narrow and mostly agricultural: employees engaged in agriculture or aquaculture as seasonal or casual laborers, where the employer instead carries at least $25,000 of employers liability insurance with at least $5,000 of medical payments coverage; employers of six or fewer agricultural or aquacultural laborers, or more than six whose total hours do not exceed 240 a week, where the employer carries employers liability insurance of at least $100,000 multiplied by the number of full time equivalent laborers plus $5,000 of medical payments coverage; and employers of domestic servants in a private home. The burden of proving an exemption is on the employer. Owners are treated separately from staff: a sole proprietor without employees needs no coverage and files no waiver, LLC members are not required to be covered and file no waiver, and an owner of at least 20 percent of the voting stock of a corporation, or a parent, spouse or child of a sole proprietor, partner or 20 percent owner, may waive benefits in writing. Going without coverage is not a paperwork offence: it can be a Class D crime, a civil penalty of up to $10,000 or 108 percent of the premium that should have been paid, whichever is larger, plus suspension or revocation of your charter or licence, and your employees can sue you directly because the exclusive remedy protection is gone.", "source": "https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/39-a/title39-Asec401.html ; https://www.maine.gov/pfr/insurance/sites/maine.gov.pfr.insurance/files/inline-files/workers_comp_employer_guide.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 7, "deadline": "within 7 days of the date an employee is newly hired, rehired or terminated", "agency": "Maine Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery", "url": "https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/ofi/programs-services/child-support-services/employers/new-hire-faq", "note": "Seven days is one of the tightest new hire windows in the country, so this is the Maine deadline most likely to catch an employer used to 20 days elsewhere. Two features make it broader than most states. First, Maine wants terminations too: the Form ME UC-1 instructions state the duty as reporting within seven days of the date an employee is newly hired, rehired or terminated, which is unusual and is not mentioned on the DHHS FAQ page. Second, contractors count: you must report an independent contractor when the reimbursement is anticipated to equal or exceed $2,500 in a year, and for a contractor the report also carries the contract execution date, total contract value and expiry date. A worker coming back counts as a rehire if they must complete a new federal W-4 or have been separated for at least 60 consecutive days. Report through the New Hire portal at me-newhire.com, by secure FTP or by fax, and note that anyone submitting more than 25 reports must use an electronic option. Failure to report carries a civil penalty of up to $200 a month for each violation.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/ofi/programs-services/child-support-services/employers/new-hire-faq ; https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/docs/2026/employers/2026_ME_UC1_instructions.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/unemployment/docs/2024/taxpublications/I47EmployerGuide.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 15, "employeeContributionRate": 0.005, "employerContributionRate": 0.005, "year": "2026", "agency": "Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave, Maine Department of Labor", "url": "https://www.maine.gov/paidleave/employers/", "note": "Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave began taking payroll contributions on the first pay date on or after 1 January 2025, and benefits opened on 1 May 2026, so an employer arriving now is already inside a live programme. Every employer with at least one Maine-based employee participates, whatever its size; the 15 recorded here is not a coverage floor but the line that decides who pays the employer half. For calendar years 2025 to 2027 the department has set the joint rate at 0.5 or 1 percent of wages depending on size. An employer with 15 or more covered employees remits 1 percent and may deduct up to half of it, 0.5 percent, from the employee, which is the split stored in the two rate fields. An employer with fewer than 15 covered employees remits only 0.5 percent and may deduct the whole of that 0.5 percent from the employee, so a genuine small employer's own cost can be zero. The employee deduction is capped at 0.5 percent in both cases and the statutory ceiling on the joint rate is 1 percent. Premiums stop at the federal Social Security contribution and benefit base, $184,500 for 2026, and the portal applies the cap for you if you report all wages. Counting to 15 is done once a year and not on the day you hire: you count Maine-based employees under your FEIN who were on the payroll in 20 or more calendar workweeks in the 12 months ending 30 September, including part time, temporary and intermittent workers, and you report that count when you first register and then in each Quarter 3 wage report for the following calendar year. Register in the Maine Paid Leave Portal at pfml.maine.gov and file and pay quarterly by 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January. Miss it and the penalty is 1 percent of your total payroll for that quarter, and you are separately liable for the full benefits paid to any worker whose premiums you failed to remit. Two more traps: PFML reaches employees that Maine unemployment tax excludes, so your PFML wage base can be wider than your unemployment wage base, and if you fail to deduct the employee share in a pay period you are treated as having elected to pay it and cannot claw it back later. A substantially equivalent private plan can be substituted, but it costs a nonrefundable $250 application fee plus a further $250 on approval, lasts three years, and the employee deduction stays capped at 0.5 percent whatever the policy costs. The statute lets the department reset the rate by 1 October for the following year, so re-check this every autumn.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/paidleave/docs/2026/employers/faq/employerFAQenglish.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/paidleave/docs/2024/EmployersGuidetoMainePFMLContributions.pdf ; https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/statutes/26/title26sec850-F.html", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Maine Revenue Services, Sales, Fuel and Special Tax Division", "url": "https://www.maine.gov/revenue/taxes/sales-use-service-provider-tax", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before making taxable sales if you have a place of business or other substantial physical presence in Maine; a remote seller registers and begins collecting on or before the first day of the first month that begins at least 30 days after it crosses $100,000 of gross sales into Maine", "note": "Registration is on the Maine Tax Portal at revenue.maine.gov, on the same combined Application for Tax Registration as income tax withholding. No dollar figure is published here because no primary page states one. The statute comes close without closing it: 36 M.R.S. section 1754-B(2) says application forms must be furnished free of charge by the assessor and that the assessor shall issue a registration certificate to each applicant that properly completes and submits one, and neither the statute nor Instructional Bulletin 43 nor the registration booklet mentions a fee. That is strong evidence there is none, but nothing affirmatively says the registration is free, so the field stays null rather than showing a misleading $0. Nothing in the sales tax chapter authorises a security deposit or bond from an ordinary retailer either, so that is recorded as absent rather than unknown. Two practical points. A separate application must be completed and a separate certificate issued for each place of business, so multi-location retailers do not get one certificate. And the safe harbour list in section 1754-B(1-C) matters for out-of-state sellers: soliciting Maine business by catalogue, flyer, telephone or electronic media with delivery by U.S. mail or interstate common carrier does not by itself require registration. Note the 1 January 2026 change: the Service Provider Tax was repealed and cable and satellite television and radio, fabrication, telecommunications and telecoms equipment work, ancillary services and video and audio rentals are now sales and use tax at 5.5 percent, so anyone previously registered for that tax needs a sales and use tax account instead. Close an account by filing a final return and entering the closure date.", "source": "https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/statutes/36/title36sec1754-B.html ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/IB43RegistrationofSellers02_2022.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/faq/sales-use-service-provider-tax ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/SPT%20Repeal_Notice_FINAL_11212025_0.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Maine has a marketplace facilitator law and, unusually, it works in the seller's favour. A facilitator must register and collect once its own gross sales into Maine, counting both the sales it facilitates for others and its own direct sales, exceed $100,000 in the previous or current calendar year, and it has 30 days plus the rest of that month to start. The part that differs from most states: Maine Revenue Services says only the Maine sales a marketplace seller makes directly count toward that seller's own $100,000 threshold. Facilitated sales do not. So a small seller whose Maine volume is entirely through Amazon or Etsy can stay under the threshold and out of the Maine register, which is the opposite of the Connecticut and Minnesota rule. A marketplace seller with no Maine physical presence selling only through a marketplace is relieved of registering where the facilitator gives written confirmation that it is taking responsibility for the tax, so get that confirmation in writing and keep it. Anything you sell through your own website or any other channel that is not collecting for you is still yours to collect on, and it is those direct sales that are measured against the threshold.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/revenue/faq/marketplace ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/IB43RegistrationofSellers02_2022.pdf ; https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/36/title36sec1951-C.html", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Maine publishes an unusually clear trailing rule and works it through with examples. Because the threshold test looks at both the previous and the current calendar year, a year of low sales does not release you: you may cancel your Maine registration only when your gross sales into Maine have failed to exceed $100,000 for two consecutive calendar years following registration. Maine Revenue Services' own worked example: a seller that registers on 1 July 2021 after crossing the threshold, stays below it through 2022 and stays below it again through 2023, may cancel with an end date of 31 December 2023, because by then it exceeded the threshold in neither the previous nor the current year. So the practical minimum is roughly two full quiet calendar years. Cancelling is also an act you have to take, by filing a final return and entering the closure date, and if you later cross $100,000 again you register afresh. The same two-year rule applies to a marketplace facilitator.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/IB43RegistrationofSellers02_2022.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/faq/marketplace ; https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/statutes/36/title36sec1754-B.html", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Maine has no general gross receipts or business activity tax in the mould of Washington's business and occupation tax or Ohio's commercial activity tax, so there is no extra revenue-based levy for an ordinary business to budget for. What Maine has instead is a graduated corporate income tax on net income, running from 3.5 percent at the bottom to 8.93 percent on income above $3.5 million, which applies to entities organised as corporations with Maine-source income. The thing that has changed and that stale guidance still gets wrong is the Service Provider Tax. It was a 6 percent tax on gross receipts from a defined list of services and it was repealed effective 1 January 2026; those services moved into the sales and use tax at 5.5 percent instead. Any page, form or registration booklet that still tells you to open a Service Provider Tax account is out of date, and the last Service Provider Tax return covered the period ending 31 December 2025. Narrow gross-receipts-style taxes do remain for particular industries, including the insurance premiums tax, the hospital tax and the mining excise tax, but none of them is a general cost of doing business in Maine.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/revenue/taxes/income-estate-tax/corporate-income-tax-1120me ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/SPT%20Repeal_Notice_FINAL_11212025_0.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/revenue/sites/maine.gov.revenue/files/inline-files/GIB%20115_FINAL_2025_10_17_0.pdf", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Maine Secretary of State, Bureau of Corporations, Elections and Commissions", "url": "https://www.maine.gov/sos/corporations-commissions/information-about-entities/entity-types/foreign-entites", "feeLLC": 250, "feeCorp": 250, "feeNote": "Maine charges the same $250 for both, which is unusual and simplifies the choice: a foreign LLC files Form MLLC-12, Statement of Foreign Qualification to Conduct Activities, for $250, and a foreign business corporation files Form MBCA-12, Application for Authority to Do Business, for $250. Both figures are printed on the forms themselves. A foreign nonprofit is much cheaper at $45 on Form MNPCA-12, while a foreign limited partnership and a foreign limited liability partnership are $250 each.", "note": "Every application must be accompanied by a certificate of existence or a document of similar import from the home state dated no earlier than 90 days before it is delivered for filing, so order that certificate first because a stale one will bounce the filing. Maine sets no deadline in days. The sanction for skipping the step is a flat and easy-to-underestimate civil penalty that is identical for both entity types: $500 for each year, or portion of a year, spent transacting business in Maine without qualifying, under 31 M.R.S. section 1629 for an LLC and 13-C M.R.S. section 1502 for a corporation, and for a corporation the Attorney General may collect it. On top of that you cannot maintain a proceeding in a Maine court, a corporation until it applies and pays the filing fee, an LLC for the collection of its debts until an effective statement is on file. Your contracts stay valid; Maine explicitly preserves the validity of the acts of an unqualified foreign entity, so this is a penalty and a courthouse-door problem rather than a threat to your deals. The recurring cost is where foreign entities pay more than domestic ones: the annual report is due 1 June and costs $150 for a foreign business entity against $85 for a domestic one, with $35 for domestic and foreign nonprofits, and failing to pay the late penalty leads to administrative dissolution or revocation. Qualifying with the Secretary of State registers you for no tax at all; the Maine Revenue Services, Bureau of Unemployment Compensation and Paid Leave accounts are separate errands.", "source": "https://www.maine.gov/sos/sites/maine.gov.sos/files/inline-files/mllc12.pdf ; https://www.maine.gov/sos/sites/maine.gov.sos/files/inline-files/mbca12.pdf ; https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/31/title31sec1629.html ; https://legislature.maine.gov/statutes/13-c/title13-Csec1502.html ; https://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/corp/helpful.html", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "idaho": { "state": "Idaho", "abbr": "ID", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Idaho State Tax Commission", "Idaho Department of Labor", "Idaho Industrial Commission", "Idaho Secretary of State" ], "note": "Idaho has one application but not one account. The Idaho Business Registration, the IBR, is filed once at business.idaho.gov and the Tax Commission describes what it covers in plain terms: seller's permits for sales and use taxes, travel and convention permits, some auditorium district permits, and, if you have employees, an income tax withholding account plus permits from the Idaho Department of Labor and the Industrial Commission. That is a genuinely better front door than most states offer, and it is the closest thing in the country to a real one-stop outside California. What comes back is still separate numbers on separate systems: a Tax Commission withholding account filed through TAP, a Department of Labor unemployment account filed quarterly through the Employer Portal, and an Industrial Commission registration that does not itself buy you anything. Workers compensation coverage is a policy you purchase from a licensed insurer or the Idaho State Insurance Fund, so the IBR tells the Industrial Commission you exist but does not insure you. Register your entity with the Secretary of State first, and have your federal EIN in hand, because the IBR asks for it. Online applications come back in 10 to 15 business days and mailed ones can take four weeks." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Idaho State Tax Commission", "url": "https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/income-tax/withholding/", "registerWhen": "Before your first Idaho payroll, through the Idaho Business Registration at business.idaho.gov, after you hold a federal EIN", "note": "The trigger is broad and the penalty for ignoring it is unusually blunt: you need an Idaho withholding account if you have an employee earning income while in Idaho, including agricultural workers, household help and family members, and if you have employees and do not register you face a civil penalty of $100 per day. Withholding follows the work, not the residence, so wages for services performed in Idaho are subject to it even for someone who spends a single day in the state, and the Tax Commission names performers and athletes as the obvious case. There is a real de minimis escape that most states do not give you: no withholding is required where the employee is not an Idaho resident and earns less than $1,000 in Idaho in a calendar year, and the same $1,000 floor applies to an agricultural laborer. Cross $1,000 and the whole relationship becomes reportable. The rate is a flat 5.3 percent and the withholding tables at Publication EPB00744 compute every method at that figure, including a flat 5.3 percent on separately issued bonuses and other supplemental pay. Idaho has no reciprocity agreement with any neighbouring state, so an Oregon or Washington resident working in Idaho gets Idaho tax withheld with no exemption certificate to fall back on. One account caveat that catches acquirers: the withholding account number is not transferable, so buying a business, getting a new EIN or changing entity type all mean a fresh application.", "source": "https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/income-tax/withholding/withholding-online-guide/ ; https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/income-tax/withholding/income-dont-withhold-on/ ; https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/income-tax/withholding/computing/", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Idaho Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance Division", "url": "https://www.labor.idaho.gov/businesses/unemployment-tax-rates/", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 58300, "year": "2026", "note": "Every new employer except a cost reimbursing one starts at the standard rate, and for 2026 that is 1.000 percent on the first $58,300 of each worker's wages. The standard rate holds for at least six calendar quarters, after which you are ranked by your own reserve ratio into a positive or deficit class. The spread is wide: positive class 1 pays 0.208 percent for 2026 and deficit class 6 pays 5.400 percent, so the standard rate is closer to the good end than the middle. Note what is inside the number, because Idaho splits it into components on the rate array: the 1.000 percent standard rate is 0.97000 percent of unemployment contribution plus 0.03000 percent of workforce development, with the administrative reserve component at zero for 2026. Liability is easy to trip. You must report and pay if in the current or preceding calendar year you paid total wages of $1,500 or more in any calendar quarter, or one or more individuals worked for some portion of a week in 20 different weeks of the year, and any part of a day counts as a week. Being subject to federal unemployment tax on any services makes you automatically subject to Idaho's. The registration clock is the IBR, which must be submitted within six months of becoming a covered employer, with penalties of up to $500 for missing it. Reports and payments are due the last day of the month after each quarter with no grace period, and once the account is open you file every quarter even in quarters with no wages. Believe the array, not the web page: the Department's own unemployment tax rates page still headlines a 1.000 percent standard rate and a $55,300 wage base for 2025 alongside 2024, and only the linked rate class array carries the 2026 figures. The wage base moved from $55,300 to $58,300; the standard rate did not move. Rates are computed on a July to June fiscal year and mailed out in December, so this whole block resets every winter.", "source": "https://www.labor.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Tax-rate_Class-array_2026.pdf ; https://www.labor.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Handbook_Tax-information_Nov.-2025-1.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every employer with one or more full-time, part-time, seasonal or occasional employees, with coverage in place before the first employee is hired", "employers of agricultural workers, who are covered in Idaho rather than broadly exempt as in many neighbouring states" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Idaho Industrial Commission", "url": "https://iic.idaho.gov/employers/", "note": "Coverage is required from the first worker, and the Industrial Commission states it as employers with one or more full-time, part-time, seasonal or occasional employees, established before you hire that first person. Idaho Code 72-301 gives you two ways to comply, an insurance policy from an authorized insurer, which in Idaho very often means the Idaho State Insurance Fund, or self-insurance approved by the Industrial Commission with security deposited with the state treasurer. The exemptions in Idaho Code 72-212 are the usual narrow list and worth reading against your own payroll: household domestic service, casual employment, outworkers, family members dwelling in the household of a sole proprietor or single member LLC owner, sole proprietors and working partners and LLC members, corporate officers who own at least 10 percent of the voting stock and are also directors, employment already covered by federal compensation law, crop dusting pilots with a qualifying policy, commission-only real estate brokers and salespeople, volunteer ski patrollers, and officials at secondary school athletic contests. Anyone exempt can elect in under 72-213. The penalty is calculated per day rather than as a lump sum, which is how it gets large quietly: $2.00 per employee per day or $25.00 per day, whichever is greater, recoverable for up to three consecutive years, plus $500 for a second failure within three years and $1,000 for each one after that. On top of that, failing to secure coverage is a misdemeanour, a district court can enjoin you from operating until you comply, and the officers, members or managers who had authority to buy the policy are personally and jointly liable for the injured worker's compensation.", "source": "https://iic.idaho.gov/employers/ ; https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title72/T72CH2/SECT72-212/ ; https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title72/T72CH3/SECT72-301/ ; https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/Title72/T72CH3/SECT72-319/", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "not later than 20 calendar days after the date of hire or rehire", "agency": "Idaho Department of Labor, Idaho State Directory of New Hires", "url": "https://www.labor.idaho.gov/businesses/report-new-hires/", "note": "Report every hire and rehire within 20 calendar days with the employee's name, address and Social Security number, your own name, address and federal identification number, your Idaho unemployment insurance account number if you have one, and the date of hire. Employers who transmit electronically file two batches a month instead, no less than 12 and no more than 16 days apart, which is a tighter clock than 20 days for some hires. You may submit a copy of the employee's federal Form W-4 with the extra fields written on it, and Idaho takes reports online through the same Department of Labor employer portal used for unemployment tax. What counts as a rehire is where the state's own explainer and the statute disagree, and the gap is large. Idaho Code 72-1603(7) defines rehire as reemploying someone who was laid off, separated, furloughed, granted leave without pay or terminated at least 60 consecutive days before, while the Department of Labor's employer handbook says the law covers rehiring employees whose previous employment ended more than 12 months prior. Follow the statute and report at 60 days, because the handbook's version would have you skip most seasonal recalls. A genuine multistate escape exists and it is written into the definition of employer rather than buried in guidance: a multistate employer that has notified the federal Secretary of Health and Human Services in writing that it will report to a state other than Idaho is not an employer for this chapter at all, so it owes Idaho nothing here. Idaho publishes no civil penalty for late or missing reports. Chapter 16 of Title 72 runs from 72-1601 to 72-1607 and contains no penalty section, which makes this the obligation most likely to be skipped and the one least likely to bill you for skipping it.", "source": "https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/statutesrules/idstat/Title72/T72CH16.pdf ; https://www.labor.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Handbook_Tax-information_Nov.-2025-1.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": "Idaho Department of Labor", "url": "https://www.labor.idaho.gov/businesses/", "note": "Idaho runs no paid family and medical leave insurance programme and no temporary disability insurance fund, so there is no third payroll contribution to withhold, match or register for. The Department of Labor's own list of what it administers for businesses is unemployment insurance tax, new hire reporting, labour law posters, apprenticeships and hiring incentives, with nothing resembling Colorado FAMLI, Washington PFML or California SDI. The Wage and Hour Section enforces only the state minimum wage law, the wage payment laws and farm labor contractor licensing, and Idaho has no statewide paid sick leave mandate either. Nor is there a city or county version to check: Idaho Code 44-1502(4) bars any political subdivision from setting a minimum wage above the state's, and Idaho cities do not run their own benefit mandates. If you are moving payroll here from a Pacific coast state, this is a line item and an account you simply will not have.", "source": "https://www.labor.idaho.gov/businesses/ ; https://www.labor.idaho.gov/businesses/wage-and-hour/ ; https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title44/t44ch15/sect44-1502/", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Idaho State Tax Commission", "url": "https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/sales-use/permits/", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "No routine deposit, and unusually the ceiling is written into the statute. Idaho Code 63-3625 lets the Tax Commission demand security whenever it deems it necessary, but caps it at three times your estimated average monthly liability or $10,000, whichever is lesser, rising to five times average monthly liability for persons habitually delinquent, still under the same $10,000 ceiling. That bounded cap is the opposite of California and Texas, where the deposit is open ended.", "registerBy": "Before conducting business in Idaho. A remote seller registers once its cumulative gross receipts from sales delivered into Idaho exceed $100,000 in the previous calendar year or the current calendar year, and an out-of-state seller with referral agreements registers once sales to referred purchasers exceed $10,000 in the immediately preceding 12 months", "note": "The permit is free, and this is confirmed in the statute rather than inferred: Idaho Code 63-3620(a) says permits shall be issued without charge, with the only fees being $10 to reissue after a first revocation and $25 after each successive one. Apply through the Idaho Business Registration and expect the permit in 10 to 15 business days online. Four mechanics catch people. The permit is not assignable and is valid only for the person it was issued to, so an acquisition means a new application and the seller must cancel their own. It must be conspicuously displayed at each place of business, and you get a permit for each location if you have several. A permit held by anyone who reports no sales for 12 consecutive months expires automatically under 63-3620A once the Commission notices the address on file, which is a real risk for a seasonal or dormant seller who keeps filing zeroes. And selling without a permit is a civil penalty of up to $100 with each day a separate offence, assessed as a tax deficiency. One number in the Commission's own explainer does not match the statute. The Who Needs a Seller's Permit page frames the remote seller threshold as $100,000 in any 12-month period, while Idaho Code 63-3611 measures cumulative gross receipts from sales delivered into Idaho in excess of $100,000 in the previous calendar year or the current calendar year. Believe the statute and test on calendar years, because a rolling 12-month test would pull you in earlier and let you out sooner than the law does.", "source": "https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/statutesrules/idstat/Title63/T63CH36.pdf ; https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title63/t63ch36/sect63-3611/ ; https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/sales-use/permits/who-needs-a-sellers-permit/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Idaho has required marketplace facilitators to collect and forward sales tax on third-party sales since 1 June 2019. Under Idaho Code 63-3620E a facilitator without physical presence must register and collect once the combined total of its own Idaho sales and the sales it facilitates exceeds $100,000. For you as a seller the relief is real but narrower than it looks. The Tax Commission's position is that a third-party seller whose combined Idaho sales do not exceed $100,000 in the current or previous calendar year, and who sells only through platforms registered with Idaho as marketplace facilitators, needs no permit of its own. Two things break that. Sell anywhere outside the marketplace, through your own site or at an event, and those sales are yours to permit, collect and report. And Idaho tells you to get written verification from the facilitator of the tax it is reporting, adding that if your facilitator is not collecting and forwarding tax on your sales you must include those sales on your own seller's permit, so the duty falls back to you rather than disappearing. Note also that a facilitator that both sells its own goods and facilitates for others needs separate seller's permits for the two streams, which is why platform tax documents sometimes show two Idaho numbers. The statutory liability relief runs to the facilitator, not to you: a facilitator escapes liability where the error came from incorrect or insufficient information you gave it, unless you are related parties.", "source": "https://legislature.idaho.gov/statutesrules/idstat/title63/t63ch36/sect63-3620e/ ; https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/sales-use/guides-for-certain-groups/online-sellers/business-types/", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Idaho publishes no rule called trailing nexus, but the calendar year lookback in Idaho Code 63-3611 creates one. The test asks whether your cumulative gross receipts from sales delivered into Idaho exceeded $100,000 in the previous calendar year or the current one, so a single year over the line keeps you registered and collecting through the whole of the next year even if Idaho sales stop entirely in January. Only after failing the test in both years are you out. Getting out is something you do rather than something that happens: Idaho Code 63-3620A(1) requires a person no longer actively making taxable sales to surrender the permit forthwith for cancellation, and the Tax Commission's close-an-account route is the Business Taxpayer Self-Service form at tax.idaho.gov/ss. There is a passive backstop, since a permit reporting no sales for 12 consecutive months expires automatically once the Commission notifies your last known address, but relying on it means a year of returns you must still file, because Idaho requires a return for every period even when there were no sales.", "source": "https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/statutesrules/idstat/Title63/T63CH36.pdf ; https://tax.idaho.gov/online-services/business-registration/", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Idaho levies no gross receipts or commerce tax, so there is nothing here like Washington's B and O tax next door, and no corporate franchise tax either. Business profits go through the ordinary income tax at a flat 5.3 percent for 2025, the same rate as the personal tax, plus a $10 permanent building fund tax that most business filers owe once per entity or per shareholder, partner or beneficiary depending on structure. Two revenue-based state taxes do exist and both are narrow. The travel and convention tax is 2 percent on short-term lodging statewide, collected by the seller and administered by the Tax Commission on Form 1152. Auditorium districts add their own local tax on lodging of 30 days or less, including non-sleeping rooms like meeting space, and the Tax Commission now administers Greater Boise, Idaho Falls, Nampa from the April 2026 return, and the Mountain Community Center District from 1 May 2026. Separately, some resort cities levy a voter-approved local option sales tax which can reach everything the state taxes or only lodging, alcohol by the drink and restaurant food, and the Tax Commission does not administer those. Ask the city. So the only businesses with a revenue-based Idaho exposure beyond ordinary sales tax are those selling lodging, food, drink or retail inside a resort city or auditorium district.", "source": "https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/income-tax/business-income/online-guide/ ; https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/taxes-on-sales/travel-and-convention-tax/ ; https://tax.idaho.gov/taxes/sales-use/sales-tax/local-sales-tax/city-sales-tax/", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Idaho Secretary of State, Business Services", "url": "https://sosbiz.idaho.gov/", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "$100 for either entity type. Idaho abolished the separate certificate of authority in favour of one Foreign Entity Registration Statement covering every foreign filing entity, and Idaho Code 30-21-214(b)(23) prices it at $100 flat with no scaling by authorized shares, which is what makes an Idaho corporation registration cheaper than most. Add a $20 surcharge for any paper form requiring manual data entry, so filing online avoids it. Amending the registration later is $30 and withdrawing is $20. Expedited service is $40 for evidence of filing within eight working hours or $100 for same-day if delivered before 1:00 pm mountain time. The annual report is the standout: Idaho Code 30-21-214(b)(7) prices it at No fee, so unlike almost every state there is no recurring Secretary of State cost, only a recurring filing.", "note": "One filing covers LLCs, corporations, limited partnerships and LLPs. You must attach a certificate of existence from your home jurisdiction, and the Secretary of State requires it dated within 90 days of filing, so order it before you start rather than after. You need an Idaho registered agent with a physical street address, not a post office box, and you name at least one governor and your principal office addresses. The annual report is free but not optional: it is due before the end of the month in which you first registered, every year, and missing it is what leads to administrative dissolution and a $30 reinstatement. Idaho Code 30-21-505 lists what does not count as doing business, including selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that must be accepted outside Idaho, conducting an isolated transaction, owning property without more, and doing business in interstate commerce. The consequence of skipping registration is procedural rather than financial: an unregistered foreign entity may not maintain an action or proceeding in Idaho, though its contracts stay valid, it may still defend itself, and its members do not lose limited liability. Idaho publishes no civil fine for late qualification. As everywhere, this filing opens no tax accounts, so the IBR for withholding, unemployment and a seller's permit is still ahead of you, and processing at the Secretary of State was running about 7 to 10 days from filing.", "source": "https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/statutesrules/idstat/Title30/T30CH21.pdf ; https://sos.idaho.gov/business-services-resources/business-entities-faq/", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "nebraska": { "state": "Nebraska", "abbr": "NE", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Nebraska Department of Revenue", "Nebraska Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance Tax", "a private workers compensation insurer, with the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court in the background", "Nebraska Department of Labor Contractor Registration Database, if you do construction work" ], "note": "Nebraska splits your payroll setup across two agencies and two portals. One Nebraska Tax Application, Form 20, opens everything the Department of Revenue runs, so income tax withholding and your sales tax permit come out of a single application and share one Nebraska ID Number. Unemployment insurance is entirely separate: you apply for an unemployment insurance account number through the Department of Labor at dol.nebraska.gov/uiconnect, and the quarterly Combined Tax Report you file there has nothing to do with the Form 941N you file with Revenue. Workers compensation is a third thing again, bought from a private insurer because Nebraska runs no state fund. There is a fourth step people miss: if you perform construction services in Nebraska you must also be listed on the Department of Labor's Contractor Registration Database, and a contractor who is not on it has 5 percent Nebraska income tax withheld from payments made to it by another contractor." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Nebraska Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.nebraska.gov/businesses/nebraska-income-tax-withholding", "registerWhen": "Before you withhold anything. The Form 20 instructions say you must apply for an income tax withholding certificate prior to withholding income taxes for Nebraska, and set no grace period; allow two weeks if you file the paper Form 20 rather than registering online", "note": "Registration is free. Circular EN says in as many words that you apply for the withholding certificate on Form 20 and there is no fee for that certificate. Three Nebraska rules catch employers who are used to somewhere else. First, there is a floor on how little you can withhold: every employer with more than 24 employees must withhold at least 1.5 percent of each employee's taxable wages, and you may only go below that if the employee gives you documentation such as dependants, marital status or itemised deductions justifying it. Second, Circular EN describes no reciprocity agreement with any neighbouring state. A nonresident who splits time between Nebraska and elsewhere does not hand you an exemption certificate; they file a Form 9N telling you what percentage of their wages to treat as Nebraska wages, and an employee working 100 percent in Nebraska files nothing. Third, LB 1023 of 2024 added a convenience-of-the-employer rule that bites remote workers from 2025 onward. Compensation a nonresident earns working outside Nebraska is Nebraska source income if they work in Nebraska more than seven employment duty days in the year and the outside work was for their own convenience when it could have been done in Nebraska. Any partial day in Nebraska counts as a full day, and once the eighth day is passed every Nebraska day becomes withholdable.", "source": "https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/business/Cir_En_2025/2026cir_en_whole.pdf ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/tax-forms/f_20.pdf ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/businesses/starting-business-nebraska", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Nebraska Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance Tax", "url": "https://dol.nebraska.gov/UITax/UnemploymentInsuranceTax/CombinedTaxRates", "newEmployerRate": 0.0125, "wageBase": 9000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new Nebraska employer outside construction pays 1.25 percent on the first $9,000 of each worker's wages. A new construction employer pays 5.40 percent, which is the category twenty rate. Nebraska calls this a combined tax because it bundles two things: the contribution that builds your own experience account, and a State Unemployment Insurance Tax slice that the Commissioner of Labor can set anywhere from 0 to 20 percent of the combined tax and that earns you no reserve credit. For 2026 the SUIT allocation is 20 percent. There is a live conflict in the state's own material here, and the statute wins. The Employer's Guide to Unemployment Insurance, last revised 28 April 2021, says a new non-construction employer pays the lesser of the state's average tax rate or 2.5 percent, and the 2026 state average rate is only 0.55 percent, so following the Guide gives you 0.55 percent. That is wrong. Section 48-649.02(2) has said since 2017 that in no event shall the rate under subsection (1) be less than one and twenty-five hundredths percent, and the Department's own 2026 rate guide published 16 December 2025 prints the new employer rate as 1.25 percent. Use 1.25 percent. Wage base note: the $9,000 applies to categories one through nineteen, while a category twenty employer pays on the first $24,000, a split created by LB428 in 2019 and written into section 48-648.02. What no source read here resolves is which base a brand new construction employer uses, since it is assigned the category twenty rate but has no experience rating and so is arguably not a category twenty employer; confirm with the Department before running a construction payroll. Liability itself is FUTA-shaped: you become a liable general business employer once you have one or more people in covered employment on a day in 20 different calendar weeks in a year, or pay $1,500 in gross wages in any calendar quarter, or are already liable for federal unemployment tax and have employment here. Liability then covers the whole calendar year and the following year, and ending it takes a written application filed by 31 January.", "source": "https://dol.nebraska.gov/webdocs/Resources/Items/2026%20UI%20guide%20to%20understanding.pdf ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-649.02 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-648.02 ; https://dol.nebraska.gov/webdocs/getfile/da557858-b2cd-412f-a78b-caf4ff0cd131", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every resident employer and every nonresident employer performing work in Nebraska that employs one or more employees in its regular trade, business, profession or vocation", "agricultural employers only once they employ ten or more unrelated full-time employees on each working day for thirteen calendar weeks, with coverage beginning thirty days after the thirteenth week" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court", "url": "https://www.wcc.ne.gov/employers", "note": "Nebraska sets no headcount at all for an ordinary business. Section 48-106 applies the Act to every resident employer and every nonresident employer performing work in Nebraska that employs one or more employees in its regular trade or business, which means your first Nebraska hire creates the duty even if your office is in another state. The exclusions are by class of worker, not by size: railroad employees in interstate commerce, household domestic servants in a private home, and agricultural employers whose only workers are related to them, meaning a spouse or someone within the third degree by blood or marriage. An agricultural employer with unrelated workers stays outside the Act until it reaches ten or more unrelated full-time employees on each working day for thirteen calendar weeks, and if it stays out it must give each unrelated employee a signed written notice, in the words the statute prescribes, that they are not covered. Failing to give that notice makes the employer liable under the Act anyway. There is no state insurance fund and no registration step with the state: section 48-145 says you either insure with a carrier licensed to write workers compensation in Nebraska, or get the compensation court's approval to self insure on proof of financial ability, or join an authorised risk management pool. Going without is expensive twice over. Willfully failing to secure payment is a Class I misdemeanour, the civil penalty is up to $1,000 for each violation with every day of continued failure counting as a separate violation, the employer can be enjoined from doing business in Nebraska until it complies, and individual officers, members, managers or partners with authority to secure the payment can be held personally liable alongside the company.", "source": "https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-106 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-145 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-145.01", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within twenty days after the date of hire or rehire; an employer reporting electronically or magnetically may instead file two monthly transmissions not less than twelve and not more than sixteen days apart", "agency": "Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services, through the Nebraska New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://dhhs.ne.gov/Pages/Child-Support-Employer-New-Hire.aspx", "note": "The deadline is twenty days from the date of hire, which section 48-2302 defines as the day the employee begins employment, not the day you made the offer. The Nebraska trap is who counts. Section 48-2302 defines employee to include an independent contractor or a person who is compensated by or receives income from an employer or other payor regardless of how that income is denominated, so Nebraska is one of the states where your 1099 contractors get reported alongside your W-2 staff. Temporary, seasonal and recalled workers all count too. What you report is the employee's name, address and Social Security number, the date of hire or rehire, and your own name, address and federal tax identification number. The state contracts the intake out to Stellaware, so reports go to ne-newhire.com rather than to a government portal, which is normal here and not a scam. Penalties are mild by national standards: the department may levy a fine of up to $25 for each employee not reported, and section 48-2306 tells it to weigh the employer's good faith efforts to comply before doing so.", "source": "https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-2303 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-2302 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=48-2306 ; https://dhhs.ne.gov/Pages/Child-Support-Employer-New-Hire.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Nebraska Department of Labor, Labor Standards", "url": "https://dol.nebraska.gov/laborstandards", "note": "Nebraska runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family and medical leave insurance programme, so there is no payroll contribution of that kind to withhold or match and no extra account to open. What Nebraska does have, and what makes stale guidance dangerous here, is a paid sick time mandate funded entirely out of the employer's own pocket. The Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act took effect on 1 October 2025 and reaches only an employer who employs eleven or more employees, so a business with ten Nebraska staff owes nothing under it. Employees accrue at least one hour of paid sick time for every thirty hours worked and start accruing after eighty hours of consecutive employment. A small business, defined as eleven to nineteen employees in a given week, must let an employee accrue and use up to forty hours a year; everyone at twenty or more is a large business and the figure is fifty-six hours. The size test looks backwards as well as forwards, so you are not a small business if at any point in the current or previous calendar year you had twenty or more employees on payroll for twenty or more calendar weeks. Part-time and temporary workers count toward the headcount and earn the time; genuine independent contractors, owner-operators, seasonal agricultural workers, anyone under sixteen and anyone working under eighty hours in Nebraska in a year are excluded. Unused accrued time carries over to the next year. The other 2026 change to diarise is unrelated to leave: Nebraska's minimum wage went to $15.00 on 1 January 2026.", "source": "https://dol.nebraska.gov/webdocs/Resources/GuidanceDocuments/Paid%20Sick%20Time%20Guidance%20(FINAL%209-22).pdf ; https://dol.nebraska.gov/laborstandards", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Nebraska Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.nebraska.gov/businesses/starting-business-nebraska", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "No routine bond or deposit. Nothing in section 77-2705, which is the permit section, conditions a permit on security, and no bond requirement appeared on any Department of Revenue registration page read here. The one bond in the sales tax chapter is narrow and will not touch an ordinary retailer: under section 77-2708, a retailer that transfers its accounts receivable to a subsidiary which does not itself hold a Nebraska sales tax permit must post a surety bond in favour of the State of Nebraska of not less than twice the tax payable on the outstanding receivables the subsidiary held at the end of the prior calendar year. There is no stated cap on that bond.", "registerBy": "Before you make any retail sale in Nebraska. A remote seller or marketplace platform that crosses the threshold must obtain the permit and begin collecting on or before the first day of the second calendar month after the threshold is exceeded", "note": "The permit is free, and this is confirmed in statute rather than inferred: section 77-2705(3)(b) says there shall be no charge to the retailer for the application for or issuance of a permit. It does not expire, it is not assignable, and it stays valid until revoked. Two mechanics cost money. A separate permit is required for each place of business in Nebraska, so a second storefront means a second permit, though a retailer with at least 80 percent ownership of more than one licensed location can apply on Form 11 to file one combined return, and combined filers must then e-file monthly. And the free permit stops being free after trouble: restoration costs $25 after a first revocation and $50 after each successive one. Selling without a permit is a criminal matter, a Class IV misdemeanour under section 77-2713, with each day of operation a separate offence. Filing frequency is set from your estimated annual liability on the Form 20 itself: $3,000 or more is monthly, $900 to $2,999 quarterly, under $900 annually.", "source": "https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=77-2705 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=77-2713 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=77-2708 ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/tax-forms/f_20.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Nebraska calls the platform a Multivendor Marketplace Platform rather than a marketplace facilitator, and LB 284 of 2019 put it in section 77-2701.13 with effect from 1 April 2019. An MMP that crosses the same $100,000 or 200 transaction threshold must hold its own Nebraska sales tax permit and collect, report and remit Nebraska and local sales tax on the sales it facilitates for others. So Amazon or Etsy handles the tax on what it sells for you. Nebraska then does something that catches sellers out, because it is the opposite of the Indiana rule. Your sales through an MMP still count toward your own threshold. The Form 20 instructions put it flatly: sales of a remote seller through an MMP count towards the thresholds. A seller with $30,000 of its own website sales and $90,000 through a marketplace is over $100,000 and must register in Nebraska even though the platform is already collecting on the larger part. What you get is a deduction, not an exemption: you file a Form 10 reporting all of your Nebraska sales and deduct the MMP sales that the platform has reported and remitted. If you assume the platform's collection means you have no Nebraska filing duty, you will be a non-filer.", "source": "https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=77-2701.13 ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/about/frequently-asked-questions/remote-seller-and-marketplace-facilitator-faqs ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/tax-forms/f_20.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Nebraska tests the previous or the current calendar year, so a year in which you exceed $100,000 of Nebraska retail sales or make 200 or more separate Nebraska transactions drags the following year in with it. You keep collecting and filing through that next year even if your Nebraska sales collapse, and the earliest you can be clear is the year after that. There is no wind-down period expressed in days and no separate trailing rule. What does not happen on its own is deregistration. Neither the statute nor the Department's remote seller notice or FAQ sets out a procedure for switching off once you fall below the threshold, and the permit stays valid until revoked, so the returns keep falling due until you close the account. The route for that is on the Form 20 instructions: cancel the Nebraska ID number on your final return or file a Nebraska Change Request, Form 22. Going quiet instead is how businesses collect non-filer notices.", "source": "https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=77-2701.13 ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/businesses/sales-and-use-tax/notice-remote-sellers-and-marketplace-facilitators ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/tax-forms/f_20.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": "Litter fee, a narrow tax on gross proceeds rather than a general gross receipts tax", "agency": "Nebraska Department of Revenue", "url": "https://revenue.nebraska.gov/about/legal-information/regulations/chapter-28-litter-fee", "rateRange": "$175 for each $1,000,000 of gross proceeds, which works out at 0.0175 percent of covered sales", "exclusionThreshold": 100000, "note": "Nebraska has nothing resembling Washington's B and O, Ohio's CAT or Oregon's CAT, and there is no corporate franchise tax on top of income tax. If you sell services, software or industrial goods there is no receipts-based cost of doing business here at all. But do not answer no and stop, because Nebraska taxes gross proceeds in one specific corner and it catches ordinary shops. The litter fee applies to manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers of ten product categories: food for human or pet consumption, groceries, cigarettes and other tobacco, soft drinks and carbonated water, liquor, wine and beer, household paper products, glass containers, metal containers, plastic or fibre containers, and cleaning agents and toiletries. The rate is $175 per $1,000,000 of gross proceeds and it is charged on receipts, not on profit. Anyone whose annual Nebraska gross proceeds from covered products come to less than $100,000 is out, which is why most businesses never meet it, but at or above $100,000 you must hold a litter fee licence for each place of business and file a Nebraska Litter Fee Return, Form 28. The year runs 1 July to 30 June and the return and payment are due by the following 1 October. Failing to get the licence is a Class IV misdemeanour. The fee is currently set to terminate on 30 September 2030. Two other narrow levies now appear on the Form 20 revised June 2026 and are worth checking if they touch your trade: a Remittance Transfer Excise Tax on remittance transfer providers licensed under the Nebraska Money Transmitters Act, and a Kratom Product Retailer Excise Tax. Their rates were not read for this record.", "source": "https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=81-1559 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=81-1560 ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/about/legal-information/regulations/chapter-28-litter-fee ; https://revenue.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/tax-forms/f_20.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Nebraska Secretary of State, Business Services Division", "url": "https://sos.nebraska.gov/business-services/forms-and-fee-information", "feeLLC": 110, "feeCorp": 110, "feeNote": "Both entity types cost the same to qualify, and both statutes say the same thing: $110 if the filing is submitted in writing and $100 if it is submitted electronically. Section 21-192 sets that for a foreign LLC's application for certificate of authority and section 21-2,205 sets it for a foreign corporation's. The stored figures are the paper fees printed on the current official forms, both revised 1 July 2021; deduct $10 if you file online. There is one asymmetry. The foreign LLC form prints its fee as $110 in-office or $100 online plus $10 for the certificate, so budget $120 on paper and $110 online for an LLC, while the foreign corporation form carries no such add-on. A foreign nonprofit corporation pays $30. Nothing scales with authorized shares at the qualification stage.", "note": "You need a Nebraska registered agent with a street address, and both entity types must attach an original certificate of existence from the home state; for a corporation it must be no more than sixty days old, and for an LLC a certified copy of the certificate of organization is expressly not accepted in its place. The corporation filing also demands a full list of officers and directors with street addresses. Skipping the filing is far more dangerous for a corporation than for an LLC. Under section 21-2,204 a foreign corporation transacting business without a certificate of authority may not maintain any proceeding in a Nebraska court until it gets one, and is liable for a civil penalty of $500 for each day, capped at $10,000 for each year, which the Attorney General collects. Section 21-162 puts an unregistered foreign LLC under the same court bar but attaches no monetary penalty and expressly preserves the validity of its contracts and its right to defend a suit. Neither statute makes members or managers personally liable merely for the failure. Qualifying opens no tax accounts, so the Form 20 registration, the unemployment insurance account and any sales tax permit are all still ahead of you. Budget for the ongoing filings too, because they differ by entity type: an LLC files a biennial report in each odd-numbered year at $30 on paper or $25 online, while a corporation files a biennial report by 1 March of each even-numbered year together with an occupation tax computed on its paid-up capital stock, starting at a minimum of $26 and rising through brackets to $23,990 above $100,000,000 of capital stock.", "source": "https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=21-192 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=21-2,205 ; https://sos.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/business-services/Corporations/Forms/ApplicationForCertificateofAuthorityLLC.pdf ; https://sos.nebraska.gov/sites/default/files/doc/business-services/Corporations/Forms/ApplicationForCertificateofAuthorityFC.pdf ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=21-2,204 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=21-162 ; https://nebraskalegislature.gov/laws/statutes.php?statute=21-303", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "north-dakota": { "state": "North Dakota", "abbr": "ND", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner", "Job Service North Dakota", "North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance", "North Dakota Secretary of State" ], "note": "North Dakota has no single employer account. ND TAP, the Tax Commissioner's portal, carries income tax withholding and the sales tax permit behind one login, which is the closest thing to a one stop, but it stops there. Unemployment is a separate registration with Job Service North Dakota in its own UI EASY system, and workers compensation is a third application to Workforce Safety and Insurance. The Secretary of State entity filing is a fourth step and opens none of the tax accounts. Budget for three payroll registrations plus the entity filing, each with its own deadline, and note that the tightest of those deadlines is the withholding one at seven days." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner", "url": "https://www.tax.nd.gov/business/income-tax-withholding", "registerWhen": "Within seven days of hiring an employee", "note": "The seven day registration deadline is the shortest in this dataset, and it is not on the Tax Commissioner's withholding page or in its published withholding guideline. It sits in the administrative code at N.D. Admin. Code 81-03-03.1-02, which says an employer required to withhold must register within seven days of hiring an employee, and the rule is what binds you. Register through ND TAP. Two exemptions cut the other way and are worth knowing before you set up payroll. Minnesota and Montana residents working in North Dakota can be freed from North Dakota withholding under reciprocity if they give you Form NDW-R, renewed by 28 February each year, and a Minnesota resident must also return home at least once a month to qualify. Separately, a nonresident present in the state for not more than 20 days in the tax year, with no other North Dakota source income, whose home state offers a similar exclusion or has no income tax, is outside withholding under the nonresident mobile workforce exclusion. Wages a farmer or rancher pays purely for agricultural labour are not subject to withholding at all. Form 306 must be filed for every period even when you paid no wages, and the officers, LLC governors or managers responsible for filing are personally liable for the tax, a liability that survives dissolving the business.", "source": "https://ndlegis.gov/information/acdata/pdf/81-03-03.1.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Job Service North Dakota", "url": "https://www.jobsnd.com/unemployment-business-tax/learn-about-taxes", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 46600, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new non-construction employer pays 1.00% on the first $46,600 of each worker's wages, down slightly from 1.03% on $45,100 in 2025. A new construction employer pays 9.67%, close to ten times as much, so how the work is classified matters more here than the headline rate does. The 1.00% figure is the positive balance rate a genuinely new account starts on. Job Service publishes a second new employer rate of 6.07% for a new account already carrying a negative balance, which is what an employer inheriting a predecessor's experience record can land on. The wage base is not a fixed figure in statute: it is recalculated every year as 70% of the statewide average annual payroll, so it moves every January. Register within 20 days of first employing workers. You are liable once you have one or more workers in 20 different weeks of a calendar year or pay $1,500 in wages in any calendar quarter, with separate tests for agricultural, domestic and nonprofit employment. You stay on the new employer rate until you have six quarters of coverage as of the preceding October, or ten quarters if you are a construction employer.", "source": "https://www.jobsnd.com/sites/www/files/documents/jsnd-documents/uitaxrateschedules2026.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI)", "url": "https://www.workforcesafety.com/employers/insurance-coverage-information/coverage-requirements", "note": "North Dakota is a monopoly state fund state, and that changes the shape of the whole answer. You cannot buy a workers compensation policy from a private insurer here, because state law does not allow private insurers to underwrite the cover at all. WSI is the sole provider and regulator, so there is nothing to quote or shop, no broker in the loop, and your existing multi-state policy does not stretch to cover a North Dakota worker. What you do instead is open a WSI account and file an Application for Insurance before anyone starts work. There is no headcount to wait for: coverage is required for all employees, full time, part time, seasonal and occasional, before they begin working. An out-of-state employer is pulled in by significant contacts, and any one of three tests is enough: an employee earns or is expected to earn 25% or more of their gross annual pay from you for services in North Dakota, or 25% of your gross annual payroll is for services in North Dakota, or you hire someone in North Dakota to work in North Dakota. One full time remote worker living in the state clears the first test by themselves. Being uninsured costs a $10,000 penalty plus $100 for every day it continues, and you remain liable for the actual cost and reserves of any claim from the uninsured period. Premium is a rate per class of employment applied to payroll, with each worker's payroll capped at 70% of the state average annual wage and a minimum charge of $250 per period even in a period with no employees, so no single rate can be quoted. Unlike Washington, it is unlawful to take any part of the premium out of wages. Owners, partners, corporate officers and their spouses, the employer's children under 22, farm and ranch labour, household domestic workers and place of worship staff sit outside the mandate and can only be covered electively. WSI holds reciprocal agreements with Idaho, Montana, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming for temporary work across those borders, but each one has to be requested and approved in advance rather than assumed.", "source": "https://www.workforcesafety.com/employers/across-state-lines/out-state-employers-working-north-dakota", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "no later than twenty days after the date the employer hires the employee", "agency": "North Dakota Health and Human Services, Child Support", "url": "https://www.hhs.nd.gov/childsupport/employers/new-hire-reporting/reporting-requirements", "note": "Report every newly hired employee within 20 days, counting from the date services for pay were first performed. Newly hired covers a returning worker who has been separated from you for at least sixty consecutive days, so a seasonal rehire is reportable all over again. Unlike Ohio, North Dakota does not extend the duty to independent contractors: the statute defines employee by reference to Internal Revenue Code section 3401, so only people you actually put on payroll are in scope. Any employer with more than twenty-four employees at any time must report electronically, and failing to do so is treated as not reporting at all. A W-4 or equivalent form is the accepted format, and the report has to state whether you offer the employee health insurance, a data element several states leave out. The penalty is $20 for each failure to report after a written warning, rising to $250 for each report where employer and employee agreed not to file, or where a false or incomplete report was filed. This is a separate filing from your quarterly wage reports and nothing about registering for payroll tax satisfies it.", "source": "https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t34c15.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "North Dakota runs no state paid family leave programme and no state disability insurance, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and no fourth payroll account to open. If you already run payroll in California, Washington or Delaware, do not carry that deduction across. Two things here are easy to misread. A 2021 bill would have created a voluntary paid family medical leave programme at Century Code chapter 34-06.2, funded partly by the state and paired with an employer tax credit, and drafts of it are still findable on the legislature's site; it did not become law, and Title 34 of the Century Code has no chapter 34-06.2 today. Separately, the North Dakota Family Leave Act at Century Code chapter 54-52.4 does grant twelve weeks of leave, but it defines employer as the state and excludes political subdivisions, so it binds state agencies only and not private employers. For a private employer the only family leave obligation is the federal FMLA, which is unpaid.", "source": "https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t54c52-4.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner", "url": "https://www.tax.nd.gov/business/sales-and-use-tax", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "The commissioner may require a surety bond, in an amount the commissioner fixes, whenever it is judged necessary to secure collection of the tax, under Century Code 57-39.2-12(3). The statute sets no cap, so a new or out-of-state seller should not assume the free permit is the only cost of getting registered.", "registerBy": "Apply 30 days before opening for business; a remote seller registers after crossing the $100,000 threshold and begins collecting on sales delivered in the following calendar year or 60 days after crossing, whichever is earlier", "note": "The permit itself is free. Century Code 57-39.2-14 lays out the entire permit regime and imposes a charge in exactly one place: $50 to issue or reissue a permit after the commissioner has revoked one, which can happen for non-compliance or for filing four consecutive quarters of returns showing no tax due. There is no fee on an original application. Apply through ND TAP, the same portal as your withholding account. Three things catch people out. A permit is not transferable, so buying an existing business means applying for your own rather than inheriting the seller's. A permit is issued for each place of business in the state and must be displayed conspicuously at the place it names. And North Dakota's local city and county sales taxes are administered by the Tax Commissioner on the locals' behalf, so one registration and one return cover state and local tax, but you still have to source each sale to the delivery location to get the local rate right.", "source": "https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t57c39-2.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "A marketplace facilitator collects North Dakota state and local tax on the sales it facilitates, and once it gives you written certification that it will do so, you are no longer liable for tax on those sales. The instruction if you also hold your own permit is to leave marketplace sales off your return entirely, not to report them and claim a deduction, which is the opposite of how Washington handles the same situation. The facilitator's own duty turns on physical presence in the state, or more than $100,000 of taxable sales through the marketplace in the current or prior calendar year, counting the sales it makes on its own behalf as well as yours. Everything you sell through your own website or any other channel stays yours to collect and remit, and those direct sales are what you measure against your own threshold.", "source": "https://www.tax.nd.gov/marketplace-facilitator", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "North Dakota's remote seller test looks at the previous calendar year or the current one, so a year in which you cross carries the following year with it and dropping back below the threshold does not end the duty straight away. One discrepancy is worth flagging. The Tax Commissioner's sales and use tax page describes the trigger as taxable sales into the state exceeding $100,000, while the statute at Century Code 57-39.2-02.2 measures gross sales from the sale of tangible personal property and other taxable items delivered in this state. The statute is what binds you and it is the broader wording, so measure against it rather than against the summary. Your permit also stays open until you close it, so tell the Tax Commissioner when you genuinely stop selling into North Dakota instead of filing zero returns indefinitely. Filing four consecutive quarters showing no tax due is itself grounds for revocation, and getting the permit back afterwards is the one situation in which a permit costs $50.", "source": "https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t57c39-2.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://www.tax.nd.gov/business/sales-and-use-tax", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "North Dakota has no broad tax on business revenue: nothing resembling Washington's business and occupation tax, Ohio's commercial activity tax or Oregon's corporate activity tax, and no annual state business licence fee either. The reason this still needs saying is that the state does use the phrase gross receipts tax, and it means something far narrower than the same phrase means elsewhere. It is a set of substitute sales tax rates on three specific goods, charged instead of the ordinary 5% state rate: 7% on alcohol, 3% on new farm machinery used exclusively for agricultural production, and 3% on new mobile homes. If you sell one of those you charge that rate on that sale; if you do not, the phrase has nothing to do with your business and your receipts as such are not taxed. The state level exposures for an ordinary business expanding here are corporate or pass-through income tax and the sales tax you collect, not a receipts tax.", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "North Dakota Secretary of State, Business Services", "url": "https://www.sos.nd.gov/business/business-services/register-business", "feeLLC": 135, "feeCorp": 145, "feeNote": "$135 to register a foreign LLC and $145 for a foreign business corporation, neither of which scales with capital or authorized shares. The ongoing cost differs more than the entry cost does: a foreign LLC's annual report is $50 and due 15 November, while a foreign corporation's is $25 and due 15 May. Amending a foreign registration is $50 for an LLC and $40 for a corporation, and withdrawing later is $20 either way. The corporation figures come from the Secretary of State's separate corporation fee schedule rather than the LLC one.", "note": "The Secretary of State names having employees working in the state as an example of transacting business, which is the thing that triggers this filing, and so are having a liability to collect sales tax and needing a state licence or permit to do the work. Hiring one North Dakota employee therefore tends to pull in the entity registration as well as the payroll accounts. Filing goes through the FirstStop portal and you will need a North Dakota registered agent. This is the entity step only and opens no tax accounts: withholding, unemployment, workers compensation and the sales tax permit all remain separate registrations afterwards.", "source": "https://sos.nd.gov/business/business-services/business-structures/limited-liability-companies/limited-liability-company-llc/llc-fees.html", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "mississippi": { "state": "Mississippi", "abbr": "MS", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales tax", "seller's use tax and consumer use tax", "corporate income and franchise tax" ], "note": "One Department of Revenue portal, Taxpayer Access Point at tap.dor.ms.gov, opens every tax the Department administers, so withholding and sales or use tax are registered in the same place and neither costs anything. They are still separate accounts with separate account numbers, separate returns and separate closing procedures, so treat this as one front door rather than one account. Everything else is somewhere else entirely. Unemployment tax is registered with the Mississippi Department of Employment Security on Form UI-1. Workers compensation is not a state account at all because you buy the policy from a private insurer or get Commission approval to self insure. New hire reporting goes to a fourth system at ms-newhire.com run for the Department of Human Services, and a fifth thing exists to confuse you: MDES runs its own separate voluntary new hire program that does not replace the Human Services filing and says so on its own page. Budget for four agencies." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Mississippi Department of Revenue, Withholding Tax, Income and Franchise Tax Bureau", "url": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/withholding-tax", "registerWhen": "Before your first Mississippi payroll, online through TAP. The Department asks you to allow up to 10 business days for the withholding account registration to complete.", "note": "The trigger is wide and catches employers who have never set foot in the state. The Department's own wording is that every employer engaged in business, licensed to do business, or transacting business in Mississippi, or who pays wages to a Mississippi resident regardless of where the services are performed, or who pays wages to a non-resident for services performed in Mississippi, must register for a withholding tax account. One remote Mississippi worker opens the account. Your filing frequency is assigned to you rather than chosen: an employer whose average liability is $300 or more per month files monthly, smaller employers file quarterly, and either way the return is due the 15th day of the month following the period. A return is due for every period even when no tax is owed. Liability of $20,000 or more for any reporting period must be filed and paid electronically, and any employer issuing 10 or more W-2s or 1099s must file them electronically, with a penalty of $25 for the first instance of non-compliance and $500 for each one after. W-2s are due to the Department by January 31; paper 1099s go with the Annual Information Return, Form 89-140, by February 28. Two things trip up out-of-state payroll teams. First, the rate moves every year: for tax year 2026 the Department's employer publication sets withholding at 0% on the first $10,000 of taxable income and 4.0% above that, down from prior years, so last year's tables are wrong. Second, a non-resident working in Mississippi is withheld on unless their Mississippi earnings for the year will be below their standard deduction, while a Mississippi resident working in another state should have the other state's tax withheld, not Mississippi's. Domestic help in the home is exempt from withholding, and Section 125 cafeteria plan amounts are not subject to it.", "source": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/sites/default/files/tax-forms/business/89700251revised1.13.2026.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Mississippi Department of Employment Security", "url": "https://mdes.ms.gov/employers/unemployment-tax/reporting-and-filing/unemployment-tax-rates/", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 14000, "year": null, "note": "Mississippi is one of the gentlest new employer rates in the country and it climbs on a fixed ladder rather than sitting still: 1.00% in your first year of liability, 1.10% in the second, and 1.20% in the third and subsequent years until you have enough history for a modified rate. Experience rated employers run 0.0% to 5.4%. The taxable wage base is the first $14,000 of each employee's wages per calendar year, which MDES states on its employer FAQ and prints on the face of the quarterly Form UI-2/3. The number recorded here is not the whole bill, and MDES says so twice on its own rates page: these rates do not include the Workforce Investment and Training contribution that might be applicable for the rate year. That contribution is set by Miss. Code Ann. 71-5-353 at twenty one-hundredths of one percent, 0.0020, made up of 0.0015 Workforce Enhancement Training, 0.0001 State Workforce Investment and 0.0004 Mississippi Works, and the statute says it is in addition to the general experience rate plus the individual experience rate of all employers. The Mississippi Works slice only runs in years when the adjusted general experience rate would otherwise fall below 0.2%, and the whole training contribution suspends if the insured unemployment rate averages above 5.5% for the three months before a rate year, reactivating only once that average drops below 4.5%. So a first year employer should plan on roughly 1.2% in total, not 1.0%, but the exact add-on for any given year is not published on the MDES site. No rate year is recorded in the year field because MDES labels none of these figures with a year anywhere on its public pages, and it tells you to contact your local UI Tax Field Representative to get your own rate for the current year. Liability itself is easy to reach: an ordinary commercial employer becomes liable on paying $1,500 in wages in a calendar quarter, or on having at least one worker performing services in some part of a day in each of 20 different calendar weeks in a year. Household employers cross at $1,000 in a quarter, agricultural at $20,000 in a quarter or 10 workers in 20 weeks, and a 501(c)(3) at 4 workers in 20 weeks. Once you are liable you stay liable for the whole calendar year.", "source": "https://mdes.ms.gov/employer-faqs/", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 5, "requiredFor": [ "every person, firm and private corporation, including a public service corporation, that has in service five or more workmen or operatives regularly in the same business or in or about the same establishment under any contract of hire", "state agencies, counties, municipalities, school districts and other political subdivisions, all of which are brought under the law regardless of headcount" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no opt-out and no form for an employer below five. The statute simply does not reach you, so an employer that regularly has fewer than five workers is outside the law by default with nothing to file. Going the other way costs you a filing: an exempt employer that chooses to buy coverage voluntarily comes under the Act, and every employer subject to the law must give the Commission proof of coverage, which under the Commission's General Rule 1.3 normally arrives through the insurer's filing with the National Council on Compensation Insurance rather than from you directly.", "agency": "Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission", "url": "https://www.mwcc.ms.gov/#/frequentlyAskedQuestions/general", "note": "This is Mississippi's biggest divergence from the states around it and it runs the opposite way from the usual surprise. Most states start coverage at the first, second or third employee. Mississippi exempts you outright below five. The Commission's own FAQ says generally any employer with 5 or more employees should have insurance, and Miss. Code Ann. 71-3-5 reaches only employers that have in service five or more workmen or operatives regularly in the same business or in or about the same establishment. The word doing the work is regularly, so a business that spikes to six for a fortnight is not obviously in, and one that runs five all year plainly is. On top of the headcount, whole categories sit outside the law however many people they employ: nonprofit charitable, fraternal, cultural and religious corporations and associations are excluded by the text of 71-3-5 itself, and the Commission adds domestic and farm labour, work performed under an independent or subcontract, and employment covered by federal law such as maritime work. Two cautions. Mississippi publishes no counting rule on its site for whether part-timers, corporate officers or owners count toward the five, so unlike Alabama and Tennessee no such rule is quoted here; ask the Commission before you rely on being at four. And the exemption is not permanent policy: House Bill 405 of 2019 would have struck the five workmen rule and required coverage from one employee. It died in committee, so five is still the law, but this is a live legislative target. The Commission does not publish, on any page reachable without its claims system, the penalty for an employer that should have carried coverage and did not, so no penalty figure is quoted.", "source": "https://billstatus.ls.state.ms.us/documents/2019/html/HB/0400-0499/HB0405IN.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 15, "deadline": "within 15 days of the employee's hire or rehire date; employers reporting magnetically or electronically may instead send two transmissions a month, not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart", "agency": "Mississippi State Directory of New Hires, operated for the Mississippi Department of Human Services", "url": "https://ms-newhire.com/", "note": "Fifteen days is tighter than the federal 20 day floor, so a habit carried in from a 20 day state will be late in Mississippi. The obligation sits on all employers under Miss. Code Ann. 43-19-46 and 93-11-101 together with the federal PRWORA, and it covers everyone who lives or works in Mississippi that you expect to pay, including someone who works a single day and leaves. A returning worker is a rehire and must be reported again once they have been separated, laid off, furloughed or on unpaid leave for at least 60 consecutive days. Mississippi differs from Texas and Florida in one useful way: the Directory accepts independent contractor reports but does not require them by law. The penalty is small, up to $25 per newly hired employee, rising to $500 where the state finds a conspiracy between employer and employee not to report. The real trap is which agency you are dealing with. The Department of Employment Security runs its own new hire program to catch people who have gone back to work while claiming benefits, and its page is explicit that this is voluntary and does not relieve you of the responsibility to continue reporting to the State Directory of New Hires administered by the Department of Human Services. Filing with MDES is not filing with the Directory. The Directory itself is reached at ms-newhire.com and its mailing address is a processing centre in Norwell, Massachusetts, which is normal and not a sign you are on the wrong site.", "source": "https://ms-newhire.com/law", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Mississippi runs no state disability insurance and no state paid family and medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and nothing extra to register for. The Department of Revenue's 2026 employer withholding publication describes income tax withholding and nothing else, and the only other state payroll levy anyone administers here is the unemployment contribution and the Workforce Investment and Training contribution that rides on top of it at MDES. Mississippi also has no state department of labour running wage and hour or leave mandates, which is why there is no third agency to check. If you already run payroll in California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Colorado or Delaware, do not carry that deduction across to a Mississippi employee. Recorded at S rather than P because this is an absence, established from what the state's own employer publications cover rather than from a page that says the programme does not exist.", "source": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/sites/default/files/tax-forms/business/89700251revised1.13.2026.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Mississippi Department of Revenue, Sales and Use Tax Bureau", "url": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/sales-use-tax/registration-information-sales-and-use-tax-applicants", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "There is no deposit at registration as a matter of course, but the Department reserves an open-ended bond. Its wording is that depending upon the nature of the business, or past history of the applicant, a bond may be required to be posted before a permit is issued, and separately that if you or other owners, partners, officers, members or trustees have a history of filing or paying sales tax late, you must pay the outstanding liabilities and post a bond before receiving a new licence. No amount or formula is published, so treat the size as unknown.", "registerBy": "Before you begin business. The Department states that the law requires a person to have a sales tax permit before beginning or operating a business subject to collecting sales tax, so there is no grace period to sell first and register later. An out-of-state seller with no Mississippi location registers instead for a use tax account once its sales into Mississippi exceed $250,000 in a consecutive twelve month period.", "note": "The permit is free, and this is the one number worth being careful about because Mississippi is widely reported as charging $50. The Department answers it directly and in its own words: no, there is no fee to obtain a sales tax permit, and the sales tax number represents a permit issued to the applicant for the privilege of operating a business in Mississippi. The $50 that circulates is a different figure entirely: it is the cap on the vendor's discount for paying on time, which is 2% of the tax due, not to exceed $50. Where the discount belongs to you, the fee does not exist. Three mechanics matter more than the price. Permits are location specific, so a single legal entity gets one account number but each separate physical location must be registered for its own permit, and moving even across the street requires an amended application. The permit does not expire and needs no renewal while you stay in the same business at the same location, which is a real saving next to Alabama's annual November renewal. And every permittee must file a return for every period on its assigned frequency even when no tax was collected, with returns due the 20th of the month following. Allow about two weeks for the permit to arrive. Anyone doing non-residential construction should also read the contractor's tax entry in the gross receipts section, because that is a separate 3.5% levy with a prepayment rule aimed squarely at out-of-state contractors.", "source": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/business-tax-frequently-asked-questions", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "House Bill 379 of the 2020 regular session created the Mississippi Marketplace Facilitator Act of 2020. From 1 July 2020 a marketplace facilitator that facilitates sales into Mississippi exceeding $250,000 in any consecutive twelve month period must register for a Mississippi use tax account and collect and remit use tax on Mississippi sales of taxable services, tangible personal property and specified digital products. A facilitator is defined broadly: anyone who lists or advertises a retailer's taxable goods, services or digital goods in any forum and who, directly or through third party arrangements, collects payment from the customer and transmits it to the retailer, whether or not it is paid for doing so. The detail that changes the arithmetic for a small seller is that a sale made through a marketplace facilitator counts as the facilitator's sale rather than the seller's when working out whether anyone has crossed $250,000, so platform sales do not push you over the line on your own account. Sales through your own website or any other channel still do, and those remain yours to register for and remit. One carve-out worth knowing: sales facilitated by third party food delivery services that bring food from an unrelated restaurant to a customer are not treated as retail sales, and those services pay sales tax to the restaurant on the cost of the food rather than charging the customer on delivery.", "source": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/sites/default/files/news/72-20-04%20MARKETPLACE%20FACILITATORS.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Mississippi publishes no trailing nexus rule and no wind-down procedure for a remote seller whose sales fall back under $250,000, so this is recorded as unknown rather than guessed. What the Department does publish points the same way in practice: the threshold is measured over any consecutive twelve month period rather than a calendar year, so a dip below it does not cleanly end anything, and while your account stays open you owe a return for every period whether or not you collected a cent. The only documented way out is to close the account, which means filing a final return and submitting an account closure request through TAP. The Department describes that procedure explicitly for withholding accounts and not for sales or use tax accounts, so telephone the Sales and Use Tax Bureau on 601-923-7015 before you simply stop filing. Going quiet on an open Mississippi account produces delinquency assessments, not a lapse.", "source": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/business-tax-frequently-asked-questions", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": "No gross receipts, commerce or business activity tax. Two other levies fill the same surprise slot: the 3.5% contractor's tax on non-residential construction contracts, which is computed on the contract price, and the corporation franchise tax on capital, now in its final years.", "agency": "Mississippi Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/business/corporate-income-and-franchise-tax", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Mississippi levies nothing resembling Washington's B&O or Ohio's CAT, so there is no revenue-based tax to plan around. Two other things catch out-of-state businesses. The first is the contractor's tax, which lives inside the Sales Tax Law rather than the income tax and is the single most expensive thing a visiting contractor can miss. It is 3.5% on all construction, renovation or repair of non-residential real property where the total contract price or compensation received exceeds $10,000, and the timing rule is aimed at you specifically: if the contract exceeds $75,000 in scope, or if the contractor is from another state, the contractor's tax must be paid before work begins. Filing a surety bond with the Department to guarantee payment relieves you of prepaying; otherwise it is cash up front. Bonded contracts and those not required to prepay can report the tax monthly on the ordinary sales tax return. The second is the corporation franchise tax, levied on capital, surplus, undivided profits and true reserves employed in Mississippi above $100,000, with a $25 minimum. Senate Bill 2858 of 2016 put it on a nine-year glide path and the Department's current corporate instructions print the whole schedule: $1.00 per $1,000 for tax year 2024, $0.75 for 2025, $0.50 for 2026, $0.25 for 2027, and repealed effective 1 January 2028. The rate in force on this review date is the tax year 2026 figure of $0.50 per $1,000. Corporate income tax, which is separate, is 0% on the first $5,000 of taxable income, 4% on the next $5,000 and 5% above $10,000. No numeric fields are filled because none of these is a gross receipts rate.", "source": "https://www.dor.ms.gov/sites/default/files/tax-forms/business/2025%20CIT%20INSTRUCTIONS%2083-100%20-%20Final%20%2001.14.2026.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Mississippi Secretary of State, Business Services Division", "url": "https://www.sos.ms.gov/business-services/fees-forms-directory", "feeLLC": 250, "feeCorp": 500, "feeNote": "$250 for a foreign LLC on Form F0200, Application for Registration of Foreign Limited Liability Company. $500 for a foreign profit corporation on Form F0002, Application for Certificate of Authority; the same form is $100 for a foreign nonprofit corporation. A foreign limited partnership is also $250. Name reservation, if you need one, is $25 for an LLC and $50 for a corporation. Figures are from the Secretary of State's Services and Fees Schedule revised October 2024.", "note": "Foreign qualification here is registering an entity you formed elsewhere so it can transact business in Mississippi, which is a different filing from forming a Mississippi entity, and the fees are among the higher ones in the region. The part that actually costs money is not the entry fee but the annual one, and it is easy to miss because it inverts what Mississippi charges its own companies. A Mississippi LLC files its annual report for nothing. A foreign LLC registered here pays $250 for the same annual report, every year, forever. A foreign corporation's annual report is $25, the same as a domestic one. So the choice of entity type changes your recurring Mississippi cost by $250 a year in a way no other filing fee here does. Annual reports for profit corporations and LLCs are due by 15 April, nonprofit corporations by 15 May, and they must be filed online through the Secretary of State's portal. Failing to file can lead to administrative dissolution or revocation, and getting back is $50 for a Mississippi LLC, $100 for a foreign LLC and $100 for a foreign corporation. Withdrawing later is $25, and the Department of Revenue adds its own step: a corporation leaving the state withdraws or dissolves through the Secretary of State and must also file a final return with the Department, having first made sure the corporation holds no Mississippi assets.", "source": "https://www.sos.ms.gov/content/documents/Business/Services%20&%20Fees%20Document.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "arkansas": { "state": "Arkansas", "abbr": "AR", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding, wage, pension and pass-through", "sales and use tax", "other excise taxes administered by the Department of Finance and Administration" ], "note": "Arkansas gives you one registration at the Department of Finance and Administration and a second one somewhere else entirely. Form AR-1R is literally titled Combined Business Tax Registration, and the same session at Arkansas Taxpayer Access Point opens your withholding account and your sales and use tax permit together. What it does not touch is unemployment. That is a separate registration with the Division of Workforce Services on Form DWS-ARK-201 through the Tax21 portal, and it is the one an out-of-state employer forgets. The saving grace is that new hire reporting rides on the same Tax21 system as unemployment rather than being a third portal, which is unusual and is worth knowing before you go looking for a standalone new hire site. Workers compensation is not a state account at all because you buy the policy from a private insurer. Budget for two agencies, two portals and one insurance policy." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Withholding Tax Branch", "url": "https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/income-tax-administration/withholding-tax-branch/", "registerWhen": "Before your first Arkansas payroll, online at Arkansas Taxpayer Access Point or by mailing Form AR-1R. The employer instructions set no grace period in days.", "note": "One remote Arkansas worker creates the account. The Department's own definition of employer reaches a person doing business in or deriving income from sources outside this state who controls the payment of wages for services performed within Arkansas, so having no Arkansas office does not get you out of it. The test is where the work is physically done: you withhold on wages of employees who work within Arkansas, and you do not withhold for an employee who does not work within the state, with a day-count apportionment for anyone who works partly in and partly out. Two things surprise people. First, the rate moved. The 2026 edition of the employer instructions, effective 1 January 2026, states the current withholding tax rate as 3.7 percent, and the older withholdInstructions.pdf still sitting on the DFA server says 3.9 percent because it was last revised 1 July 2024. Believe the 2026 edition. Second, Texarkana. Under a border city exemption an Arkansas resident living inside the city limits of Texarkana, Arkansas pays no Arkansas individual income tax at all, and a Texas resident living inside the city limits of Texarkana, Texas pays none on wages earned in Texarkana, Arkansas. That means separate forms, AR4EC-TX from the employee and an AR-3Q-TEX reconciliation with the AR-TX wage exemption from you by 28 February. Living on a rural route near Texarkana does not qualify. Every new registration starts as a monthly filer on Form AR941M, due the 15th of the following month, and the Department moves you to annual filing only after you have built a filing history with deposits under $1,000 in a period. A zero voucher is still required for a month with no withholding. Annual reconciliation on Form AR3MAR is due 28 February; W-2s with the ARW-3 are due 31 January. Late payment runs 5 percent per month to a 35 percent cap plus 10 percent annual interest. Arkansas has no city or county wage tax, so unlike Alabama or Missouri there is no local layer to chase.", "source": "https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/Withholding-Tax-Instructions-for-Employers.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, Unemployment Insurance Employer Services", "url": "https://dws.arkansas.gov/workforce-services/unemployment/employer-ui-information/", "newEmployerRate": 0.02, "wageBase": 7000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new Arkansas employer pays 2.0 percent on the first $7,000 of each worker's wages, which is the 1.9 percent statutory new employer rate plus the 0.1 percent administrative assessment. Act 196 of 2023 did both halves of that: it cut the new employer rate from 2.9 percent to 1.9 percent under section 11-10-704 effective 1 January 2024, and it recharacterised the old stabilization tax as an administrative assessment under section 11-10-705, set at 0.125 percent for the year to 30 June 2024 and 0.1 percent thereafter. You keep the new employer rate until you have three years of chargeable benefit experience, after which a reserve ratio chart puts you between 0.1 percent and 5.0 percent, or into deficit bands of 6.0, 8.0 or 10.0 percent. Read the agency's own pages in the right order, because they disagree with each other. The UI Employer Services page carries the current 2026 block quoted above but also lists a Stabilization rate of 0.200 percent, which cannot be right: stabilization was replaced by the administrative assessment in July 2023, and the same block's experienced range of 0.200 to 5.100 percent is exactly the 0.1 to 5.0 percent base chart plus a 0.1 percent add-on, not a 0.2 percent one. Meanwhile the separate Employer UI Contributions page has not been updated past 2025 and still says in prose that a new employer is assigned 3.1 percent, a figure from 2023. The statute and the current rate block agree on 2.0 percent, so that is what is recorded. Liability is easy to trip: you are an employer once you have one or more individuals in employment for some portion of ten or more days in a calendar year, consecutive or not, and Form DWS-ARK-201 is due no later than the last day of the second month in which you meet the definition. Watch the wage base each January rather than assuming it holds. Section 11-10-215 fixes it at $7,000 only while the trust fund exceeds $600 million at the close of the state fiscal year, and allows it to climb by up to $2,000 a year if it does not.", "source": "https://dws.arkansas.gov/workforce-services/unemployment/employer-ui-information/ ; https://dws.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/Employer_Handbook_20220811.pdf ; https://dws.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/Employer-Newsletter-2023-Final-Review-9.8.2023.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 3, "requiredFor": [ "any employment in which three or more employees are employed by the same employer", "any employment in which two or more employees are engaged in building or building repair work", "any employment in which one or more employee is employed by a contractor who subcontracts any part of the contract", "any employment in which one or more employee is employed by a subcontractor" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no opt-out for an employer that is over the line. Below it, a sole proprietor, a partner or a member of a limited liability company who is acting as a subcontractor can apply for a Certificate of Non-Coverage on Form A, which costs $50 by check or online payment, requires a notarised affidavit electing to be excluded, and is processed within about ten working days. Form A is not the route for excluding corporate officers or an owner-operator who is not a subcontractor; those exclusions are handled by the insurance agent on the policy itself. Compelling an employee or a sub-subcontractor to obtain a certificate of non-coverage, or to pay for coverage, is a felony.", "agency": "Arkansas Workers' Compensation Commission, part of the Arkansas Department of Labor and Licensing", "url": "https://labor.arkansas.gov/workers-comp/awcc-about-us/basic-facts/", "note": "Three is the headline number, and it is a genuinely high bar next to states that start at one. The Commission's Basic Facts page says most employers with three or more employees must carry coverage and then waves at unnamed exceptions. The exceptions are spelled out properly not on that page but on the face of the current official form: AWCC Form AR-A, revised 1 January 2024, lists the four triggers under Ark. Code Ann. 11-9-102(9)(D) and 11-9-402, and building work drops the threshold to two while any contractor who subcontracts part of a job, and any subcontractor, is covered from the first employee. Where you cross the line is decided by a headcount rule that catches small owner-run businesses: for this purpose an employee includes an owner, a sole proprietor, a full-time partner, a full-time employee, a part-time employee and a volunteer. Two working partners plus one part-timer is three. Whole categories of work sit outside the law regardless of headcount, and the Commission's own question and answer brochure names them: agricultural farm labour, domestic help, and employment by non-profit, religious, charitable or relief organisations, plus railroad and maritime workers who are covered federally. Being exempt is not the same as being safe, because without coverage you also lose the exclusive-remedy protection and an injured worker sues you in ordinary tort instead. The Commission does not publish a dollar penalty for failing to insure, so none is quoted here, but making a false statement to avoid coverage or to avoid paying the proper premium is a Class D felony under section 11-9-106(a).", "source": "https://labor.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/forma_with_aff.pdf ; https://labor.arkansas.gov/workers-comp/awcc-about-us/basic-facts/ ; https://labor.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/laqabrochure.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days after the employee is hired, rehired or returns to work; employers reporting electronically may instead send two transmissions a month", "agency": "Arkansas Division of Workforce Services, State New Hire Registry", "url": "https://www.workforce.arkansas.gov/Tax21/Home.aspx", "note": "The registry was created by Act 1276 of 1997 and lives inside the Division of Workforce Services, not the child support agency, even though the Office of Child Support Enforcement is the main consumer of the data. That routing is the useful part: you file through Tax21, the same portal you already use for unemployment wage reports, so there is no separate new hire website to find. All Arkansas employers report every newly hired employee who lives or works in Arkansas, and an out-of-state employer that hires someone who works in Arkansas must report too. If the person filled out a W-4 they are reportable, full-time, part-time or student, and they are reportable even if they worked a single day and quit before you got round to filing. A returning worker counts as a new hire once they have been separated for 60 consecutive days, which catches seasonal staff and anyone coming back from a long unpaid gap. Temporary staff are reported once, not per assignment, unless there has been a break in service. A multi-state employer may report everyone to a single chosen state, but only by filing electronically and by writing to the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement to designate that state. The state agencies use the data for unemployment and workers compensation fraud detection as well as child support, so this is not a formality. No dollar penalty for late new hire reporting is published on the Division's pages or in the employer handbook, so none is quoted here.", "source": "https://dws.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/Employer_Handbook_20220811.pdf ; https://dws.arkansas.gov/wp-content/uploads/Employer-Newsletter-2023-Final-Review-9.8.2023.pdf ; https://codeofarrules.arkansas.gov/Rules/Rule?levelType=section&titleID=9&chapterID=257&subChapterID=322&partID=1259&subPartID=7460§ionID=48585", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Arkansas runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no employee payroll deduction and no employer contribution of this kind, and nothing extra to register for. The Labor Standards section of the Department of Labor and Licensing lists what it actually enforces, and the list is minimum wage and overtime, child labour, wage claims, mediation and conciliation, breaks for nursing mothers, and private employment agency rules. No paid leave mandate appears anywhere in it, and the 2026 withholding employer instructions describe no leave or disability levy alongside income tax withholding. Any paid leave you give Arkansas staff is your own policy, and federal FMLA protection, if you are large enough to be covered, is unpaid. If you already run payroll in California, New York or Delaware, do not carry that deduction across.", "source": "https://labor.arkansas.gov/labor/labor-standards/", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Sales and Use Tax Section", "url": "https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/excise-tax-administration/register-for-a-tax-account/", "fee": 50, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": "None is published. The Department's registration checklist names the $50 permit fee as the only payment due when you submit, and sets no bond, deposit or letter of credit as a condition of the permit. No amount is recorded here because the Gross Receipts Tax Rules themselves could not be read on an official state page for this record: the Code of Arkansas Rules browser only returns rule text when you already hold the exact internal section identifier, and its index pages render nothing without JavaScript. Treat the absence of a published bond as the ordinary case rather than as a guarantee that the Director can never demand security from a delinquent permit holder.", "registerBy": "Before your first taxable Arkansas sale. A remote seller or marketplace facilitator must register once sales for delivery into Arkansas exceed $100,000 or 200 transactions in the current or the previous calendar year.", "note": "Arkansas charges for the permit, which puts it in the minority. The Department states the amount plainly on its registration page: a $50.00 sales tax permit fee to be paid electronically upon submission. Two more things it tells you to have ready are easy to miss if you are registering from out of state. A signed lease for the premises if you are leasing, and a signed bill of sale if you bought equipment or inventory from a previous business. The location address cannot be a post office box, which is awkward for a purely remote seller and is worth a phone call rather than a guess. Allow up to two weeks for processing, and note that other tax liabilities must be cleared before a new permit is issued, so an old unpaid Arkansas account will block you. Once you hold the permit, it is not permanently yours: a permit for a taxpayer that files twelve consecutive monthly returns reporting zero sales expires automatically, and the permit must be returned to the Director within thirty days of the notice. Closing an account is done through ATAP and may require you to send back the original paper permit.", "source": "https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/excise-tax-administration/register-for-a-tax-account/ ; https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/excise-tax-administration/sales-use-tax/close-or-update-accounts/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Act 822 of 2019 added Ark. Code Ann. 26-52-111 and put the duty on both remote sellers and marketplace facilitators from 1 July 2019. The threshold is the same for either: more than $100,000 of sales, or more than 200 transactions, of tangible personal property, taxable services, digital codes or specified digital products delivered into Arkansas in the current or previous calendar year. Arkansas is now in the shrinking group of states that still keeps the 200 transaction test, and DFA's current remote sellers page confirms it is still live, so a low-value, high-volume seller can be caught here on transaction count long before it gets near $100,000. The provision worth reading twice is subsection (b). A sale made through a marketplace facilitator counts as the facilitator's sale for threshold purposes and is expressly not a sale of the marketplace seller for threshold purposes. So your Amazon and Etsy volume does not push you over the Arkansas line, and if the platform is collecting, that tax is handled. What is still yours is everything you sell through your own site or any other channel, and those sales stand on their own against the $100,000 or 200 transaction test. The Department audits a facilitator only for sales it facilitated, and will not audit the seller for those sales except where the facilitator is claiming relief from liability.", "source": "https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Acts/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2019R%2FPublic%2F&file=822.pdf&ddBienniumSession=2019%2F2019R ; https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/excise-tax-administration/sales-use-tax/remote-sellers/", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Arkansas publishes no rule under the heading of trailing nexus, but the statutory test settles the question on its face, which is why this is recorded rather than left unknown. Section 26-52-111(a) turns the collection duty on if you exceeded $100,000 or 200 transactions in the previous calendar year or in the current calendar year. Read it forward: the last year in which you cross the line obliges you for that year and for the whole of the following calendar year, whatever your Arkansas sales do in the meantime. Only in the second full year below both tests does the duty fall away. That makes the trail one calendar year, but the reading is ours from the statute rather than a Department statement, which is why this sits at S rather than P. Nothing about it closes your account. Arkansas cancels a permit on its own only after twelve consecutive monthly returns reporting zero sales, so if you stop collecting you should close the account deliberately through ATAP rather than going quiet and collecting non-filer notices.", "source": "https://www.arkleg.state.ar.us/Acts/FTPDocument?path=%2FACTS%2F2019R%2FPublic%2F&file=822.pdf&ddBienniumSession=2019%2F2019R", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": "None separate from the sales tax. Arkansas confusingly calls its sales tax the Arkansas Gross Receipts Tax, under the Arkansas Gross Receipts Act of 1941, Ark. Code Ann. 26-52-101 et seq.", "agency": "Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Excise Tax Administration", "url": "https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/excise-tax-administration/sales-use-tax/", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "This field trips people up in Arkansas for a naming reason rather than a tax reason. Search for an Arkansas gross receipts tax and you will find one, but it is the sales tax: the statute and the administrative rules both call it the Gross Receipts Tax, and the Department's rule set is titled Gross Receipts Tax Rules. It is a transaction tax on retail sales, already covered in the sales tax block above, and it is not a Washington B&O, Ohio CAT or Nevada Commerce Tax style levy on your revenue. Arkansas has no such levy. What it has instead, and what an expanding business should budget for, is two flat-ish charges that are not measured on receipts at all. Corporate income tax is imposed on net income, and the annual franchise tax collected by the Secretary of State under the Arkansas Corporate Franchise Tax Act of 1979 is $150 for a limited liability company and a minimum of $150 for a corporation with stock, rising with outstanding capital stock. Both are separate from anything the sales tax touches. No rate range or exclusion threshold is recorded because there is no receipts-based tax to describe.", "source": "https://www.dfa.arkansas.gov/office/taxes/excise-tax-administration/sales-use-tax/ ; https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/business-commercial-services-bcs/franchise-tax-report-forms/", "confidence": "S" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Arkansas Secretary of State, Business and Commercial Services Division", "url": "https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/business-commercial-services-bcs/forms-fees", "feeLLC": 300, "feeCorp": 300, "feeNote": "$300 for both. On the LLC fee schedule, revised January 2025, the line is Application for Statement of Authority by foreign limited liability company at $300.00. On the corporation fee schedule, also revised January 2025, it is Application for certificate of authority at $300.00, and a foreign limited partnership or foreign nonprofit pays the same $300. The fee does not scale with members or authorised shares, and it does not differ between paper and online filing. Reserving a name first, if you need to, is another $25.", "note": "Foreign qualification here is registering an entity you formed elsewhere so it can transact business in Arkansas, which is a separate filing from forming an Arkansas entity, and at $300 it is one of the pricier ones in the region. Three practical points. You need an Arkansas registered agent with a physical street address, because post office boxes are not accepted. A foreign corporation must attach a certificate of good standing from its home state dated within the past 30 days, so order it late rather than early or you will be refiling. And the application asks for good faith dollar estimates, so have your numbers before you start. The recurring cost is the thing to plan for, because qualifying puts you straight into the Arkansas franchise tax cycle whether or not you ever make a sale here: $150 a year for an LLC, a minimum of $150 for a corporation with stock, $300 for a corporation without stock, plus a $5 processing fee if you pay online. Franchise tax keeps accruing on a revoked entity until it is formally dissolved, withdrawn or merged, and the Secretary of State will refuse any further filing by an entity that is behind on it, so a lapse quietly blocks amendments, agent changes and withdrawal until you clear it.", "source": "https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/uploads/bcs/LLC_Fees1_1.pdf ; https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/uploads/bcs/Corp_Filing_Fees_2.pdf ; https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/uploads/bcs/Doing_Business_in_Arkansas_2025.pdf ; https://www.sos.arkansas.gov/business-commercial-services-bcs/franchise-tax-report-forms/", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "south-dakota": { "state": "South Dakota", "abbr": "SD", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [], "note": "There is no single business registration, but South Dakota asks for less than most states because there is no income tax withholding account to open at all. A new employer opens one payroll account, the Reemployment Assistance tax account with the Department of Labor and Regulation, and that one account covers both the reemployment assistance contribution and the investment fee that rides on top of it. Everything else is separate. New hire reports go to the New Hire Reporting Center, which sits inside the same Reemployment Assistance Division but is a different submission with a different address, and the Division states plainly that filing your quarterly wage report does not count as reporting a new hire. The sales tax licence is a separate application to the Department of Revenue at sd.gov/taxapp. Foreign qualification is a separate filing with the Secretary of State. Workers compensation is a private insurance purchase that the state does not register at all, and is optional." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://dor.sd.gov/businesses/taxes/", "registerWhen": null, "note": "South Dakota levies no personal income tax on wages, so there is no state withholding account, no state W-4 and no state wage statement to file. The Legislature says so in statute rather than only on a web page: SDCL 10-64-1(2), the findings block behind the remote seller law the Supreme Court upheld in South Dakota v. Wayfair, records that revenue loss is especially serious in South Dakota because the state has no income tax. Note the difference from Texas and Nevada, which both wrote the ban into their constitutions. South Dakota simply does not levy the tax, so this is a legislative choice rather than a constitutional bar. What you still owe as an employer: federal income tax withholding, Social Security and Medicare, and federal unemployment tax, which drops from 6.0% to 0.6% once you are current on your South Dakota reemployment assistance reports and payments; the state reemployment assistance contribution plus the 0.55% investment fee; a new hire report within 20 days; and the state minimum wage, which is $11.85 an hour and $5.925 for tipped employees from 1 January 2026 and is reset every January against the Consumer Price Index. There is also no corporate income tax. The only state tax on business income is the bank franchise tax on financial institutions under SDCL 10-43-4, which is 6% of net income assignable to the state on the first $400 million with a $200 annual minimum, and which steps down at higher income bands.", "source": "https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/10-64-1", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Reemployment Assistance Division, Tax Unit", "url": "https://dlr.sd.gov/ra/businesses/default.aspx", "newEmployerRate": 0.012, "wageBase": 15000, "year": "2026", "note": "The headline rate in this field is the reemployment assistance contribution for a new non-construction employer, which SDCL 61-5-24 fixes at 1.20% in the first year and 1.00% in years two and three provided the account balance is positive. Budget for more than that, because every employer that is not yet experience rated also pays the 0.55% investment fee under SDCL 61-5-29, taking a new non-construction employer to 1.75% in year one and 1.55% in years two and three. Construction is far more expensive: 6.00% plus the 0.55% fee in year one, then 3.00% plus the fee, and the classification follows Sector 23 of the NAICS manual rather than what you call yourself. The saving grace is the wage base. Tax is owed only on the first $15,000 of each employee's wages, which has been the figure since 2015 and which the Department confirms stays at $15,000 for calendar year 2026, so the worst case for a new non-construction employer is about $262.50 per employee in year one. The 0.08% administrative fee the Department publishes for 2026 does not apply here: it falls only on employers already eligible for experience rating under SDCL 61-5-24. After three years your rate is recalculated annually from your reserve ratio on an 18 step schedule running from 0.00% to 9.45%. You become liable, and must register, once any one of these is true: you employed one or more people in 20 different calendar weeks in the current or preceding year; you paid $1,500 or more in wages in a calendar quarter; you are already covered by FUTA or another state's unemployment law; you acquired all or part of a covered business; or you cross the separate agricultural, domestic or non-profit tests. Out-of-state employers should note the 90 day rule: South Dakota residents working in South Dakota are reported to South Dakota however briefly they work, and out-of-state employees working in the state for more than 90 days are reported here too. Quarterly reports are due by the last day of April, July, October and January, with interest of 1.5% per month from the due date. The wage base and the rate schedule are both set by the Legislature and can move in any session.", "source": "https://dlr.sd.gov/ra/businesses/faq.aspx", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": true, "employeeThreshold": null, "requiredFor": [ "a business that operates threshing machines, grain combines, corn shellers, cornhuskers, shredders, silage cutters or seed hullers for profit, which under SDCL 62-3-16 must secure coverage before operating the machine, and whose contract for that work is null and void if it has not", "the state, municipalities and other political subdivisions, which SDCL 62-5-6 and 62-5-7 keep inside the Act whether or not they buy a policy, though they may self-fund instead of insuring" ], "optOutFilings": "None. Unlike Texas, South Dakota asks for no election form, no annual notice to the state, no workplace posting and no separate injury reporting from an employer that carries no coverage. Going without is silent, which is exactly what makes it easy to do without realising what you gave up.", "agency": "South Dakota Department of Labor and Regulation, Division of Labor and Management", "url": "https://dlr.sd.gov/workers_compensation/default.aspx", "note": "South Dakota is the second state, alongside Texas, where workers compensation is genuinely optional for private employers, and there is no headcount that triggers it. The Department states it in one line: there is no law in South Dakota requiring any employer to carry workers compensation insurance. The statute works by election rather than by mandate. SDCL 62-3-3 presumes every employer has accepted the Act, but SDCL 62-3-5 says no private employer is deemed to have accepted it unless it has actually secured payment of compensation by buying a policy under SDCL 62-5-2 or 62-5-3 or by qualifying as a self-insurer under SDCL 62-5-5, and SDCL 62-5-7 then deems any private employer that has not done so to have elected not to operate under the Act. Read the DLR Coverage page carefully against this. That page opens by saying the law covers all employers with only limited exceptions, which reads like a mandate; it is describing who falls inside the Act once an employer has elected in, not creating a duty to insure. Where the two readings diverge, the statute and the Department's own main workers compensation page agree that coverage is elective. Here is what going without actually costs you, and it is worse than simply having no insurance. Buying coverage buys the exclusive remedy in SDCL 62-3-2, which caps an employer's exposure for a workplace injury at the schedule of benefits in Title 62. Skip it and that cap is gone, and SDCL 62-3-11 hands the choice to the injured worker: they may sue you at law for full damages, or they may elect to proceed against you under Title 62 as if you had insured, in which case the measure is the medical care required by SDCL 62-4-1 plus twice the amount of every other benefit the Act allows. They pick whichever is worth more, and you pay it out of the business rather than out of a policy. Coverage is also commonly demanded by contract, and the Department runs a public Coverage Verification Service that lets a customer check whether you carry it. Even an employer that does insure should know which people are outside the Act: SDCL 62-3-15 excludes domestic servants unless they work more than 20 hours in a calendar week and more than six weeks in any 13 week period, farm and agricultural labourers, and work activity participants, and SDCL 62-1-3 excludes anyone whose employment is not in the usual course of your trade or business, which is the route by which properly certified independent contractors sit outside. Corporate executive officers may reject coverage for themselves in writing under SDCL 62-3-5.1, at their election or more than 30 days before the injury.", "source": "https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/62-5-7", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's first day of work for pay, or by two monthly electronic transmissions 12 to 16 days apart, and again for any rehire who has gone 30 days or more without wages from you", "agency": "South Dakota New Hire Reporting Center, Department of Labor and Regulation, Reemployment Assistance Division", "url": "https://dlr.sd.gov/ra/new_hire_reporting/default.aspx", "note": "SDCL 25-7A-3.3 sets the 20 day clock and the alternative twice-monthly electronic schedule, and requires the employee's name, address and Social Security number plus your business name, address and federal employer identification number. Since January 2013 the date of hire is required as well. The Division is unusually blunt that there are no exceptions: family members, temporary and seasonal workers, students, minors, day labourers and rehires all get reported, and a rehire counts again once the worker has gone 30 days or more without pay from you. The two traps are procedural. First, your quarterly wage report is not a new hire report; the Division says so explicitly, and the two go to different systems. Second, use the same federal employer identification number on both, as SDCL 61-1-3 requires, or the records will not match. Genuine independent contractors are not reported. A copy of the W-4 is an acceptable format as long as it is legible and carries all the required items. A multistate employer may report every state's hires to one state, but only electronically and only after filing the federal multistate election. SDCL 25-7A-3.3 makes an intentional failure to comply a petty offence. The Department publishes no dollar penalty and we did not find one on a primary page, so treat the report as mandatory rather than as priced.", "source": "https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/25-7A-3.3", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "South Dakota runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family and medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction and no employer contribution for either, and it has no statewide paid sick leave mandate. The Department of Labor and Regulation's employment laws pages list minimum wage, child labour, wage payment and the posting requirements, and carry no state leave benefit at all. Any paid leave you offer in South Dakota is voluntary or contractual. The one wage cost that does move on you every year is the minimum wage, which SDCL 60-11-3.1 indexes to the Consumer Price Index each January and which cannot fall; it is $11.85 an hour, and $5.925 for tipped employees, effective 1 January 2026.", "source": "https://dlr.sd.gov/employment_laws/minimum_wage.aspx", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "South Dakota Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.sd.gov/businesses/taxes/sales-use-tax/", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "SDCL 10-45-26 lets the secretary of revenue require a bond or other adequate security as a condition of issuing a licence or of staying in business, with no published standard amount. The one place the Department does publish a figure is the Sturgis rally, where new concessionaires and those with poor filing histories post a bond of at least $500, refundable once the taxes are paid.", "registerBy": "A business with any physical presence in South Dakota must be licensed before it makes taxable sales, with no minimum. A remote seller that crosses the threshold must register by the first day of the month that begins at least 30 days after it crossed, so a seller passing $100,000 on 28 May registers and starts collecting on 1 July.", "note": "The licence itself is free. The Department states there is no fee for a sales or contractor's excise tax licence, and SDCL 10-45-25 makes each permit valid without further payment of fees until it is cancelled or revoked, so there is nothing to renew. Read the free-licence source with one eye open: the Department's License Requirements tax fact is the January 2019 edition and is stale in two places, printing the old 4.5% state rate and the 200 transaction nexus prong that was repealed in 2023, and quoting a $1,000 maximum fine for operating unlicensed where SDCL 22-6-2 now puts a Class 1 misdemeanour at up to $2,000 or a year in jail. The current Sales and Use Tax Guide and the statute agree on the substance: no fee, and operating a taxable business without a licence is a criminal offence. You need a permit for each place of business under SDCL 10-45-24, though a business with identical ownership, the same federal identification number and the same classification across its locations may ask for a single statewide permit and file one consolidated return. On rates, the state sales and use tax is 4.2%, municipalities add 1% to 2%, and a municipal gross receipts tax of 1% can sit on top of that for alcohol, eating establishments, lodging, and admissions to amusement, athletic and cultural events. Watch the 4.2%: SDCL 10-45-2 carries a second version, effective 1 July 2027, that returns the rate to 4.5%, so the reduction has a hard sunset unless the Legislature extends it. Once you hold the licence you must file every reporting period even with no sales, at a $10 minimum penalty if you file late with nothing due; electronic returns are due the 20th of the month and electronic payments the 25th, and late tax carries a 10% penalty and 1% monthly interest. Selling at three or fewer events a year does not need a permanent licence, since the event organiser supplies a special event return instead.", "source": "https://dor.sd.gov/media/avyep2sr/2026-7_sales-use-tax-guide.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "South Dakota has had a marketplace provider law since 1 March 2019, in SDCL chapter 10-65. A marketplace provider must hold its own licence and remit the tax on everything it facilitates into South Dakota if it is itself a remote seller, or if it facilitates for at least one seller that meets the remote seller test, or if the combined sales of two or more of its sellers meet it. The practical consequence for a seller is the useful half: the Department states that where a marketplace is remitting because the $100,000 threshold is met, the South Dakota business is not responsible for remitting tax on sales made through that marketplace. Do not read that as a general exemption. Any business with a physical presence in South Dakota must hold a sales tax licence regardless of the threshold and regardless of how it sells, so a seller located in the state still registers and still files even if every order comes through a marketplace.", "source": "https://dor.sd.gov/media/avyep2sr/2026-7_sales-use-tax-guide.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "This is the state that produced South Dakota v. Wayfair, so get the current threshold right rather than the famous one. The law upheld in 2018 had two prongs, more than $100,000 of gross sales or 200 or more separate transactions. The transaction count is gone: SL 2023 ch 38 amended SDCL 10-64-2 to leave only gross revenue exceeding $100,000 into South Dakota in the previous or current calendar year. The Department's current sales tax guide and its Remote Seller Bulletin both carry the single threshold, but its older License Requirements tax fact still prints the 200 transaction prong, so believe the statute. There is no separate small seller cushion and no physical presence needed. The trailing effect comes from the words previous or current calendar year rather than from a de-registration rule. The Department's own guidance is that a business meeting the threshold in the previous calendar year must be licensed and remit for the following year, so crossing $100,000 once binds you for the rest of that year and the whole of the next, and only then can falling short of the threshold in a full calendar year leave you outside the test. What the Department does not publish is an explicit rule for cancelling a licence after you drop below, which is why this is not a primary reading. Its published cancellation triggers are closing the business, selling it or changing its ownership, and the duty to file a return every period continues for as long as the licence is open, so treat closing the account as a step you take deliberately rather than one that happens on its own.", "source": "https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/10-64-2", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Contractor's Excise Tax", "agency": "South Dakota Department of Revenue", "url": "https://dor.sd.gov/businesses/taxes/contractors-excise-tax/", "rateRange": "2% of gross receipts. It is not a broad tax on all business revenue: it reaches prime contractors on construction services and realty improvement projects under SDCL 10-46A, and both prime contractors and subcontractors on qualified utility projects under SDCL 10-46B", "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "South Dakota has no broad gross receipts tax in the mould of Washington's B&O or Ohio's CAT, but it does tax one industry on revenue, and the trap is that construction work is taxed here instead of under sales tax rather than in addition to it. Anyone entering into a contract for construction services, meaning construction, building, installation, repair or remodelling of real property, needs a contractor's excise tax licence before starting work in South Dakota, and the licence requirement applies regardless of how small the receipts are. The 2% is charged on the total contract price including labour and materials under SDCL 10-46A-3, including materials the owner furnished, and you may not deduct what you pay subcontractors. There is also no minimum and no exclusion threshold, which is why this field is null rather than a number. The mechanics differ by project type. On an ordinary project the prime contractor owes the tax and must issue a prime contractor's exemption certificate to every subcontractor, naming that specific project, and a subcontractor without a certificate on file is treated as a prime contractor and taxed itself. On a qualified utility project, meaning work paid for directly by an electric, gas, water, heating, power, railroad, rural electric, telephone or rural water utility, both the prime and the subcontractors owe the tax on their own gross receipts and no exemption certificates may be issued at all. Two other South Dakota taxes are also computed on gross receipts and are easy to miss: the municipal gross receipts tax of 1%, which cities may levy on alcohol, eating establishments, lodging and admissions on top of municipal sales tax, and the 1.5% tourism tax on certain lodging and amusement services and vehicle rentals.", "source": "https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/10-46A-1", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "South Dakota Secretary of State, Business Services", "url": "https://sdsos.gov/general-information/filing-fees.aspx", "feeLLC": 750, "feeCorp": 750, "feeNote": "$750 filed electronically for both a foreign LLC certificate of authority and a foreign corporation application for certificate of authority, or $765 on paper, which includes a $15 paper filing surcharge. The fee does not vary by authorised shares or by member count. Both entity types then file an annual report at $55 online or $70 on paper. Amending later is where they diverge sharply: an amended foreign certificate of authority is $250 for a corporation and $750 for an LLC.", "note": "South Dakota is expensive to enter, at the same $750 as Texas, but unusually gentle if you are late. SDCL 47-1A-1502 for corporations and SDCL 47-34A-1008 for LLCs both impose one consequence and only one: while you are unqualified you cannot bring or maintain a proceeding in a South Dakota court, and neither statute charges a per-year penalty or back fees the way Texas does. Being unqualified does not void your contracts, does not stop you defending a suit, and does not make members or managers personally liable, though it does appoint the Secretary of State as your agent for service of process, and the attorney general may sue to enjoin an unqualified LLC from doing business under SDCL 47-34A-1009. On whether a single South Dakota employee puts you inside the requirement, be careful. SDCL 47-1A-1501 lists the activities that do not count as transacting business, including holding bank accounts, owning property without more, selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that must be accepted out of state, and transacting business in interstate commerce. Employing a person who works in the state is not on that list, and the Secretary of State publishes no bright line test, so an employer with a South Dakota based worker should assume it is outside the safe harbour and take advice rather than rely on the absence of a rule. Note also that qualifying with the Secretary of State is a different filing from registering with the Department of Revenue for sales tax and from opening a reemployment assistance account with the Department of Labor and Regulation; none of the three tells the others.", "source": "https://sdlegislature.gov/Statutes/47-1A-1502", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "west-virginia": { "state": "West Virginia", "abbr": "WV", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "West Virginia Tax Division (business registration certificate, income tax withholding, sales and use tax)", "WorkForce West Virginia (unemployment compensation)", "West Virginia Secretary of State (foreign qualification)", "West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner (workers compensation oversight only, not an account)" ], "note": "One application at the One Stop Business Portal, business4.wv.gov, feeds the Secretary of State, the Tax Division and WorkForce West Virginia, and the Tax Division states in its own business tax publication that when a business registers with it, it passes the information to WorkForce West Virginia. So the entity filing, the tax accounts and the unemployment account can be started in one sitting, which is genuinely better than most states. Two things are still not covered. Workers compensation is bought from a private insurer, so there is no state account to open at all. And nothing in the state portal registers you with a West Virginia city, which is where the two costs that catch out-of-state employers live: the municipal business and occupation tax on gross receipts, and the flat weekly city service fee you have to withhold from anyone who works inside certain city limits. Budget for the state portal plus an insurance policy plus one registration per city your people actually work in." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "West Virginia Tax Division", "url": "https://tax.wv.gov/business/businessregistration/pages/businessregistration.aspx", "registerWhen": "Before you begin business activity in West Virginia. The statute and the Tax Division both say before commencing, not within a number of days after, so there is no grace period to rely on.", "note": "Any employer paying wages subject to West Virginia personal income tax withholds and remits, and an out-of-state employer is caught the moment it has someone working in the state. Withheld tax is due by the 15th of the following month, the quarterly return by the last day of the month after quarter end, and the year end reconciliation on Form WV/IT-103 with the W-2s by 31 January. If you withhold less than $600 a year you file the annual WV/IT-101A instead and skip the IT-103. Two things soften the load. West Virginia has reciprocal agreements with Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia, so a bona fide resident of one of those states working in West Virginia has nothing withheld here, though you must still hold a Form WV/IT-104 for them, and a nonresident who works 30 days or fewer in West Virginia, in more than one state, and is not an athlete, entertainer or public figure is outside withholding provided their home state has a similar exclusion or no income tax. Note one conflict on electronic filing: the code section on the Legislature's own site still reads 25 or more employees and the 2025 bill amending that section did not touch the figure, but the Tax Division's current employer publication and its 2025 electronic filing specifications both say 10 or more for periods beginning after 31 December 2024. Treat 10 as operative, because the Tax Division assesses the $25 per return penalty. It rarely matters in practice, since using any payroll service triggers the requirement whatever your headcount. Now the part that has nothing to do with your state account and is the real West Virginia trap: city service fees. Under W. Va. Code 8-13-13 a municipality may charge users of its services a flat fee, and many West Virginia cities apply that to everyone who works inside the city limits. It is a fixed number of dollars per person per week, not a percentage, so it does not scale with pay and does not show up as a rate anywhere in payroll. The employer withholds it and remits it to the city, normally quarterly, on the city's own return, and none of it runs through your Tax Division account. Amounts read on the cities' own pages: Huntington $5.00 a week, Charleston $3.00, Morgantown $3.00, Parkersburg $2.50, Wheeling $2.00. The mechanics are what catch people. Charleston's own handbook says there is no minimum number of hours, all part-time employees pay, no proration is allowed, and the fee keeps running while an employee is on paid leave or vacation. Charleston also answers the remote work question directly: someone permanently assigned to work from home inside Charleston for an employer based outside Charleston is covered and that employer must withhold and remit, while someone working from home outside Charleston for a Charleston employer is not. So one remote hire in the wrong postcode creates a city registration and a quarterly city filing for a business with no other West Virginia presence. Huntington extends the same logic to contractors: a contractor working inside the city limits owes the fee for every employee present on a site for each week they work. Being exempt from a city's business and occupation tax does not exempt you from withholding the fee. There is no state list of which municipalities charge one, so check the ordinance of every city your West Virginia people actually work in.", "source": "https://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TSD/tsd381.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "WorkForce West Virginia", "url": "https://workforcewv.org/businesses/unemployment-tax-information/", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 9500, "year": "2026", "note": "A new West Virginia employer that did not buy an existing business pays 2.7 percent, and stays there for three years before it can be rated on its own experience. The exception is the one an expanding contractor will hit: an out-of-state business engaged in construction starts at 8.5 percent, more than three times the ordinary entry rate, so a builder crossing the state line should price that in rather than assume it carries its home rate. If you buy a West Virginia business you inherit that business's rate rather than starting fresh. The taxable wage base is $9,500, and unusually this one is not a moving target: the Legislature wrote $9,500 into the definition of wages in the code effective 1 July 2024, replacing the indexed figure that had produced $9,521 for 2024, and WorkForce West Virginia's employer handbook says plainly that beginning in 2025 the base is $9,500. So the base should hold from year to year until the Legislature changes it, which is a real difference from states that reindex every January. Rates still move annually and rate notices go out by the end of December. Register at business4.wv.gov. An employer that files no reports for three fiscal years is rated delinquent at 7.5 percent. Domestic employment is outside the system if you pay each household worker less than $1,000 a quarter.", "source": "https://workforcewv.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Employer-Handbook-Rev.-02.25.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "all persons, firms, associations and corporations regularly employing another person or persons to carry on any form of industry, service or business in the state, which is coverage from the first regular employee with no headcount floor", "the state, its political subdivisions, county boards of education, volunteer fire departments and other emergency service organizations" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no general opt-out. Specific employers listed in the statute are not required to buy coverage and may elect it instead: employers of domestic workers, employers of five or fewer full-time agricultural workers, churches, organized professional sports, employers whose people work outside the state other than temporarily, and casual employers, meaning three or fewer employees on work that is temporary, intermittent and sporadic and does not exceed 10 calendar days in a calendar quarter. Separately, a partnership, sole proprietorship, association or corporation may elect not to count its own owners, partners or the four named corporate officers as employees, and a limited liability company may exclude up to four managers, officers or members. An employer that believes it is exempt applies to the Insurance Commissioner for a letter of exemption, and the workers compensation rule sets a $25 processing fee for that application.", "agency": "West Virginia Offices of the Insurance Commissioner, Employer Coverage Unit", "url": "https://www.wvinsurance.gov/Employer-Coverage", "note": "West Virginia used to run a monopolistic state fund and no longer does. Since privatisation took effect the market is open, the Insurance Commissioner reports over 350 carriers writing West Virginia workers compensation, and you buy a policy the ordinary way. There is no state account to open and no state application fee, which is the opposite of Ohio next door. Premium depends on payroll and classification, so no single rate can be quoted. Two duties are easy to miss. You must post a premises notice naming your carrier, and if you stop carrying coverage the Insurance Commissioner posts a written notice at your works telling your employees you are in default and that you are liable to them both for workers compensation benefits and in damages at common law. That second half is the expensive part: going uninsured does not just risk a fine, it strips the exclusive remedy that workers compensation buys you and exposes you to being sued directly. The Commissioner also works with other state agencies to revoke licences of noncompliant employers.", "source": "https://code.wvlegislature.gov/23-2-1/", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 14, "deadline": "within 14 days of the date of hire, rehire or return to work, and for an independent contractor within 14 days of first contracting for or paying $2,500 or more in aggregate in a year", "agency": "West Virginia Bureau for Child Support Enforcement, West Virginia New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://bcse.wv.gov/bcse-employer-resource-center/wv-new-hire-reporting", "note": "Fourteen days, not the 20 that several neighbouring states allow, so a habit carried in from elsewhere will run late. The duty covers anyone who resides or works in West Virginia, and it reaches independent contractors once the contract or the payments reach $2,500 in aggregate in a year, which is the part most businesses miss because nothing about a contractor feels like a hire. Reports go to the Bureau for Child Support Enforcement through the New Hire Reporting Center, a separate channel from anything you did at the Tax Division or WorkForce West Virginia. If you report electronically you may switch to two transmissions a month instead, not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart. Failing to report costs up to $25 per failure, rising to $500 where the employer and the worker agreed not to report. The provision worth knowing if you employ in several states: an employer with employees in more than one state that reports electronically may designate a single state to report all of them to under 42 U.S.C. 653A, and if you designate elsewhere you do not report to West Virginia at all.", "source": "https://code.wvlegislature.gov/48-18-125/", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "West Virginia runs no state disability insurance and no state paid family and medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and no further account to open. The Tax Division's employer withholding publication and its business tax booklet describe only state income tax withholding, and the state's own list of the other payroll obligations that sit outside it names unemployment tax and workers compensation, not a leave or disability levy. If you already run payroll in California, New York, New Jersey or Delaware, drop that deduction for your West Virginia people. Confidence is S rather than P because this is the absence of a programme, which no single page states outright.", "source": "https://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TSD/tsd100.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "West Virginia Tax Division", "url": "https://tax.wv.gov/business/businessregistration/pages/businessregistration.aspx", "fee": 30, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": "No general security deposit or bond is required of an ordinary seller. Bonds are demanded only from named categories: a transient vendor must post $500 and a collection agency a $5,000 surety bond for each West Virginia location. There is no open-ended deposit power of the kind California and Texas hold over a new registrant.", "registerBy": "Before engaging in any business activity in West Virginia, which means before your first taxable sale rather than after. A remote seller must register even while below the economic nexus threshold, because an exception to collecting is not an exemption from registering.", "note": "West Virginia has no separate sales tax permit. The one document is the business registration certificate, and the $30 is the business registration tax set by W. Va. Code 11-12-3, which the Tax Division confirms on the current WV/BUS-APP and in its business registration procedures publication. Three details change the number for real businesses. The fee is per fixed business location, not per business, so several West Virginia locations means several certificates and several $30 payments. The certificate has been permanent since 1 July 2010, so there is no renewal and no recurring state fee, and you pay the $30 again only if the certificate lapses or is revoked and you have to be reissued. And the current BUS-APP carries a genuine exemption the statute does not spell out: a withholding only account, for an employer that has West Virginia employees but does no revenue generating activity in the state, pays no registration tax, alongside charitable organisations, government agencies and farming. So a pure remote hire costs nothing to register at state level, while a business selling into West Virginia pays the $30. Registering late is not cheap: the Tax Division cites fines of $1,000 to $10,000 for operating without a business licence plus $100 a day after 30 days. Also budget for municipal sales tax. A growing number of West Virginia cities levy up to 1 percent on top of the 6 percent state rate, collected by the Tax Division on Schedule M of the same return but sourced to the buyer's address, so it is your job to get the address right.", "source": "https://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TSD/tsd360.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Since 1 July 2019 a marketplace facilitator or referrer is treated as the seller for everything it facilitates and is deemed the agent of the marketplace seller, so the platform collects and remits West Virginia tax on those sales and you do not. The threshold that turns the duty on is the same for the platform, the referrer and a plain remote seller: $100,000 in gross revenue from West Virginia sales, or 200 or more separate transactions, measured over the preceding calendar year or the current one. The limit is the usual one. Only facilitated sales are covered, so anything you sell through your own site or another channel is yours to collect on, and those direct sales are what you measure against the threshold. Separately, and this is the West Virginia specific trap, having the platform collect for you does not excuse you from holding a business registration certificate: the Tax Division states that all remote sellers are required to register and that an exception to taxation is not an exemption from registration.", "source": "https://code.wvlegislature.gov/11-15A-6B/", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "The statutory test looks at West Virginia sales for the immediately preceding calendar year or the current calendar year, so a year in which you cross $100,000 or 200 transactions pulls the following year in with it. Dropping under the threshold in November does not let you stop collecting in December, and it does not let you stop on 1 January either, because the preceding year still qualifies you. Your registration is separate again: the business registration certificate is permanent until you close it or the Tax Commissioner cancels it, so tell the Tax Division when you genuinely stop selling into West Virginia rather than filing zero returns forever. A sales and use tax return is due even for a period in which you collected nothing.", "source": "https://code.wvlegislature.gov/11-15A-6B/", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": "Municipal Business and Occupation (B&O) Tax", "agency": "Individual West Virginia municipalities. The state Tax Division does not administer or collect it.", "url": "https://code.wvlegislature.gov/8-13-5/", "rateRange": "Set city by city and by business classification. Charleston's published schedule runs from 0.15 percent for wholesalers and 0.5 percent for retailers and amusement, through 1 percent for services, rent, royalties, banking and natural resource production, to 2 percent for contracting and 3 to 4 percent for utilities, with manufacturing at 0 percent. Statute caps a municipal rate at the state rate that applied to the same activity on 1 January 1959, or 1 percent of gross income, or 0.3 percent of gross value depending on the activity.", "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "West Virginia has no general gross receipts tax, but read this anyway. Its own business and occupation tax survives only for public utilities, electric power generators and natural gas storage operators, so a normal business expanding into the state will not pay it. What will hit you is the municipal version, and the Tax Division describes it in its own current business tax publication as the major source of revenue for most West Virginia cities: a broadly based tax on the privilege of engaging in business inside the municipality, measured on gross receipts with no deduction for the cost of doing business, at rates that vary by activity and by city. It is the same shape as Virginia's BPOL, and it is the single most expensive surprise for a business moving into West Virginia, because it is charged on revenue whether or not you made a profit and you cannot bill it separately to the customer. You do not have to be based in the city to owe it. Charleston's rule, which is typical, is that a business domiciled outside the city limits is doing business in the city if it leases property to lessees there, performs construction or installation contracts there, renders services to others there, or sells and delivers goods to people inside the city, irrespective of where it is domiciled and whether it keeps a permanent place of business in the city. Charleston also requires its own business registration separate from the state's, charges an annual licence fee that varies by activity and location, wants quarterly returns even when there is no income, and requires the licence to be renewed by 30 June each year. No amount is published here for that licence fee because it depends on the classification and no single figure applies. There is no state list of which cities levy a B&O and at what rates, so contact each city you will do business in before you start.", "source": "https://tax.wv.gov/Documents/TSD/tsd100.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "West Virginia Secretary of State, Business and Licensing Division", "url": "https://sos.wv.gov/business/registration-and-waivers/register-out-state-foreign-business", "feeLLC": 150, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "Read on the current Secretary of State forms: Form LLF-1, application for certificate of authority of a limited liability company, revised 12 June 2026, states a filing fee of $150, and Form CF-1, application for certificate of authority for a corporation, revised July 2026, states $100 for a for profit corporation and $50 for a non-profit. The fees do not scale with authorised shares. A corporation owning more than 10,000 acres of West Virginia land adds 5 cents an acre for the excess. Registration is free for a qualifying veteran owned entity.", "note": "You must file a certificate of existence or good standing from your home state dated in the current tax year with the application, so allow time to obtain that first. West Virginia is genuinely cheaper than most states on the ongoing side, and this is the part worth knowing: the current CF-1 form says the agent for service of process need not have a West Virginia address, and the field is optional, so unlike Ohio or most neighbouring states you are not forced to buy a commercial registered agent with an in-state street address. Changing that agent or your officers later costs $15 on Form AAO. Expedite is $25 for next business day, $250 for two hours and $500 for one hour, on top of the filing fee. Both foreign LLCs and foreign corporations then owe a $25 annual report to the Secretary of State each year after registration. Qualifying with the Secretary of State opens no tax accounts: the Tax Division says explicitly that corporate registration with the Secretary of State is not a substitute for a business registration certificate, so withholding, sales tax, unemployment and every city registration are still ahead of you.", "source": "https://sos.wv.gov/sites/default/files/2026-07/llf-1.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "vermont": { "state": "Vermont", "abbr": "VT", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Vermont Department of Taxes (myVTax business tax account, or Form BR-400, for income tax withholding and separately for sales and use tax and meals and rooms tax)", "Vermont Department of Labor (separate unemployment insurance employer account in the Vermont Internet Tax and Wage System, which also receives new hire reports)", "a private insurance carrier for workers compensation, which is a policy rather than a state account" ], "note": "Vermont half combines, and the half that combines is the important half. You sign up once on myVTax, but the Department of Taxes says plainly that sales and use, meals and rooms, and withholding each need their own business tax account, so one signup does not mean one account. What the withholding account does carry is three separate payroll levies on a single quarterly return, Form WHT-436: Vermont income tax withheld, the Child Care Contribution payroll tax, and the Health Care Fund Contribution Assessment. Nobody opens a child care account or a health care account, because both ride the withholding account, and both are easy to miss for exactly that reason. Unemployment insurance is a different agency entirely, with its own registration, its own account number and its own quarterly report to the Department of Labor, and new hire reports go there too. Workers compensation is a fourth errand with no state account at all, because you buy a policy from a licensed carrier. Budget for two registrations and one insurance purchase, and expect four things to pay." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Vermont Department of Taxes", "url": "https://tax.vermont.gov/business/withholding", "registerWhen": "before you pay wages subject to Vermont withholding; the 2026 employer guide says that if you pay wages subject to Vermont income tax withholding you must register with the Department of Taxes for a withholding account", "note": "The test is federal-first: a payment is subject to Vermont withholding if it is subject to federal withholding and it goes either to a Vermont resident, wherever the work is done, or to a nonresident for services performed in Vermont. For a nonresident who splits a pay period between Vermont and somewhere else you compute the tax on the whole payment and then multiply by the ratio of Vermont hours to total hours, and the guide works the example: $48.00 of withholding on a 40 hour period, 16 of those hours in Vermont, gives $19.20. For a resident paid for work done elsewhere you compute on the full payment and reduce by the tax withheld for the state where the work happened. Employees complete Form W-4VT; if they give you only a federal W-4 you may use it, but increase Vermont withholding by 30 percent of any extra federal amount. Registration itself is free, on myVTax or by Form BR-400, and the Department sets your filing frequency from your annual withholding totals. Two extras ride this account and are the ones out-of-state employers miss. First, the Child Care Contribution: since 1 July 2024 the employer owes a 0.44 percent payroll tax, that is 0.0044, on all wages subject to Vermont withholding, and may choose to deduct at most a quarter of it, 0.11 percent, from the employee. It is paid on the same schedule as withholding, on Part III of Form WHT-436, and the guide is explicit that wages for work physically performed outside Vermont and paid by an out-of-state employer are not subject to it, including where you withhold Vermont tax voluntarily as a courtesy to a Vermont resident. Second, the Health Care Fund Contribution Assessment, described under paid leave and disability below, is reported on Part IV of the same return. Form WHT-434, the annual reconciliation, is due 31 January.", "source": "https://tax.vermont.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/GB-1210-2026.pdf ; https://tax.vermont.gov/business/child-care-contribution ; https://tax.vermont.gov/business/register", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Vermont Department of Labor, Unemployment Insurance and Wages Division", "url": "https://labor.vermont.gov/unemployment-insurance/ui-employers/unemployment-tax-rates", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 15400, "year": "2026", "note": "The Department of Labor states that beginning 1 July 2026 the new employer rate for most employers is one percent, and that state tax is payable on the first $15,400 of each employee's wages in a calendar year. The two dates are not a typo and this is the Vermont quirk worth planning around: the taxable wage base changes on 1 January, and the wage base press release is explicit that $15,400 is effective 1 January 2026, an increase of $600 over 2025, while the rate schedule and the new employer rate change on 1 July. So a Vermont payroll can see two separate resets in one year. One percent is not universal. An out-of-state, that is foreign, corporation classified in NAICS 236 construction of buildings, 237 heavy and civil engineering, or 238 specialty trade contractors, is instead given the industry average rate: 1.9 percent, 4.0 percent and 2.7 percent respectively on the rate page we read. You keep the new employer rate until you have earned an experience rating, which needs at least one complete calendar year of benefit liability, after which the rate is recalculated annually on a rolling three-year benefit ratio across twenty-one rate classes. Vermont publishes five rate schedules and picks one each 1 July from the trust fund balance; the page we read sets out all five, including the 0.4 to 5.4 percent range of Schedule 1 and the 1.3 to 8.4 percent range of Schedule 5, but does not say which is currently in force, so treat one percent as the floor of what a new employer might pay rather than a ceiling. Liability itself comes from the statute: you are an employer once you pay $1,500 or more of wages in any calendar quarter in the current or preceding year, or employ at least one person for some part of a day in each of twenty different calendar weeks in that period, and once you cross either line you are subject for the whole calendar year. Quarterly wage and contribution reports, Form C-101, must be filed electronically, and the statute charges a $100 administrative penalty for each report that misses its due date.", "source": "https://labor.vermont.gov/unemployment-insurance/ui-employers/unemployment-tax-rates ; https://labor.vermont.gov/press-release/vermont-department-labor-announces-unemployment-insurance-taxable-wage-base-2026 ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/017/01301 ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/017/01314a", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Vermont Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation and Safety Division", "url": "https://labor.vermont.gov/workers%E2%80%99-compensation", "note": "There is no free headcount. The Act tells employers to secure compensation for their employees, and defines an employee simply as an individual who has entered into the employment of an employer, so coverage is required from the first person you hire, full-time or part-time. The exclusions are narrow and each has a catch. Casual work not for the purpose of your trade or business is out, as is a family member living in your house, unless you put that person's wages in the payroll the premium is based on, in which case they count as an employee after all. Agricultural or farm employment is out only while your aggregate payroll stays under $10,000 in a calendar year. Domestic service in a private dwelling is out unless you tell the Commissioner you want in, and buying a policy counts as telling. A sole proprietor or partner of an unincorporated business is outside the Act for themselves only if all six statutory conditions are met, including a written contract that expressly says so. A corporation or LLC may, with the Commissioner's approval, elect to exclude up to four executive officers, managers or members; if every officer or member elects out and the business has no other employees, it need not buy coverage at all, but this excludes only those individuals and never anyone else found to be an employee. Going without is expensive: an administrative penalty of up to $100 a day for the first seven days and up to $150 a day after that, a mandatory stop-work order, a further penalty of up to $250 a day and up to $250 per employee per day once an order to insure has issued, a bar on state contracts for up to three years, and personal liability for the officers, majority shareholders or partners for an injured worker's benefits. Violating the stop-work order itself carries up to $5,000 civilly for a first offence, $10,000 after that, or a criminal fine of up to $10,000 and up to 180 days.", "source": "https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/009/00687 ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/009/00601 ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/009/00692", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 10, "deadline": "within 10 calendar days of the first date of employment, which is the first day services are performed for compensation", "agency": "Vermont Department of Labor", "url": "https://labor.vermont.gov/unemployment-insurance/unemployment-information-employers/employer-online-services/new-hire", "note": "Ten calendar days, not the federal twenty, and the clock starts on the first day services are performed for compensation rather than on the offer or the start date on paper. You report the employee's name, address, Social Security number and first date of employment along with your own name, address and federal employer identification number, through the Department of Labor's Employer e-Services portal or on a form it supplies or approves. Someone coming back after a separation of 60 or more consecutive days is a new hire again and must be reported again. Vermont defines employee by reference to chapter 24 of the Internal Revenue Code, so this is a wage-employee duty and the statute does not extend it to independent contractors the way Connecticut's does. There is no flat late penalty in the statute; the only money attached is that if the failure to report is the result of collusion between employer and employee, the employer owes the obligee the wages that should have been withheld, capped at $500. The data is shared with the Office of Child Support and used by the Department of Labor for unemployment insurance administration.", "source": "https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/33/041/04110 ; https://labor.vermont.gov/unemployment-insurance/unemployment-information-employers/employer-online-services/new-hire", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Vermont Department of Taxes (Health Care Fund Contribution Assessment); Vermont Family and Medical Leave Insurance Plan, administered under contract by The Hartford (voluntary)", "url": "https://governor.vermont.gov/vtfmli", "note": "Vermont has no mandatory paid family and medical leave payroll contribution and no state temporary disability insurance fund, so there is no rate to withhold and no leave account to open. What Vermont has instead is a voluntary, opt-in, state-sponsored insurance product. The Vermont Family and Medical Leave Insurance Plan is a group insurance policy the State procured from The Hartford, and the Governor's own page frames it as giving access to paid leave without imposing a new mandatory tax. It rolled out in three phases: State employees from July 2023, private employers with two or more employees able to enrol from 15 February 2024 with benefits from 1 July 2024, and individuals, the self-employed and employers with fewer than two employees able to buy it from 2025. Because it is insurance and not a programme, the employer chooses whether to buy at all, and premiums can be paid entirely by the employer, split, or passed entirely to employees as a voluntary benefit, with six to 26 weeks of duration and 60 to 70 percent wage replacement to choose from. There is no published statewide contribution rate because the price is underwritten per employer, which is why the rate fields here are null rather than zero: zero would wrongly imply a mandatory programme that happens to cost nothing. Do not carry a California, New York or Connecticut leave deduction across to a Vermont employee. Two mandatory obligations sit in this space and are the ones that actually cost money. First, the Health Care Fund Contribution Assessment, a quarterly employer levy under 32 V.S.A. chapter 245 that most out-of-state employers have never heard of. If you had five or more full-time equivalent employees aged 18 or over in the previous quarter, you total the hours worked by your uncovered employees, capped at 520 hours each, divide by 520, round down, subtract four for the exempt FTEs, and pay the resulting number times the current premium. Form HC-1 revised October 2025 sets that premium at $301.99 per FTE for every quarter ending in 2026, against $296.89 for 2025 and $268.24 for 2024, so roughly $1,208 a year for each uncovered full-time equivalent above the first four. The statutory base was $158.77 and is re-indexed every year to the change in the second lowest cost silver plan premium, so it moves annually. Uncovered means an employee you offer nothing to, an employee not eligible for what you offer others, or an employee who declines your coverage and is on Medicaid, has nothing else, or bought an individual plan on the Vermont exchange. The trap is documentary: you must collect a Form HC-2 declaration from every employee not on your plan each year, and anyone with no declaration on file is treated as uncovered whether or not they actually are. It is reported on Part IV of Form WHT-436 and due on the 25th of the month after each quarter. Second, Vermont's Earned Sick Time Act is a genuine mandate rather than an insurance option: employees averaging at least 18 hours a week accrue one hour of paid sick time for every 52 hours worked, and an employer may cap use at 40 hours in a 12-month period.", "source": "https://governor.vermont.gov/vtfmli ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/fullchapter/32/245 ; https://tax.vermont.gov/sites/tax/files/documents/WHT-436-2025.pdf ; https://tax.vermont.gov/business/hcfca/assessment-calculation ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/21/005/00482", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Vermont Department of Taxes", "url": "https://tax.vermont.gov/business/sales-and-use-tax/getting-started", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "before collecting any tax; the Department says businesses must register for a Vermont Business Tax Account and license prior to collecting the tax, and an out-of-state seller becomes a vendor once it has made at least $100,000 of sales into Vermont or at least 200 individual sales transactions in the preceding 12 months", "note": "Vermont charges nothing, and says so twice: registration is free and there is no charge for a license. The license is a separate object from the account, it authorises you to collect, and it must be displayed where customers can see it. If you have more than one Vermont location you keep one business tax account but each location needs its own license and files its own sales and use tax schedule, so register each site. The state rate is 6 percent, and about two dozen municipalities add a 1 percent local option tax, which takes the rate to 7 percent on sales delivered into them and forces you to file electronically. The Department publishes no bond or security deposit requirement for a sales tax registrant, so none is recorded here, which is a real difference from California and Texas where the permit is free but the deposit is not capped. Two things that catch new registrants: the sales and use account does not cover the meals and rooms tax, which is a separate account with its own registration, and Vermont use tax is due from you on anything taxable you buy for the business without tax charged, which is the most commonly assessed item on a small Vermont audit. Closing is a positive act done account by account in myVTax, or on Form B-2 on paper.", "source": "https://tax.vermont.gov/business/sales-and-use-tax/getting-started ; https://tax.vermont.gov/business/register ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/32/233/09701", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Vermont has required marketplace facilitators to collect and remit since 1 June 2019. The statute is short and unusually favourable to the small seller. The facilitator collects on retail sales made by marketplace sellers through the marketplace; the seller collects on its own Vermont sales made outside the marketplace. The facilitator must certify to its sellers that it will collect, and a marketplace seller that accepts that certification in good faith is directed to exclude sales made through the marketplace from its obligation as a vendor. That is broader wording than most states use, and it is the reason a seller that trades only through Amazon or Etsy is in a materially better position in Vermont than in, say, Connecticut, where marketplace sales still count toward the seller's own registration threshold. Keep the certification: it is what the exclusion hangs on. Note that the Department's own summary page describes only the collection duty and does not address whether facilitated sales count toward the $100,000 or 200 transaction test, so the statutory wording is the better guide, and a seller close to the line should ask the Department in writing rather than infer. A facilitator that gets the tax wrong because the seller gave it bad information can be relieved of liability, which means the seller's product and address data still matters.", "source": "https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/32/233/09713 ; https://tax.vermont.gov/business-and-corp/sales-and-use-tax/marketplace", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Vermont publishes no trailing nexus policy under that name, so this is read off the statutory definition of a vendor rather than off a guidance page, which is why the confidence is S rather than P. Under 32 V.S.A. section 9701(9)(F) a remote seller is a vendor if it has made at least $100,000 of sales into Vermont, or at least 200 individual sales transactions, during the 12-month period preceding the monthly period for which its liability is being determined. The test is therefore re-run every month against a rolling backward window, not once a year and not against a calendar year. The practical effect is a 12-month tail: once you stop qualifying, the obligation falls away on its own as the qualifying sales age out of the window, and there is no requirement to keep collecting for a fixed extra period beyond that. What does not fall away on its own is the registration. The account and the license stay live and returns stay due until you close the account in myVTax or file Form B-2, so dropping below the threshold and quietly stopping your filings is the way to accrue non-filer penalties on a business that no longer owes anything. Treat deregistration as a separate decision from the threshold test. Note also that the same subdivision requires regular, systematic or seasonal solicitation into Vermont alongside the dollar or transaction test, so the threshold alone is not the whole definition.", "source": "https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/32/233/09701 ; https://tax.vermont.gov/business/register", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Vermont has no general gross receipts tax in the mould of Washington's business and occupation tax or Ohio's commercial activity tax. It does, however, use gross receipts in the one place that catches an expanding company by surprise, which is the corporate minimum tax. A C corporation, including an LLC that elects to be taxed as one, pays the greater of the graduated net income tax, 6 percent to 8.5 percent with the top bracket starting at $25,000 of Vermont-allocated income, or a minimum annual tax set by a bracket of Vermont gross receipts: $100 under $500,000, $500 from $500,000 to $1 million, $2,000 from $1 million to $5 million, $6,000 from $5 million to $300 million, and $100,000 above $300 million. A loss-making company with $6 million of Vermont sales therefore owes $6,000 whether or not it made a penny, and the number is driven by receipts rather than profit. That is not a gross receipts tax, but it is the figure most likely to be missed. Two narrow genuine gross receipts taxes exist and are worth knowing only if you are in those trades: the fuel tax charges 0.75 percent of gross receipts on retail sales of natural gas and coal and 0.5 percent on retail sales of electricity, alongside a flat 2 cents per gallon on heating oil, propane, kerosene and other dyed diesel delivered in Vermont, all filed monthly on Form FGR-615 with a separate petroleum distributor licensing fee. Telecommunications providers face a separate Universal Service Charge. S corporations, partnerships and LLCs that have not elected corporate treatment are outside the corporate minimum and fall under the business income tax instead.", "source": "https://tax.vermont.gov/business/corporate-income-tax ; https://tax.vermont.gov/business/misc-taxes/fuel", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Vermont Secretary of State, Corporations Division", "url": "https://sos.vermont.gov/business-services/business-filings/foreign-registration", "feeLLC": 155, "feeCorp": 155, "feeNote": "Vermont charges the same $155 to both: a foreign LLC files an Application for Certificate of Authority under 11 V.S.A. section 4112 for $155, and a foreign business corporation files the same-named application under 11A V.S.A. section 15.03 for $155. The divergence is in the years afterwards, and it is large. The annual report is $170 for a foreign LLC but $250 for a foreign corporation, against $45 and $60 respectively for their domestic equivalents, so being the out-of-state entity costs roughly four times as much every year for the rest of the registration's life. Getting out is cheap either way: $25 for an LLC's certificate of cancellation and $25 for a corporation's certificate of withdrawal.", "note": "Vermont sets no deadline in days, but its definition of transacting business is one of the broadest in the country and is the thing to read before deciding you do not need to register. For LLCs, 11 V.S.A. section 4113 says doing business means each act, power or privilege exercised or enjoyed in the State, and then lists the usual safe harbours: maintaining or settling a proceeding, internal affairs meetings, bank accounts, selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that require acceptance outside Vermont, owning property, an isolated transaction, and transacting business in interstate commerce. Note what is not on that list, in Vermont or anywhere else: having an employee working in the state. Hiring one Vermont resident will normally take you past the safe harbours. The penalty is unusual in that it is real money rather than the usual procedural bar alone. Both the LLC and the corporation statutes charge a civil penalty of $50 for each day you transact business without a certificate of authority, capped at $10,000 per year, plus an amount equal to all the fees you would have paid over that period, plus any other penalties imposed by law. On top of that you cannot maintain a proceeding or raise a counterclaim, crossclaim or affirmative defence in a Vermont court until you register, and you are deemed to have appointed the Secretary of State as your agent for service. What is not affected is the validity of your contracts, your ability to defend a suit brought against you, or, for an LLC, the personal liability of members and managers. For corporations the Attorney General can sue to collect the penalties and to enjoin you from doing business in the state. Registering with the Secretary of State is a separate step from your Department of Taxes and Department of Labor accounts and registers you for no tax at all, and Vermont requires a separate annual renewal with the Secretary of State even though tax accounts are not renewed.", "source": "https://sos.vermont.gov/business-services/fees-statutes/ ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/11/025/04113 ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/11/025/04119 ; https://legislature.vermont.gov/statutes/section/11A/015/00015.02", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "wyoming": { "state": "Wyoming", "abbr": "WY", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Department of Workforce Services, Unemployment Insurance Tax (unemployment insurance)", "Department of Workforce Services, Workers' Compensation Division (workers compensation premiums)" ], "note": "One joint business registration at WYUI.wyo.gov opens a single employer account, and the Department of Workforce Services says that account may cover both unemployment insurance tax filings and workers compensation premium filings. That registration is not optional even if your industry turns out not to need workers compensation coverage: the Department says any business that performs work in Wyoming, or that hires a Wyoming resident, must register so the Department can determine which of the two programmes you fall under. Nothing else is bundled. There is no withholding account to open at all, because Wyoming levies no income tax. The sales and use tax licence is a separate application to the Department of Revenue through WYIFS, foreign qualification is a separate paper filing with the Secretary of State, and new hire reporting goes to a third system at newhire-reporting.com. An out-of-state employer has one extra step at registration, an Out-of-State Employer Questionnaire submitted with proof of its current coverage, and may face a surety bond requirement described under workers compensation below." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://revenue.wyo.gov/", "registerWhen": null, "note": "Wyoming takes nothing out of a paycheck for state income tax, so there is no withholding account, no state W-4 and no state wage tax line on your payroll. There is also nothing at the city or county level: Title 39 of the Wyoming statutes does have a Chapter 12 headed Income Tax, but it contains exactly one section, W.S. 39-12-101, and all that section does is preempt the field for the state and bar every county, city, town and other political subdivision from imposing or levying income taxes, earnings taxes or any other form of tax based on wages or other income. The Legislature's own Legislative Service Office briefing on the Title 39 tax structure lists both individual and corporate income tax at a 0% rate with $0 of FY24 collections. One difference from Texas, Nevada and Tennessee is worth knowing if you are planning years ahead: those three have constitutional bars on taxing wage income, while Wyoming's constitution conditions an income tax rather than forbidding it, requiring under Article 15, Section 18 that any income tax give full credit for sales, use and ad valorem taxes the same taxpayer paid in Wyoming that year. You still withhold federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare as normal. Two traps follow. Employers moving a worker to Wyoming often leave the previous state's withholding switched on, which takes money the employee does not owe. And no withholding does not mean no payroll registration: the joint Department of Workforce Services account, workers compensation where your industry requires it, and new hire reporting all still apply from the first employee.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title39.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Unemployment Insurance Tax", "url": "https://dws.wyo.gov/dws-division/unemployment-insurance/employers/unemployment-tax-rates/", "newEmployerRate": null, "wageBase": 33800, "year": "2026", "note": "Wyoming publishes no single new employer rate, which is why that field is blank rather than filled with a figure that would be wrong for most readers. Under W.S. 27-3-503(f) a new employer pays the average rate of contributions paid by its major industrial classification during the preceding calendar year, plus four adjustment factors computed under W.S. 27-3-505, and in no case less than 1% (0.01) before those factors. The Department recalculates every classification annually from the prior year's contributions, so your rate depends on your industry and on the year you start, and you keep it until you have built your own experience period, which the Department describes as three years. Rate notices are mailed by 31 December for the following calendar year. The ceiling is 8.5% (0.085), and that is also the penalty rate: the Department says an employer who fails to complete the joint business registration before submitting its first report is assigned the highest base rate possible, 8.5%. A separate 2% is added to the base rate of any employer that has not paid all contributions and filed all quarterly reports by 30 September preceding the rate year. Contributions are the employer's alone and W.S. 27-3-503(a) forbids deducting them from employee wages. The liability trigger is stricter than in most states and catches people out: there is no dollar threshold for a general employer, because W.S. 27-3-103(a)(i) makes an employing unit an employer as soon as a worker performs service as an employee for it, so one Wyoming employee and one dollar of wages is enough. Three groups have their own tests: agricultural labour at $20,000 of cash wages in a calendar quarter or ten workers on a day in each of twenty weeks, domestic service in a private home at $1,000 of cash wages in a quarter, and a charitable or educational organisation excluded from federal unemployment tax at four or more individuals for part of a day in twenty weeks. Once you qualify within a year you are subject for that entire calendar year. Tax is owed on the first $33,800 of each employee's wages in 2026, up from $32,400 in 2025, and the Department has already published $34,900 for 2027. Quarterly reports and payments are due 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January, and are delinquent the following day.", "source": "https://dws.wyo.gov/dws-division/unemployment-insurance/wyui/unemployment-taxable-wage-base/", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": true, "employeeThreshold": null, "requiredFor": [ "mining, sector 21, utilities, sector 22, construction, sector 23, and manufacturing, sectors 31 to 33, in full", "accommodation and food services, sector 72, in full, so every hotel, restaurant, bar and caterer is covered", "arts, entertainment and recreation, sector 71, in full, subject to a narrow exclusion the Department may grant under W.S. 27-14-108(o) where the employer's main revenue comes from crop production, animal production, timber tracts, forest nurseries or support activities for agriculture and forestry", "health care and social assistance: ambulatory health care 621, hospitals 622, nursing and residential care 623, individual and family services 6241, community food, housing and emergency relief 6242, and vocational rehabilitation 6243", "transportation and warehousing: air 481, truck 484, urban transit 485, pipeline 486, postal service 491, couriers and messengers 492, and warehousing and storage 493", "logging, industry group 1133, which is the only part of agriculture, sector 11, that is covered", "parts of wholesale trade: nondurable goods industry groups 4245 to 4249, being farm product raw materials, chemicals, petroleum, alcoholic beverages and miscellaneous nondurable goods", "parts of retail trade: motor vehicle and parts dealers 441, other building materials 44418, meat retailers 44524, fish and seafood retailers 44525, other specialty food stores 44529, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers 457", "newspaper, periodical, book and directory publishers, industry group 5131, the only part of the information sector that is covered", "lessors of real estate 5311 and automotive equipment rental and leasing 5321", "investigation, guard and armored car services 5616, services to buildings and dwellings 5617, and waste management and remediation 562", "fine arts schools 61161, sports and recreation instruction 61162 and automobile driving schools 611692", "repair and maintenance 811, dry cleaning and laundry services 8123 and pet care except veterinary services 81291", "public administration: police 92212, correctional institutions 92214, parole and probation offices 92215, fire protection 92216, administration of public health 92312, human resource 92313 and veterans affairs 92314 programmes, and environmental quality programmes 924, plus the named categories of government workers and volunteers listed in W.S. 27-14-108(d) and (e)", "professional athletes, whose team owner must obtain coverage under W.S. 27-14-108(q)" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no opt-out filing, because for an employer outside the listed industries there is nothing to opt out of. What you must still do is register. The Department of Workforce Services says any business that performs work in Wyoming or hires a Wyoming resident must create an employer account at WYUI.wyo.gov and complete the joint business registration, and the Department then determines whether your business is required, optional or non-liable. An out-of-state business files an Out-of-State Employer Questionnaire with the registration materials and proof of its current coverage. Election runs the other way and locks in: under W.S. 27-14-108(j) an employer that elects coverage must cover all of its employees and cannot withdraw for two years, and an election for owners, corporate officers, LLC members or partners under W.S. 27-14-108(k) must be made in writing on initial registration or thirty days before a calendar quarter begins and cannot be withdrawn for eight calendar quarters.", "agency": "Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Workers' Compensation Division", "url": "https://dws.wyo.gov/dws-division/workers-compensation/employers/", "note": "Two unusual things are true at once here, and most summaries get one of them wrong. First, Wyoming is a monopolistic state fund state: there is no private policy that satisfies the requirement, and W.S. 27-14-207(a) says an employer subject to the Act shall not commence business or engage in work in the state without applying for coverage and receiving a statement of coverage from the Division. Second, the requirement is triggered by your industry, not by your headcount, so the employee threshold field is genuinely blank rather than set to one. W.S. 27-14-108(a)(ii) lists the covered work by North American Industry Classification System code and says that, regardless of individual occupation, all workers employed in those sectors, subsectors, industry groups and industries are in extrahazardous employment. If you are on that list, one employee is enough and the coverage must exist before work begins. If you are not, you are not required to carry it, and the Department's own page says so plainly: coverage is required for an extra-hazardous industry, and if your business is optional you may still choose coverage. The word extrahazardous badly undersells the scope, so read the list rather than the label. Sector 71 and sector 72 are covered in full, which pulls in every restaurant, bar, hotel, gym and entertainment venue, and most of health care is covered too. What is absent matters just as much for an employer expanding into Wyoming: professional, scientific and technical services (sector 54), finance and insurance (52), management of companies (55), most of information (51) and most administrative services are not on the list, so a software company, law firm, accounting practice, agency or bank that hires a single remote worker in Wyoming is not required to carry Wyoming workers compensation. Not required is not the same as no exposure. W.S. 27-14-104(a) makes the Act the exclusive remedy only as against an employer making the contributions the Act requires, and 27-14-104(c) says the Act does not limit an employee's right of action against an employer that has not qualified for coverage, or that has qualified but is more than thirty days late paying premium on the injured employee's earnings. So an uncovered Wyoming employer can be sued in tort by an injured worker, which is the same trade-off Texas employers make. Owners are outside the system unless they buy in: W.S. 27-14-102(a)(vii) excludes sole proprietors, partners, LLC members and corporate officers from the definition of employee unless coverage is elected under 27-14-108(k), and also excludes independent contractors, a spouse or dependent living in the employer's household, casual labour, employees of a private household and licensed real estate brokers and salespeople. The out-of-state cost that surprises people is the bond. Under W.S. 27-1-106 a nonresident employer that expects to pay more than $4,000 of Wyoming wages in any month must file a surety bond or other approved security, starting at $8,000 and rising by $2,000 for each additional $1,000 of expected monthly wages up to $20,000 a month, then by $1,000 for each further $1,000. W.S. 27-14-302(b) requires that nonresident employer to register and either pay an advance premium deposit or file the bond before starting work, and 27-14-302(e) waives the requirement if you provide a certificate of coverage from your home state under 27-14-306(b); the Department lists reciprocal agreements with Montana, North Dakota, Nevada and Washington. Failing to comply with W.S. 27-1-106 is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $1,000 per offence. On price, there is no single rate to quote: W.S. 27-14-201 has the Division divide employments into classes and set each class rate actuarially, readjusted annually after a public rate hearing and with the governor's written approval, with any one classification's base rate increase capped at 50% of the prior year.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title27.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of hiring a new employee, or, if you transmit reports magnetically or electronically, in two monthly transmissions not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart", "agency": "Wyoming Department of Workforce Services, Wyoming New Hire Reporting Center", "url": "https://dws.wyo.gov/dws-division/unemployment-insurance/employers/wyoming-new-hire-reporting/", "note": "The duty sits in W.S. 27-1-115(b) and the deadline is twenty days, with the usual electronic alternative of two transmissions a month spaced twelve to sixteen days apart. Reports carry the employee's name, address and Social Security number, the date services for remuneration were first performed, and the employer's name, address and federal employer identification number, and Wyoming will take them on a W-4 or on an equivalent form it approves. Filing is at newhire-reporting.com/WY-Newhire, which is a different system from your Department of Workforce Services employer account even though the same department receives the data. Two Wyoming-specific points. Wyoming's definition of employee for this purpose is an individual eighteen years of age or older, so unlike most states it does not require you to report a minor, though the statute lets the Department add under-eighteens if the federal government threatens sanctions. And independent contractors are only required to be reported by governmental agencies; every other employer may report them if it chooses. A rehire counts as a new hire once the worker has been separated from you for at least sixty days, which catches seasonal staff and anyone returning from a long unpaid gap. If you have employees in Wyoming and at least one other state and you file electronically or magnetically, you may elect to report all of them to a single state under W.S. 27-1-115(c). The statute sets no specific monetary penalty for a missed report, which is why no figure appears here; that is not a licence to skip it, since the data feeds child support enforcement and the state's unemployment and workers compensation programmes.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title27.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "note": "Wyoming runs no state disability insurance fund and no state paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no employee payroll deduction and no employer contribution for one. It also has no state paid sick leave mandate, which is a different thing that several states do impose on top of a fund. Title 27 of the Wyoming statutes, which is the entire state labour and employment code, runs from general provisions through unemployment compensation, wages, hours, fair employment practices and workers compensation, and contains no chapter creating any such programme. Any paid leave you give Wyoming staff is your own policy, and federal FMLA protection, if you are large enough to be covered, is unpaid. If you already run payroll in a state like California, New York, New Jersey, Washington or Colorado, do not carry that deduction across to a Wyoming employee. This is recorded at S rather than P because it rests on reading the whole labour code and finding nothing, rather than on an agency page that states the negative outright; the Department of Workforce Services Labor Standards page does not enumerate the laws it enforces.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title27.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Wyoming Department of Revenue, Excise Tax Division", "url": "https://excise-tax-div.wyo.gov/salesuselodging-tax/salesuselodging-registration", "fee": 60, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": "There is no general security deposit or bond for the vendor licence. The one bond a business can walk into is narrower and much larger: under W.S. 39-15-306(b) a nonresident prime contractor must file with the Department of Revenue a surety bond or legal security equal to 3% of the payments due under the contract, plus any increased rate in force under W.S. 39-15-104(b), and anyone party to or performing work on the contract can be enjoined from starting or continuing until an approved bond is on file. A contractor working repeatedly in Wyoming may instead file a single blanket bond of $1,000,000 covering all its Wyoming contracts.", "registerBy": "Before you conduct business in Wyoming. W.S. 39-15-106(a) requires every vendor to obtain a sales tax licence to conduct business in the state, and a remote seller with no physical presence falls in once its gross revenue from sales delivered into Wyoming exceeds $100,000 in the current or the immediately preceding calendar year. Wyoming publishes no grace period between crossing that threshold and having to collect, and the Excise Tax Division says the online application takes about two weeks, so allow for the lag.", "note": "The licence fee is $60 for each new vendor and it is set in statute at W.S. 39-15-106(a) rather than on a fee page that can drift. Two things about it are easy to get wrong. A separate licence is required for each place of business, so a second Wyoming location means a second $60 application. But there is no renewal fee at all: W.S. 39-15-106(e) says licences are valid without further payment of fees until revoked by the Department, so unlike most states this is a one-off cost. Reinstating a forfeited licence costs $60 again. The fee also does not apply to a remote vendor that has no requirement to register in Wyoming, or to one registering through one of the technology models under the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement, so a remote seller coming in through the Streamlined central registration system may pay nothing. Applying is a two-step process through the Wyoming Internet Filing System: you first get a WYIFS account approved, then use the same platform to apply for the licence. On filing, the default is monthly, with the return and payment due the last day of the month following the month of sales; if the total tax you remit in a month is under $150 the Department may authorise a quarterly or annual return instead, due the last day of the month following the quarter or year. If you close or sell the business you owe a final return and payment within thirty days, and W.S. 39-15-106(f) also requires you to notify the Department and return the licence for cancellation. A vendor that reports no gross sales for three consecutive years is sent a show cause notice and can have its licence revoked.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title39.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "W.S. 39-15-502(a) makes the marketplace facilitator the vendor for every sale it facilitates on its marketplace and puts all the obligations of the sales tax chapter on it, and 39-15-502(b) requires it to collect and remit on its own sales and on sales it facilitates for marketplace sellers into Wyoming whether or not the seller holds a sales tax permit or would otherwise have had to collect. The facilitator's own duty is subject to the $100,000 remote seller threshold in W.S. 39-15-501(a). Enforcement is aimed at the facilitator too: under 39-15-502(e) the Department audits the facilitator for facilitated sales and does not audit marketplace sellers except where the facilitator claims relief. That relief is capped at 5% of the total tax due where the facilitator failed to collect because the seller gave it incorrect or insufficient information, and in that case the seller or the purchaser owes the tax instead; no relief is available for a seller affiliated with the facilitator, meaning more than 5% common ownership. The obvious limit is that none of this covers your direct sales. The moment you also sell through your own site or another channel, those sales are yours to collect on and count against the $100,000 threshold. One point Wyoming has not answered in the statute and does not address in the Division's published material is whether sales made through a collecting marketplace count toward your own $100,000, and because that is unresolved a seller near the line should ask the Excise Tax Division rather than assume either way.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/statutes/compress/title39.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "The duty to collect does not switch off the moment sales dip, because W.S. 39-15-501(a) tests your gross revenue delivered into Wyoming for the current calendar year or the immediately preceding calendar year. Cross $100,000 in one year and you collect for the rest of that year and for the whole of the next one, and you only stop once neither the current nor the prior year is over the line. Note also what changed in 2024: Wyoming had a second prong at 200 separate transactions, and House Bill 197, Enrolled Act 38 of the 2024 budget session, repealed W.S. 39-15-501(a)(ii) effective 1 July 2024. So a low-value, high-volume seller who used to be caught by transaction count alone is no longer caught unless it exceeds $100,000. Any source still quoting 200 transactions for Wyoming is out of date. The registration does not lapse on its own even when the collection duty ends: you keep the licence and the filing duty until you notify the Department and return the licence under W.S. 39-15-106(f), and a business that is closed or sold owes a final return within thirty days.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/2024/Enroll/HB0197.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": "https://sos.wyo.gov/business/docs/businessfees.pdf", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Wyoming levies no gross receipts tax, and unlike Washington, Ohio, Nevada, Oregon and Delaware it has not put one in place of a corporate income tax. It has no corporate income tax and no personal income tax either: the Legislative Service Office's June 2025 briefing on the Title 39 tax structure lists both at a 0% rate with $0 of FY24 collections. There is one recurring state-level charge on an out-of-state business that people mistake for a gross receipts tax, and it is worth knowing precisely because it is measured on the wrong thing to be one. The Secretary of State's annual report licence tax is $60, or two tenths of one mill on the dollar ($0.0002) of the company's assets located and employed in Wyoming, whichever is greater, and it applies to both LLCs and profit corporations. Because it is charged on Wyoming assets rather than Wyoming revenue, a service business whose only Wyoming presence is a remote employee and a laptop stays at the $60 floor no matter how much it bills, while a business that puts equipment, vehicles or inventory in the state scales up. Wyoming funds itself instead from severance taxes on minerals, property tax and the 4% state sales tax.", "source": "https://wyoleg.gov/InterimCommittee/2025/03-202506032-01WyomingtaxstructureratesandcollectionsJune32025.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Wyoming Secretary of State, Business Division", "url": "https://sos.wyo.gov/Business/ForeignCertificateofAuthority.aspx", "feeLLC": 150, "feeCorp": 150, "feeNote": "Both entity types pay $150 for the Certificate of Authority on the fee schedule effective 1 July 2026. A foreign nonprofit corporation pays $50. The recurring cost is the annual report licence tax, which for both LLCs and profit corporations is $60 or two tenths of one mill on the dollar ($0.0002) of the company's assets located and employed in Wyoming, whichever is greater, and $25 a year for a nonprofit. A later amendment or any other filing is $60 for an LLC or profit corporation. If your out-of-state name is unavailable in Wyoming you must also file a Use of Fictitious Name form with the application; the Secretary of State does not publish a separate fee for it on the schedule, so no figure is given here.", "note": "The question to settle first is whether you need to register at all. W.S. 17-16-1501(a) says a foreign corporation may not transact business in Wyoming until it obtains a certificate of authority, and W.S. 17-16-1533 applies the same article to a limited liability company organised elsewhere. Subsection (b) is the list to read, because it names the activities that do not count: maintaining or defending a lawsuit, holding director or shareholder meetings, maintaining bank accounts, selling through independent contractors, soliciting or obtaining orders that require acceptance outside Wyoming before they become contracts, creating or collecting debts, owning real or personal property without more, an isolated transaction completed within thirty days, and transacting business in interstate commerce. Employing a person who works in Wyoming is not on that list, and the statute says the list is not exhaustive, so an employer with staff in the state should assume it needs to register. The penalty for skipping it is one of the harsher ones in the country: under W.S. 17-16-1502(d) you owe every fee and licence tax you would have paid for the years you transacted business unregistered, plus 18% interest, plus a flat $5,000 penalty, plus reasonable audit expenses and attorney fees, and the Secretary of State may refuse to issue the certificate until it is all paid. You also cannot maintain a proceeding in any Wyoming court until you register, though you may still defend one and your corporate acts stay valid. Three practical points. The application must arrive with an original certificate of existence or good standing from your home state dated no more than sixty days before filing, or it is rejected. Wyoming statutes do not allow expedited filing, and the Secretary of State quotes up to fifteen business days from receipt, so build that into any start date. And the annual report is due every year on the first day of your anniversary month, with dissolution if it is not paid within sixty days of the due date. Certificates of good standing are free online at wyobiz.wyo.gov. Registering with the Secretary of State is separate from your Department of Workforce Services employer account and from the Department of Revenue sales tax licence, and Wyoming has no general state business licence on top of these.", "source": "https://sos.wyo.gov/business/docs/businessfees.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "alaska": { "state": "Alaska", "abbr": "AK", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [], "note": "There is no single Alaska business registration and no combined payroll account. Five separate front doors, five separate logins: the Alaska business license from the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, an unemployment insurance account with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, a workers compensation policy bought from a private insurer because Alaska runs no state fund, new hire reports to the Child Support Services Division inside the Department of Revenue, and, if you sell into Alaska rather than employ there, a registration with the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission, which is an intergovernmental body of member municipalities and not a state agency at all. There is no sixth step for income tax withholding, because Alaska has none." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://tax.alaska.gov/programs/programs/index.aspx?10003", "registerWhen": null, "note": "The Department of Revenue says it plainly on its own Withholding Tax page: the state currently does not have an individual income tax, therefore no employee withholding for state income tax is required. There is no state W-4, no withholding account to open, no monthly or quarterly deposit and no annual reconciliation, and no Alaska municipality levies an income tax either. What you still owe is easy to underestimate. Federal income tax withholding, Social Security, Medicare and FUTA are unchanged. On the state side you owe unemployment insurance contributions to the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and Alaska is one of the few states where the employee pays into the unemployment fund too, so you deduct 0.50% of their wages up to the taxable wage base and remit it with your own contribution. That means Alaska does have a state payroll deduction and a state payroll filing even though it has no income tax: a quarterly contribution report is due for every quarter the account is open, even a quarter with zero wages, and filing it late carries a minimum $10 penalty whether or not money is due. If the business itself is a corporation, the corporate income tax described under gross receipts below is separate again and is not affected by the absence of a personal income tax.", "source": "https://tax.alaska.gov/programs/programs/index.aspx?10003", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Employment Security Tax", "url": "https://labor.alaska.gov/estax/faq/w1.htm", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 54200, "year": "2026", "note": "You are an employer the moment you hire one or more individuals to perform services for your direct benefit during any portion of a day, so there is no dollar or headcount trigger to wait for, and an out-of-state company must open an account for workers hired in Alaska who work in Alaska. A new employer gets what the Department calls an I rate, the average rate for eligible employers in its own industry, until it has four consecutive quarters ending with the 30 June computation date; leave the business activity blank on the registration form and you are assigned the highest industry rate instead. For 2026 the industry rate is 1.00% for every single NAICS industry, and every experience rate class from 1 to 20 is also 1.00%, because the state trust fund is healthy enough that the computed rate falls below the statutory floor. AS 23.20.290(c) will not let an employer rate go below 1% or above 6.5%, and the Department's own rate calculation cookbook shows the 2026 arithmetic producing minus 0.06% before the floor is applied. So 1.00% is not a bargain the state chose, it is the bottom of the range, and it rises if the fund weakens. Rate class 21, the penalty rate for employers who have not filed or not paid, is 5.40%. On top of your 1.00%, the employee pays 0.50%, which you deduct from their pay and remit with your quarterly report, giving a combined 1.50% of covered wages. Both rates apply only to the first $54,200 of each employee's 2026 wages, up from $51,700 in 2025; the base is 75% of the average annual Alaska wage and is recalculated every year, so it moves each January. Contribution reports and payment are due the last day of the month after each quarter, 30 April, 31 July, 31 October and 31 January, and online filing is mandatory once a wage schedule lists 50 or more employees, taxable wages reach $1 million, or a payroll agent files for you. Two Alaska-specific quirks: an account with eight consecutive zero-wage reports is administratively closed, and fishing operations with fewer than 10 crew paid on a share basis are outside coverage entirely.", "source": "https://labor.alaska.gov/estax/documents/2026_industry_rates.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every employer with one or more employees in Alaska, from the first employee, unless approved as a self-insurer by the Workers' Compensation Board", "out-of-state employers whose employees work in Alaska, whether or not those employees are principally located there, because Alaska recognizes no reciprocity with any other state or country", "the employees, family members and friends of an owner who is personally exempt, since the owner exemption covers only the owner" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Division of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://labor.alaska.gov/wc/er-profit.html", "note": "There is no headcount to reach: the Act requires each employer having one or more employees in Alaska to carry coverage. Alaska has no state fund, so you buy from the commercial market, or through the assigned risk pool that NCCI administers if no carrier will write you, and under AS 23.30.025(a) the insurer must be admitted in Alaska, which is why an out-of-state policy usually will not do. The no-reciprocity rule is the one that catches remote hiring: put one employee in Anchorage and you need Alaska coverage even if your existing policy claims to follow them. Since 1 August 2019 certain owners need not insure themselves: a sole proprietor, partners in a partnership, LLC members holding at least 10%, executive officers of for-profit corporations holding at least 10%, and executive officers of municipal, religious and registered nonprofit corporations unless the corporation elects to cover them. All of them must still cover their employees, and the Division spells out that this includes family members and friends. The other exemptions are by type of work rather than type of business, and the list is short: part-time babysitters, non-commercial cleaners, harvest and similar part-time or transient help, amateur sports officials, contract entertainers, commercial fishers as defined in AS 16.05.940, taxicab drivers under specific contracts, qualified real estate licensees under specific contracts, transportation network company drivers, and a few public program participants. The money at stake is real: penalties run from $10 to $1,000 per employee for each day each employee worked during a lapse, a further mandatory $1,000 a day for working after a stop work order, a six-year lookback for failure-to-insure actions, and personal liability for the full cost of an injury claim if you were uninsured. Two duties people forget: post the notice of insurance in three conspicuous places with the policy number and adjuster details, and file a report with the Division within 10 days of learning of any claimed work injury, death, disease or infection under AS 23.30.070(a).", "source": "https://labor.alaska.gov/wc/publications/employer_guide_to_wc_act.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date of hire or rehire", "agency": "Alaska Department of Revenue, Child Support Services Division", "url": "https://childsupport.alaska.gov/child-support-services/employers/employer-information", "note": "Any employer who completes a W-2 for employee wages must report, full time or part time, and an employee is reported again on rehire or whenever a new W-4 has to be completed. Nine items go on the report: employer name, address, federal tax identification number and phone, and employee name, address, Social Security number, date of birth and date of hire or rehire. Independent contractors are not reported, because the Division treats them as self-employed, although their earnings remain subject to a withholding order like anyone else's. Reporting goes through the Division's Business Portal rather than to the Department of Labor, so it is a different agency and a different login from your unemployment account, and the quarterly wage reports you file with Labor do not substitute for it. The penalty is deliberately small, $10 for each failure to report per employee, rising to $100 per employee where the employer and employee conspired not to report, but the report itself is not optional. A multistate employer may report all new hires to a single state instead of state by state, provided it notifies the federal Office of Child Support Services of that election.", "source": "https://childsupport.alaska.gov/docs/childsupportserviceslibraries/brochures/04-6610-employer-guide-to-reporting-09-2025.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": "Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Wage and Hour Administration", "url": "https://www.labor.alaska.gov/lss/sick-leave-faq.html", "note": "Alaska runs no state disability insurance and no paid family leave fund, so there is no premium to withhold and none to match. The unemployment employee deduction of 0.50% is the only state payroll deduction in Alaska and it is recorded under unemployment insurance above, not here. What Alaska does have, and what is new enough that many employers have not caught up, is a statewide paid sick leave mandate under AS 23.10.066 to AS 23.10.069, in force since 1 July 2025 from Ballot Measure 1. Every employer must let employees accrue at least one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked, counting only actual hours worked and counting overtime hours. The annual cap turns on size: fewer than 15 employees means employees may accrue and use up to 40 hours a year, 15 or more means up to 56. Size is measured as full time equivalents over the previous calendar year, adding all hours worked by part time, full time and seasonal staff and dividing by full time hours, so a business with many part timers can cross 15 without ever having 15 people on a shift. Unused leave carries over, unless you front load the full annual amount at the start of the year, in which case you need not carry it. An existing paid time off policy that already meets the accrual rate and can be used for the same purposes satisfies the law. Exemptions are narrow: minors under 18 working under 30 hours in the week, approved student learners, seasonal staff of nonprofit residential summer camps, work therapy patients, employed prisoners, employees under a collective bargaining agreement that waives the right in clear terms, and workers exempt from minimum wage and overtime under AS 23.10.055, though salary-exempt employees under AS 23.10.055(a)(9) are covered. You may not ask for proof of illness unless the employee uses more than three consecutive workdays. This is a cost you carry directly, not a premium you remit. Two related points for anyone budgeting a first Alaska hire: the same ballot measure raised the state minimum wage from $13.00 to $14.00 an hour on 1 July 2026, and the Alaska Family Leave Act is not a private employer obligation at all, because it was renumbered into AS 39.20.500 to 39.20.550 and its definition of employer covers only the state and political subdivisions with at least 21 employees.", "source": "https://www.labor.alaska.gov/lss/sick-leave-faq.html", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": false, "permit": { "agency": "Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission", "url": "https://arsstc.org/business-sellers/", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Within 30 calendar days of meeting the $100,000 statewide gross sales threshold, per Section 090(C) of the Uniform Code", "note": "Alaska levies no state sales tax, so there is no state permit and no state form. The Department of Revenue's own page says the state currently does not have a sales and use tax, however some local jurisdictions impose local sales taxes, and the Remote Seller Commission puts it more bluntly still: businesses are not filing sales tax with the State of Alaska. Boroughs and cities levy their own instead, at their own rates, on their own definitions of what is taxable, and several of them charge a higher rate in summer than in winter. For a seller outside Alaska this would be unworkable one town at a time, which is why the Alaska Municipal League set up the Alaska Remote Seller Sales Tax Commission in 2019 under an intergovernmental agreement. One registration with the Commission covers every member jurisdiction, and Section 090(H) of the Uniform Code says that registration also satisfies a member's municipal business license requirement so long as you have no physical presence there. As of this review the Commission's member table listed 57 municipalities and boroughs, general retail rates running from 2% to 7% with several seasonal splits, plus five more that have joined the Commission but not yet adopted the code as of 26 August 2026. Registration is free: the Commission's seller FAQ answers the question of whether there is a fee to register with a flat no. That is why the fee field is null rather than zero here, since a state with no sales tax must not carry a permit fee at all. Filing is monthly by default, with quarterly available on application if you had under $100,000 of taxable sales into member jurisdictions or under $100,000 of statewide gross sales in the preceding 12 months, and a return is due for every period even when you collected nothing. Jurisdictions that have not adopted the code must still be filed with directly, using their own forms. Late filing costs $25 a month up to $100, a penalty of 5% of the tax per month to a maximum of 20%, and interest of 15% a year. If you have physical presence in an Alaska jurisdiction, that jurisdiction's own local filing continues and only your remote sales into other member jurisdictions go through the Commission.", "source": "https://arsstc.org/faqs-for-sellers/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The Uniform Code treats a marketplace facilitator as the remote seller for every sale it facilitates, and a facilitator over the threshold must collect for all of its sellers regardless of whether any individual seller would have crossed the threshold alone. If your only Alaska sales run through facilitators, you do not register, but you do have to file a Marketplace Seller Affidavit with the Commission attesting to that, which is a step sellers routinely miss. Two traps. First, the threshold arithmetic works against you: Section 040(A)(1) says a remote seller's statewide gross sales include the sales its marketplace facilitator made on its behalf, so marketplace volume can push your own direct sales into a registration duty. Second, three kinds of platform are carved out of the facilitator duty entirely, and if you sell through one of them nobody is collecting on your behalf: delivery network companies delivering for a seller already engaged in business in a member jurisdiction, marketplaces that facilitate rentals of hotel rooms, cabins and other transient lodging, and marketplaces performing travel agency services.", "source": "https://arsstc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Uniform-Code_2024-revisions_final_070824.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Section 040(A) of the Uniform Code tests your statewide gross sales in the current or previous calendar year, so crossing $100,000 in one year obliges you to collect for the rest of that year and through the whole of the next calendar year even if your Alaska sales collapse to nothing. On top of that fixed period, the registration itself does not lapse on its own. Section 100(C) presumes a seller who has filed a return is still making sales in successive periods until it files a return showing termination or sale of the business, and Section 100(E) requires a return every period showing why no tax is due. So the practical sequence is: keep filing zero returns through the trailing year, then close the account deliberately. The Commission asks for notice at least 10 days before you close or sell, a final return within 30 days of closing, and reserves 60 days after that notice to run a final audit.", "source": "https://arsstc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Uniform-Code_2024-revisions_final_070824.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": "Alaska Department of Revenue, Tax Division", "url": "https://tax.alaska.gov/programs/programs/index.aspx?60380", "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Alaska has no broad gross receipts or business activity tax standing in for a sales tax, so nothing here plays the part that Delaware's gross receipts tax, Washington's business and occupation tax or Nevada's Commerce Tax play in those states. This block is still worth reading, because the thing that actually surprises businesses expanding into Alaska is that no personal income tax does not mean no business income tax. Alaska levies a corporate income tax on Alaska taxable income, built on federal taxable income with Alaska adjustments, graduated from 0% to 9.4% in steps of either $24,000 or $25,000 of taxable income; the 0% rate covers taxable income of $25,000 and below and the 9.4% top rate applies at $222,000 and over. Multistate corporations apportion on a water's edge basis using property, payroll and sales. The payment deadline is a trap: tax is due on or before the 15th day of the fourth month after the close of the tax year and that date cannot be extended, even though the return itself is not due until 30 days after the federal return due date and follows a federal extension automatically. Pass-through businesses are not automatically clear either. The Tax Division says a partnership, or an LLC treated as a partnership, that conducts business in Alaska must file an Alaska return unless all of its partners or members are natural persons, so a single owner LLC files nothing while an LLC with a corporate member does. Separately, every business in Alaska needs an Alaska business license at $50 a year under AS 43.70.030, and the state raises much of its remaining business revenue through industry-specific taxes such as the fisheries business tax, mining license tax, motor fuel tax, marijuana tax and vehicle rental tax rather than a general levy.", "source": "https://tax.alaska.gov/programs/programs/index.aspx?60380", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, Division of Corporations, Business and Professional Licensing, Corporations Section", "url": "https://www.commerce.alaska.gov/web/Portals/5/pub/08-414.pdf", "feeLLC": null, "feeCorp": 350, "feeNote": "Foreign corporation: $350, taken from the Division's own current Certificate of Authority form 08-414, which prints the breakdown on the filing page as $150 fee plus $200 tax. The $150 is the filing fee set by 3 AAC 16.030(a) and the $200 is the biennial corporation tax that AS 10.06.845(a) charges a foreign corporation, collected up front at registration rather than waiting for the first report. Foreign LLC: withheld deliberately. Both components exist in regulation, $150 to register under 3 AAC 16.065(a) and $200 for a foreign LLC biennial report under 3 AAC 16.065(c), and $350 is the figure everyone quotes, but the Division publishes no paper form for an initial foreign LLC registration because that filing is online only, and its web pages sit behind a bot challenge that we will not work around, so we could not read the Division confirming that the $200 is bundled at registration the way form 08-414 confirms it for corporations. Budget $350 and check the total on the online screen before filing. Expedited service costs an extra $150 under 3 AAC 16.105(a), and there is a $25 fee under 3 AAC 16.010(a) if you want to reserve or register the name first.", "note": "Registering the entity is only half the job in Alaska, and the half people forget is cheaper but more universally required: under AS 43.70.020 every person engaging in a business in the state must first obtain an Alaska business license, which AS 43.70.030 prices at $50 a year, or $25 for a sole proprietor who is 65 or older or a disabled veteran. Knowingly doing business without one exposes you to a civil fine of up to $300 under AS 43.70.020(e). On the entity side, AS 10.50.605 requires a foreign LLC to register before conducting affairs in the state and AS 10.50.615(b) requires proof of organization from the home jurisdiction, while a foreign corporation must be in good standing in its state of domicile before a certificate of authority will issue. Both entity types need an Alaska registered agent. After registration the recurring cost is the biennial report, due before 2 January of your filing year and delinquent if not filed before 1 February, at $200 for a foreign LLC against $100 for a domestic one under 3 AAC 16.065(c), with a $25 late charge for each year or part year of delinquency plus an extra 10% of the filing fee. Which calendar years you file in is fixed by whether you registered in an odd or an even numbered year, and AS 10.50.760(d) also has an LLC file a report within six months of original organization once the Division sends the form. Paper filings take roughly 10 to 15 business days.", "source": "https://www.akleg.gov/basis/aac.asp#3.16.065", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "oklahoma": { "state": "Oklahoma", "abbr": "OK", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Oklahoma Tax Commission", "Oklahoma Employment Security Commission", "a private workers compensation insurer, or CompSource Mutual Insurance Company" ], "note": "Oklahoma has no single payroll registration and no single portal. The Oklahoma Tax Commission handles income tax withholding and sales and use tax, and you open both in one application through OkTAP at oktap.tax.ok.gov. Unemployment is a separate agency and a separate system: you file an OES-1 status report with the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission through EZ Tax Express or its newer Employer Portal, and you get a different account number there. New hire reporting is a third destination, also at OESC but through its own new hire system rather than your tax account. Workers compensation is not a registration at all, it is an insurance policy bought from a carrier or from CompSource Mutual. The state's own checklist for businesses with employees lists the withholding account, the unemployment account and the workers compensation policy as three separate errands, so budget for two applications, two account numbers and one policy before your first Oklahoma payday." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Oklahoma Tax Commission", "url": "https://oklahoma.gov/tax/businesses/withholding.html", "registerWhen": "Before your first Oklahoma payroll. Packet OW-2 says that upon receipt of the federal EIN an Oklahoma income tax withholding account must be established, and it sets no grace period", "note": "Withholding follows where the work is done, not where the worker lives: the law applies to everyone receiving compensation for services rendered in Oklahoma. Two exclusions in 68 O.S. 2385.1 matter to an out-of-state employer. A person who is not a resident individual is outside the withholding rules if their Oklahoma income in a calendar quarter is not more than $300, and farm labor is excluded where the amount paid is $900 a month or less. Your remittance calendar is set by size, not by choice: quarterly if you withhold $500 or less a quarter, monthly by the 20th above that, electronic once you are at $5,000 or more a month in the previous fiscal year, and on the federal semi-weekly schedule at an average of $10,000 or more a month. Late payment costs 10 percent of the tax plus interest at 1.25 percent a month, and the officer, partner or individual employer who had the duty to withhold can be held personally liable because the money is held in trust for the state. One Oklahoma-specific trap for anyone using contractors: under 68 O.S. 2385.32 a contracting entity that pays an individual independent contractor who fails to provide documentation verifying employment authorization must withhold Oklahoma income tax from that pay at the top marginal individual rate.", "source": "https://www.oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/tax/documents/resources/publications/businesses/withholding-tables/WHTables-2026.pdf ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=92646 ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=450573", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Oklahoma Employment Security Commission", "url": "https://oklahoma.gov/oesc/employers/tax/contribution-rates.html", "newEmployerRate": 0.015, "wageBase": 25000, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new Oklahoma employer pays 1.5 percent on the first $25,000 of each worker's wages, and the same new employer rate applies whatever the industry, so there is no separate construction band. OESC publishes both figures on its contribution rates page and in its Important Numbers for 2026 sheet, which also sets the 2026 conditional factor at A, the state experience factor at 30 percent and the range of assigned rates at 0.2 percent to 5.8 percent. The 1.5 percent is statutory, in 40 O.S. 3-110.1, and it holds until you have built four quarters of experience within a rate cycle. The wage base is not fixed in statute, OESC resets it annually, which is why this is the field most likely to be stale. Two quirks are worth knowing. Oklahoma rates an employer on benefit wage charges rather than benefits paid, and it then applies a conditional factor on top: a calculated rate of 0.1 to 0.9 percent gets 0.6 added, and a rate of 1.0 percent or more is multiplied by 1.667, so a table rate of 1.7 percent becomes 2.8 percent. And an established employer that files four consecutive no-wage reports drops back to the new employer rate the next calendar year. You become a liable employer once you pay $1,500 or more in wages in any calendar quarter in this or the preceding year, or have one or more people in employment for some part of a day in each of 20 different weeks in this or the preceding year. Note that OESC's own Employer Handbook (form OES-175) works its rate example off a 50 percent state experience factor, which is not the 2026 figure; the current-year Important Numbers sheet and the contribution rates page both say 30 percent, and those are what 2026 rates are built from.", "source": "https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/oesc/images/misc/Employer-Improtant-Numbers-2026.pdf ; https://oklahoma.gov/oesc/employers/tax/contribution-rates.html ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=476121 ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=77140", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "any employer with one or more covered employees, with no headcount minimum in the statute", "agriculture, ranching and horticulture only once the employer's gross annual payroll for those workers in the preceding calendar year reached $150,000, or where the worker operates motorized machines", "a private household only once its gross annual payroll for domestic or casual workers in the preceding calendar year reached $50,000" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Oklahoma Workers' Compensation Commission", "url": "https://oklahoma.gov/business/launch/filings-for-businesses-with-employees.html", "note": "There is no headcount trigger to wait for. Under 85A O.S. 38 an employer must secure compensation for its employees, by insuring with a carrier authorized to write workers compensation in Oklahoma, by satisfying the Commission of its financial ability to self-insure, or through an approved group self-insurance association, and 85A O.S. 2 defines an employer simply as one employing a person who counts as an employee. What varies is who counts. The exclusions in 85A O.S. 2(18)(b) take out farm and ranch workers below the $150,000 payroll line, domestic and casual household workers below $50,000, licensed real estate agents and brokers paid on commission, truck and drive-away owner-operators, unpaid volunteers, tax-exempt youth sports leagues, and anyone covered instead by a federal scheme such as the Longshore Act or the Jones Act. The one that looks like a small-business exemption is narrower than it reads: it covers an employer with five or fewer total employees only where every one of them is related to the employer within the second degree by blood or marriage, or is a dependent living in the employer's household, or a mix of the two. Add one unrelated hire and the whole exemption is gone. Owners are outside the definition by default rather than inside it: sole proprietors, partners, LLC members owning at least 10 percent and stockholder-employees owning 10 percent or more are excluded unless they elect coverage. Going without is expensive. Failure to secure compensation is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $10,000 on conviction, and separately the Commission can assess civil penalties of up to $1,000 per day of violation, capped at $50,000 for a first violation, and can ask a district court to enjoin you from employing anyone until you insure and pay.", "source": "https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=471452 ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=471393 ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=471476", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the employee's start date, or twice a month not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart if you report electronically or magnetically", "agency": "Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, which passes the data to the Child Support Enforcement Division of the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, the official New Hire Registry", "url": "https://oklahoma.gov/oesc/employers/new-hire-reporting.html", "note": "Report the employee's name, address, Social Security number, date of employment and state of employment, together with your own name, address and federal identification number, under 40 O.S. 2-802. File online through the OESC new hire system or on paper form OES-112. Independent contractors and subcontractors are not reportable where the work rests on a contract rather than an employer-employee relationship, which is the opposite of the rule in Texas and Florida, so do not send 1099 workers here. Recalled and rehired staff do go in, reported with a return-to-work date. Neither 40 O.S. 2-802 nor the OESC page publishes a penalty amount for failing to report, so none is stated here. The practical reason to file on time is defensive rather than punitive: OESC cross-matches new hire data against open unemployment claims, and a missing report is how a former employee keeps drawing benefits against your account after they have started work for you.", "source": "https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=77249 ; https://oklahoma.gov/oesc/employers/new-hire-reporting.html ; https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/oesc/documents/forms/OES-175.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": "Oklahoma Department of Labor", "url": "https://oklahoma.gov/labor/workplace-rights/wage-hour/faqs---wage-and-hour.html", "note": "Oklahoma runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family or medical leave programme, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind and no third account to open. The Department of Labor puts it plainly: Oklahoma has no mandatory benefits law, and whether an employee gets anything depends on the employer's own policy and its eligibility rules. There is no state paid sick leave mandate either. The catch runs the other way. Once you write a benefit into a policy or handbook, Oklahoma treats the promised vacation, sick pay or bonus as wages, which means an employee can pursue it as unpaid wages rather than as a lapsed perk, so a vague accrual clause is a liability rather than a kindness. If you already run payroll in California, New York, Delaware or Washington, switch that deduction off for an Oklahoma worker.", "source": "https://oklahoma.gov/labor/workplace-rights/wage-hour/faqs---wage-and-hour.html ; https://oklahoma.gov/labor/workplace-rights.html", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Oklahoma Tax Commission", "url": "https://oklahoma.gov/tax/businesses/sales-use-tax.html", "fee": 20, "feeConfirmedFree": null, "securityDeposit": "Discretionary, not automatic. Under OAC 710:65-9-2 the Commission may require security to assure payment of the tax, in the form of a corporate surety bond, United States savings or Treasury bonds, cash, or any other form it agrees to. For a Group One vendor that becomes delinquent the security is capped at three times the average quarterly liability, and the Commission can lift the permit of any vendor that fails to furnish it within ten days of the notice. Separately, 68 O.S. 1364 lets the Commission require a surety bond or other security from an applicant it verifies as a Group Three vendor, which is the classification an out-of-state or itinerant seller is most likely to land in.", "registerBy": "Before you engage in business in Oklahoma. A remote seller must collect from the first calendar month after the month in which its aggregate Oklahoma sales reach $100,000, tested against the preceding or the current calendar year", "note": "The Oklahoma permit is one of the few in the country that costs money and then expires. Both 68 O.S. 1364 and OAC 710:65-9-1 say you secure the permit from the Commission every three years for a fee of $20, so budget for it again at renewal rather than treating it as a one-time cost. A first-time applicant gets a probationary permit good for six months, which automatically renews for a further 30 months unless the Commission gives written notice that it will not renew, and that notice can follow a compliance visit or a phone call to an out-of-state office. New registrants must file and pay electronically through OkTAP under OAC 710:65-3-1(d) unless they get a written exception, which lasts 12 months. Returns are due by the 20th of the month, with a possible allowance to file semi-annually when the tax due is under $50 a month. Selling without a permit is a misdemeanour carrying a fine of up to $1,000, and a later offence is a Class D3 felony with a fine of up to $5,000 or imprisonment. Being late three times in 24 months on any Oklahoma business tax can get the business closed. One documentation snag worth knowing: the Tax Commission's own Packet A instructions tell you to see the permit and licence fees on page 10, and page 10 of the current Packet A carries no fee table at all, so the $20 recorded here comes from the rule and the statute rather than from the packet.", "source": "https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=92369 ; https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/tax/documents/resources/rules-and-policies/agency-rules/2024/Chapter_65_Sales_and_Use_Tax_2024.pdf ; https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/tax/documents/forms/businesses/general/Packet-A.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Oklahoma's law is an election, not a flat mandate, and that distinction is the thing to check before you assume Amazon or Etsy is handling your tax. Under 68 O.S. 1392 a marketplace facilitator or referrer with at least $10,000 of aggregate Oklahoma sales in the preceding twelve months must file an election with the Tax Commission by June 1 each year, choosing either to collect and remit the tax or to comply with the notice and reporting requirements in 68 O.S. 1393. A facilitator that files nothing is deemed to have elected notice and reporting, which means it tells buyers that tax was not collected and may be due rather than collecting it. One that elects to collect must take out a permit under 68 O.S. 1364 and also collects the local city and county taxes. The election reaches only third-party sales made through the forum, never the facilitator's own sales. For a seller the practical consequences are two. Sales on which the facilitator actually collected are excluded from your own $100,000 remote seller test, so a platform that collects keeps you below the line for longer. And anything you sell through your own site or another channel is yours to collect and remit whatever the platform does.", "source": "https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=481888 ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=481889", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "unknown", "note": "Oklahoma does not publish an answer to this, so none is invented here. What 68 O.S. 1392(G) does say is that the duty attaches if you had at least $100,000 of Oklahoma sales during the preceding or the current calendar year, and begins the first calendar month after the month you crossed. Because the test reads on the preceding year as well as the current one, crossing the line once carries the obligation through the following calendar year at minimum. Neither the statute nor the Tax Commission's sales and use tax rules set out how or when the duty ends after your sales fall back below the threshold, and there is no published de-registration procedure tied to it. Treat the permit as the thing that keeps you filing: it runs on a three-year cycle and is surrendered to the Commission when the business stops, so stop selling into Oklahoma without closing the account and you will keep owing returns.", "source": "https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=481888 ; https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/tax/documents/resources/rules-and-policies/agency-rules/2024/Chapter_65_Sales_and_Use_Tax_2024.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Oklahoma levies nothing of the Washington B and O or Ohio CAT kind, and the franchise tax that used to sit alongside income tax is gone. The statute now reads as a closed door: 68 O.S. 1203 levies the franchise tax only for tax year 2023 and previous tax years, and the Tax Commission's own notice says tax year 2023 was the last year franchise tax returns were required. One survivor is easy to miss and it is aimed squarely at out-of-state companies. Every foreign corporation qualified in Oklahoma, non-profits included, still owes a $100 annual Registered Agents Fee, because the Secretary of State is the registered agent for a foreign corporation by default and 18 O.S. 1142 charges for it. It used to ride along with the franchise tax return; since the repeal it is paid separately on Tax Commission form FRX-200-R, due on July 1 for the year beginning that day, and if it is unpaid by September 1 the Commission may suspend and forfeit the corporation's charter. Foreign LLCs do not pay this one: they pay the Secretary of State a $25 annual certificate fee on their anniversary date, plus a $40 annual agent fee only if they left the Secretary of State standing as their agent instead of appointing their own.", "source": "https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=92295 ; https://oklahoma.gov/tax/newsroom/2023/07-26-23.html ; https://oklahoma.gov/content/dam/ok/en/tax/documents/forms/businesses/general/FRX-200-R-25-26.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Oklahoma Secretary of State, Business Services", "url": "https://www.sos.ok.gov/business/fees.aspx", "feeLLC": 300, "feeCorp": 300, "feeNote": "Foreign LLC $300 flat, on the Certificate of Registration under 18 O.S. 2055. Foreign for-profit corporation $300 minimum on the Certificate of Qualification, and unlike the LLC fee it scales: the charge is one tenth of one percent, or $1 per $1,000, of the maximum capital invested, measured against total authorized capital, so $300 covers total authorized capital up to $300,000 and every further $1,000 adds $1. The $300 recorded here is the minimum, which is what most incoming companies pay. Foreign not-for-profit corporations pay a flat $300. Extras to expect: $25 per document for same-day counter filing, a 4 percent surcharge for paying by card, and $10 to reserve a name for 60 days beforehand.", "note": "Both forms want an original certificate of good standing, existence or fact from your home jurisdiction dated within the last 60 days, and a corporation also files a statement of assets and liabilities dated no earlier than six months before filing. Registered agent handling differs by entity type and this is where the recurring cost hides. For a foreign corporation the Secretary of State is the registered agent, which is why the $100 annual Registered Agents Fee falls due every July 1 and is paid to the Tax Commission on form FRX-200-R. A foreign LLC pays a $40 annual agent fee only if it does not appoint its own Oklahoma agent, and pays a $25 annual certificate every year on its anniversary date either way. Before you file at all, read 18 O.S. 1132, which is unusually generous about what does not require qualification: pure mail order filled from outside the state, salespeople soliciting orders that are accepted outside Oklahoma and shipped in, and business operations that are wholly interstate in character are all outside the requirement, and the Secretary of State says explicitly that it will not make that call for you. Note also that no foreign corporation may be licensed in Oklahoma for farming or ranching. Skipping qualification when you do need it is not fatal to your contracts, since 18 O.S. 1137 says the failure does not impair the validity of any contract or act, but it does block you: an unqualified foreign corporation cannot maintain an action or special proceeding in an Oklahoma court until it qualifies and pays the fees, penalties and taxes owed, which matters the day you need to sue a customer who has not paid.", "source": "https://www.sos.ok.gov/forms/FM0083.PDF ; https://www.sos.ok.gov/forms/Fm0012.PDF ; https://www.sos.ok.gov/business/fees.aspx ; https://www.oscn.net/applications/oscn/DeliverDocument.asp?CiteID=67146", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "kansas": { "state": "Kansas", "abbr": "KS", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [ "Kansas Department of Revenue", "Kansas Department of Labor", "a private insurer, a group-funded workers compensation pool, or self-insurance approved by the KDOL Division of Workers Compensation" ], "note": "Kansas gives you one application on the tax side and a separate one on the labour side. The Kansas Business Tax Application, form CR-16 or the same application filed online through the KDOR Customer Service Center, opens your income tax withholding account and your retailers' sales or compensating use tax account in a single pass, so those two really are one filing. What comes back is one Kansas tax account number per tax type: your federal EIN with a three digit prefix, 036 for wage withholding and 004 for retailers' sales tax, which is why the numbers look nearly identical and get transposed. Unemployment is a different agency and a different portal. You file form K-CNS 010, the Status Report, with the Kansas Department of Labor within 15 days of paying your first employee, then file and pay at KansasLabor.gov rather than at KDOR. Workers compensation is not a registration at all, it is an insurance policy you buy, a pool you join, or self-insurance you qualify for. Budget for two registrations and one insurance purchase." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Kansas Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.ksrevenue.gov/bustaxtypeswh.html", "registerWhen": "Once you have employees working in Kansas. The Withholding Tax Guide tells an employer in another state to register and withhold when it has employees working in Kansas for any period of time, and sets no minimum number of days or dollars; KDOR suggests mailing or faxing the application 3 to 4 weeks before your first withholding payment is due, and offers same day registration in person", "note": "There is no de minimis here, and that is the trap for an out-of-state employer. KW-100 says in as many words that if you are an employer in another state you must register and withhold Kansas income tax when you have employees working in Kansas for any period of time, and the guide sets out no reciprocity exemption that would let a neighbouring state's resident opt out. The second surprise catches companies that believe they have no Kansas payroll at all: Kansas requires withholding on management and consulting fees paid in the ordinary course of a for profit business to a nonresident who performs those services in Kansas, so contractor spend can create a withholding account. Note also that Kansas runs its own allowance certificate, form K-4, alongside the federal W-4; if an employee never files a K-4 you must withhold at the single rate with no allowances. The current edition is KW-100 (Rev. 10-24), reissued after the 2024 special session changed the individual rates mid year, so a Kansas withholding table printed before July 2024 is wrong.", "source": "https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/kw100.pdf ; https://www.ksrevenue.gov/bustaxtypeswh.html ; https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/cr16.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Kansas Department of Labor", "url": "https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/employer-services", "newEmployerRate": 0.0175, "wageBase": 15100, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 a new Kansas employer pays 1.75 percent on the first $15,100 of each worker's wages, and a construction industry employer pays 5.55 percent on the same base. Those two rates sit in the statute rather than in the annual schedule, so they did not move when Kansas went to credit schedule C for 2026, under which experience rated employers run from 0 percent to 6.95 percent. The wage base is the number that will go stale. 2026 is the first year Kansas stopped fixing it in dollars: it sat at $14,000 from 2016 through 2025, and K.S.A. 44-703(o)(2) now sets it at a percentage of the statewide average annual wage for the previous year, rounded to the nearest $100. The percentage steps up on a published ladder, 25 percent for 2026 and 2027, 30 percent for 2028, 35 percent for 2029, and 40 percent for 2030 and 2031, so the base moves every single year from here and last year's figure will always be too low. On liability, you are covered once you have one or more employees for any part of a day in 20 different weeks of a calendar year, or a gross payroll of $1,500 or more in any calendar quarter, and you must file the Status Report K-CNS 010 within 15 days of paying your first employee. One option worth knowing: an employer that has operated in another state for at least three years in the same industry can elect its out-of-state reserve ratio rate instead of the 1.75 percent, but never below 1 percent, and the election must be in writing within 30 days of the notice of Kansas liability.", "source": "https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/employer-services ; https://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch44/044_007_0010a.html ; https://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch44/044_007_0003.html ; https://www.dol.ks.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/68/639228056780100000", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": null, "employeeThreshold": null, "requiredFor": [ "any non-agricultural employer whose total gross annual payroll is more than $20,000, from its first employee, with no headcount test at any level", "an employer counting payroll must include wages paid to workers outside Kansas as well as inside it", "corporate employers, which must count wages paid to family members too, because the exclusion of family wages does not apply to a corporation" ], "optOutFilings": "There is no opt out for an employer that is over the payroll line. What Kansas has is an opt in, and it must be filed electronically in KDOL's OSCAR system by regulation. Employers with a gross annual payroll of $20,000 or less and certain agricultural employers may elect coverage they do not owe; so may sole proprietors, partners and LLC members, corporate employees who own 10 percent or more of the stock, and nonprofits wanting to cover volunteer directors, officers or trustees. Election questions go to KDOL.WCElections@ks.gov.", "agency": "Kansas Department of Labor, Division of Workers Compensation", "url": "https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/workers-compensation", "note": "Kansas is one of the states where the workers compensation trigger is not a headcount at all, which is why both the threshold and the optional flag are withheld here rather than guessed. K.S.A. 44-505(a)(2) exempts an employer whose total gross annual payroll for the preceding calendar year was not more than $20,000 and who reasonably estimates it will not exceed $20,000 in the current year, and KDOL states the rule as an employer with more than $20,000 in gross annual payroll must secure coverage. So a business with one employee at $25,000 owes coverage and a business with four employees at $18,000 does not, and no single employee number describes that. Two details make the payroll count bigger than people expect: KDOL says all wages paid to all workers count, inside and outside Kansas, and the usual exclusion for wages paid to family members does not apply to a corporate employer. Beyond the payroll test the exclusions are narrow: certain agricultural pursuits, realtors who qualify as independent contractors, firefighters in a relief association that has waived coverage, sole proprietors, partners and LLC members themselves, and certain owner operator drivers carrying their own occupational accident cover. Coverage can be a policy, a group-funded pool, or approved self-insurance. Getting it wrong is expensive: the civil penalty for failing to secure coverage when required is twice the annual premium or $25,000, whichever is greater. There is a second, separate duty that is easy to miss: report a work accident within 28 days if the injury keeps the person off work for more than one day, shift or turn, or face a $250 fine for each failure.", "source": "https://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch44/044_005_0005.html ; https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/workers-compensation", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 business days of the hiring, rehiring or return to work of the newly hired employee, or within 20 business days of the date that employee first receives wages or other compensation", "agency": "Kansas New Hire Directory, administered by the Kansas Department of Labor", "url": "https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/employer-services/new-hire-reporting", "note": "Read the statute rather than the overview here. K.S.A. 75-5743 says 20 business days, while KDOL's own overview paragraph on the same page shortens it to within 20 days of the hire and the UI Employer Handbook says the same. Twenty business days is close to a calendar month, so the statutory deadline is the more generous of the two and the page is the conservative reading; either way, filing by 20 calendar days is safe. The duty runs to all employers and labor organizations doing business in Kansas, and covers rehires: an employee who has been separated for at least 60 consecutive days is a newly hired employee again, which KDOL applies to layoffs, furloughs, unpaid leave, seasonal staff, teachers and substitutes. Someone who filled in a W-4 and worked a few hours before quitting still has to be reported. A temp agency reports a worker once, not once per assignment, unless there has been a break in service that required a fresh W-4. The preferred form is K-CNS 436, but a copy of the W-4 is accepted provided the employer name, address and FEIN are filled into boxes 8 and 10, and the FEIN must be the same one you use for your quarterly wage reports. A multistate employer that reports electronically may elect to send all its reports to one state under title IV-D. The statute is written around newly hired employees and does not extend the duty to independent contractors.", "source": "https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/employer-services/new-hire-reporting ; https://www.dol.ks.gov/home/showpublisheddocument/68/639228056780100000", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Kansas Department of Labor", "url": "https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/workplace-laws/workplace-laws-faqs", "note": "Kansas runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family and medical leave insurance, so there is no payroll deduction of that kind, no premium, and no account to open. KDOL's workplace laws FAQ is blunt about the underlying leave position too: the law does not require an employer to offer vacation or sick leave, and unused accrued vacation is payable on separation only where the employer's own policy or practice says it is. One thing that generates false positives when people search: Kansas does have a paid parental leave policy of eight weeks for a primary caregiver and four for a secondary caregiver, but that is an internal State of Kansas employment policy for state government employees under Department of Administration Bulletin 21-01, not a private employer mandate. A Kansas paid family leave act has been introduced as a bill in the past and is not law. Confidence is S rather than P because this is a negative established from the agency's own coverage of what Kansas does require, not from a single page stating that no programme exists.", "source": "https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/workplace-laws/workplace-laws-faqs ; https://www.dol.ks.gov/employers/employer-services ; https://admin.ks.gov/offices/personnel-services/agency-information/personnel-bulletins/bulletin-21-01---paid-parental-leave-for-state-of-kansas-employees", "confidence": "S" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "Kansas Department of Revenue", "url": "https://www.ksrevenue.gov/bustaxtypessales.html", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": "No fee, but a bond is possible. Pub KS-1510 says in terms that there is no fee for a sales tax or use tax number, however the Department of Revenue may require you to post a bond to guarantee payment of the tax you collect. The amount is set by the Director of Taxation and the general rule is six months' estimated tax liability. You may post it as a cash bond held without interest, an escrow bond such as a certificate of deposit pledged to the department, or a surety bond bought from an insurer. Bonds are not requested for consumers' compensating use tax accounts. A separate and far more predictable bond hits construction: a nonresident contractor or subcontractor must register for each Kansas contract over $10,000 and post 8 percent of the total contract price or $1,000, whichever is greater, dropping to 4 percent under a Project Exemption. That registration requirement is waived if the nonresident contractor is already qualified as a foreign entity with the Kansas Secretary of State, which is a rare case of foreign qualification saving you a filing rather than adding one.", "registerBy": "Before you make any retail sale in Kansas, because K.S.A. 79-3608 makes it unlawful to sell tangible personal property at retail or furnish taxable services in Kansas without a registration certificate. A remote seller or marketplace facilitator should register not later than 30 days after its sales for the calendar year exceed $100,000, but the duty to collect begins earlier than that, on the next transaction after crossing", "note": "This is a confirmed free permit rather than an unknown: KDOR states there is no fee for a sales tax or use tax number. The certificate does not expire, it runs until cancelled or revoked, and a separate certificate is issued for each place of business and must be displayed conspicuously there. Two Kansas specifics matter for an out-of-state seller. First, which tax you register for depends on where you are: a seller with a Kansas location registers for retailers' sales tax, while a remote seller outside Kansas registers for retailers' compensating use tax instead, and getting the wrong one means the wrong return. Second, the crossing rule is unusually generous and is worth reading twice. KDOR's own worked example says that if your first transaction is $105,000, the duty to collect does not begin until the next transaction; if you have $99,950 of sales and then a $100,000 sale, the duty still does not begin until after that sale. Kansas is destination sourced with several hundred local rates on top of the state rate, so use KDOR's address rate locator rather than a single statewide figure. Registering can be done same day in person, or through the Streamlined Sales Tax registration system as an alternative to going direct.", "source": "https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/pub1510.pdf ; https://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_036_0008.html ; https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/cr16.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Yes, and it is one of the stronger seller protections in the country. K.S.A. 79-5601 et seq., in force from 1 July 2021, makes a marketplace facilitator collect and remit on everything it facilitates once it exceeds $100,000 of Kansas sales in the current or immediately preceding calendar year, counting both its own sales and those it facilitates for others. K.S.A. 79-5603 then says the facilitator must collect regardless of whether the marketplace seller has registered or would have had to collect on its own, that the facilitator remains liable to the state even if the two of you agree otherwise, and, most usefully, that the department shall audit only the facilitator for facilitated sales and shall not assess the seller on them. So Amazon or Etsy genuinely carries the Kansas exposure on what it facilitates. Two exceptions bring it back to you. KDOR can grant a facilitator a waiver, applied for on form ST-2, where substantially all of its sellers already collect, and in that case the tax becomes collectible from the seller. And a facilitator and a seller may agree to shift collection to the seller, but only where the seller has annual United States gross sales over $1 billion, is registered under K.S.A. 79-3608, and notifies the department, so this is not a route a normal business will be pushed down. The law reaches transient guest tax and short term lodging platforms for stays under 29 days, and from 1 April 2022 the facilitator also collects prepaid wireless 911 fees. Advertising-only listing platforms and pure payment processors are excluded from the definition. None of this covers your own website or any other channel: those sales are yours to collect and remit.", "source": "https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_056_0001.html ; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_056_0002.html ; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_056_0003.html ; https://www.ksrevenue.gov/taxmarketplace.html", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Kansas does not use the word trailing, but the effect is a rolling one year tail. K.S.A. 79-3702(h)(1)(G)(i)(b) makes you a retailer doing business in Kansas if you had more than $100,000 of cumulative gross receipts from Kansas customers during the current or immediately preceding calendar year, and K.S.A. 79-5602 uses the same current-or-preceding wording for marketplace facilitators. So a year in which you exceed the threshold commits you to the following calendar year as well, even if your Kansas sales go to zero on 1 January, and you are only free in the first calendar year where neither that year nor the one before it exceeded $100,000. The statute sets out no termination procedure and no notice you have to give, which is exactly how businesses end up with non-filer notices: close the account with KDOR rather than quietly stopping your returns.", "source": "https://www.ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_037_0002.html ; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_056_0002.html", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": false, "name": null, "agency": null, "url": null, "rateRange": null, "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "Kansas levies no gross receipts tax of the Washington B&O, Ohio CAT or Nevada Commerce Tax kind, and the tax that used to sit in this slot is genuinely gone rather than dormant: K.S.A. 79-5401(g) says the Kansas franchise tax does not apply to any tax year commencing after 31 December 2010. So there is no annual capital or equity based charge on an entity registered in Kansas. What replaces it as the recurring cost of being on file is small and easy to forget: the biennial business entity information report to the Secretary of State, $90 filed online or $110 on paper, due 15 April of your even or odd year for a for profit entity. Miss it and you get a three month delinquency window in which you can still file but cannot file anything else, and after that the entity forfeits and is locked out of every other filing until it catches up and is reinstated. The two other Kansas specific costs worth planning for are not gross receipts taxes but behave like surprise levies for out-of-state businesses: the nonresident contractor bond of 8 percent of any Kansas contract over $10,000, and Kansas withholding on management and consulting fees paid to a nonresident performing those services in Kansas.", "source": "https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch79/079_054_0001.html ; https://sos.ks.gov/businesses/information-reports.html ; https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/pub1510.pdf ; https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/kw100.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Kansas Secretary of State, Business Services Division", "url": "https://sos.ks.gov/businesses/register-a-business.html", "feeLLC": 115, "feeCorp": 115, "feeNote": "$115, and unusually it is the same $115 for every entity type. Form FA, the Application for Registration for a Foreign (non-Kansas) Business, is a single form covering LLCs, LLPs, LPs and corporations, and its fee schedule reads all businesses $115, so Kansas does not charge a corporation more than an LLC and does not scale the corporate fee with authorized shares. The edition current on the review date is Rev. 3/2/26. Foreign entities cannot file this online: the Secretary of State says foreign business entities must file by submitting a foreign application by paper. Two extras can attach to the $115. If the date you say you began doing business in Kansas is far enough in the past that biennial information reports would have been due, every missed report going back up to ten years must be filed with the application, each at its own fee of $110 on paper. And for everything except a not-for-profit corporation, a one-time penalty fee of $85 applies if any of those reports is filed after the forfeiture date, which falls three months after the end of the reporting period. So a business that has quietly been operating in Kansas for a few years before registering pays considerably more than the headline figure.", "note": "You need a resident agent with a real Kansas street address where the agent can be regularly present, and a PO box will not do. The application is signed under penalty of perjury that the entity is in good standing at home on the day of filing. K.S.A. 17-7932 is worth reading before you assume you have to register at all: selling through independent contractors, soliciting or taking orders that require acceptance outside Kansas, maintaining bank accounts, defending a lawsuit, an isolated transaction completed within 30 days, and transacting business in interstate commerce are all listed as not doing business in Kansas. The enforcement lever is different from most states. Rather than barring an unregistered entity from the courts, K.S.A. 17-7937 gives the district court jurisdiction to enjoin a foreign entity, or its agent, from doing any business in Kansas if it has failed to register, and the attorney general may bring that action. Qualifying opens no tax accounts, so KDOR withholding and sales tax registration, the KDOL unemployment status report and workers compensation cover are all still ahead of you. One narrow upside: a nonresident contractor that is already qualified with the Secretary of State is excused from the separate KDOR nonresident contractor registration and bond on each Kansas contract over $10,000.", "source": "https://sos.ks.gov/forms/business_services/FA.pdf ; https://sos.ks.gov/businesses/register-a-business.html ; https://sos.ks.gov/businesses/information-reports.html ; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch17/017_079_0031.html ; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch17/017_079_0032.html ; https://ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch17/017_079_0037.html ; https://www.ksrevenue.gov/pdf/pub1510.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "new-hampshire": { "state": "New Hampshire", "abbr": "NH", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": false, "agencies": [], "note": "New Hampshire has no single payroll registration, but it has fewer accounts to open than most states because two of the usual ones do not exist. There is no state income tax withholding account and no sales tax permit. What is left is: an unemployment account with New Hampshire Employment Security, which you open through Employer Registration and then use for both quarterly tax and wage reports and new hire reporting through the same NHES WebTax and New Hire Reporting system; a workers compensation policy bought from an insurance carrier, with the Department of Labor policing coverage through NCCI rather than selling it to you; and, only if you cross the filing thresholds, a Business Enterprise Tax and Business Profits Tax account with the Department of Revenue Administration through Granite Tax Connect. The mistake an out-of-state employer makes here is assuming that a state with no income tax and no sales tax has nothing to open at all. The unemployment account and the workers compensation policy are both mandatory, and the Business Enterprise Tax is measured partly by the payroll you pay to your New Hampshire staff, so hiring is exactly the act that can pull you into it." }, "withholding": { "required": false, "agency": null, "url": "https://www.revenue.nh.gov/taxes-glance/interest-dividends-tax", "registerWhen": null, "note": "New Hampshire taxes no wage income, so there is no state withholding account, no state W-4 and nothing to deduct from a paycheck for the state. The Department of Revenue Administration states it plainly: the state does not have an income tax on an individual's reported W-2 wages. The one personal tax New Hampshire did have, the Interest and Dividends tax on investment income, has also gone. It stepped down from 5% to 4% for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2023 and to 3% for periods ending on or after December 31, 2024, and was repealed outright for taxable periods beginning after December 31, 2024. It never touched wages in any case, and it was a tax the individual filed, not something an employer withheld. You still withhold federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare as normal. Two traps follow. First, an employer moving a worker to New Hampshire often leaves the old state's withholding switched on and takes money the employee does not owe. Second, no withholding is not the same as no obligations: unemployment contributions, new hire reporting within 20 days, and workers compensation from the first employee all still apply, and the Business Enterprise Tax counts your New Hampshire payroll in its base.", "source": "https://www.revenue.nh.gov/taxes-glance/interest-dividends-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "New Hampshire Employment Security", "url": "https://www.nhes.nh.gov/employers/employer-claims-taxes", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 14000, "year": "2026", "note": "A new New Hampshire employer starts at 2.7% on the first $14,000 of each employee's wages in a calendar year. Both figures are on the NHES employer taxes page and the 2.7% and the $14,000 cap are also in the statute at RSA 282-A:69, I. The $14,000 is one of the more stable wage bases in the country and has not moved in many years, but the rate you actually pay is lower than 2.7% and changes by quarter. NHES applies a Fund Balance Reduction that is subtracted from the published rate whenever the trust fund is healthy: 0.5% off when the fund holds at least $250 million, 1.0% off at $350 million, 1.5% off at $400 million. The reduction has been 1.0% every quarter from the second quarter of 2023 through the second quarter of 2026, which makes the real new employer charge 1.7% rather than 2.7%. It is recorded at 2.7% here because that is the rate NHES publishes and the reduction can disappear in any quarter the fund falls. Check the Tax Rate Chart for the quarter you are actually paying. Note also that as of this review the chart's most recent row was the second quarter of 2026, so the third quarter figure was not yet posted. Three further points. You become liable, and must register, once you pay $1,500 or more in gross wages in any calendar quarter, or employ someone in 20 different weeks of the current or preceding year, or are liable for federal FUTA. You stay on the new employer rate only for your first period: merit rates are set once a year and run from 1 July to 30 June, with determination letters mailed in late August. And the net rate is split internally between an Administrative Contribution portion, capped at 0.4%, and the unemployment trust fund portion, which is an accounting split rather than an extra tax.", "source": "https://www.nhes.nh.gov/employers/employer-claims-taxes/tax-rate-chart", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every employer with one or more employees, full or part time, including family members and including non-profits", "a corporation or LLC with 4 or more executive officers or LLC members, even with no other employees", "sole proprietors, partners and self-employed people are not required to cover themselves but may elect in, and a general contractor can require a sub to carry it anyway" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "New Hampshire Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation Division", "url": "https://www.dol.nh.gov/workers-compensation/employer-information", "note": "New Hampshire gives you no free headcount. The Department of Labor's own answer is that under RSA 281-A:5 every employer who has any employees, full or part time, must cover them, and that it does not matter if they are relatives or if the business is a non-profit. The statutory definition of employer at RSA 281-A:2, VIII is anyone who employs one or more persons, and it explicitly counts people whose employment contract was signed out of state if they actually work in New Hampshire, which is the sentence that catches a remote hire. The Department also says coverage must be obtained before you hire anyone, not after. The one genuine exemption is for owner-only businesses: sole proprietors, partners and the self-employed need not cover themselves, and a corporation or LLC with 3 or fewer executive officers or members and no other employees is not required to carry it. The fourth officer or member ends that. Once a policy is in force or you have any employee at all, everyone including the officers and members is treated as an employee and covered automatically, and up to three of them may then elect out under RSA 281-A:18-a by giving the agent their name, date of birth, address and title. Calling someone a contractor does not settle it: RSA 281-A:2, VI sets the test, and the Department looks for a federal EIN and real control over how and when the work is done. Two extra duties travel with headcount rather than with the policy. At 15 or more employees, RSA 281-A:64 requires a written safety programme filed with the Commissioner and reviewed at least every two years, plus a joint loss management committee with equal numbers of employer and employee representatives meeting regularly, and non-compliance carries an administrative penalty of up to $250 a day. Failing to secure coverage at all can cost up to $2,500 plus up to $100 per employee per day, and whoever controls the payroll decisions can be held personally liable. There is no state fund: you buy from a licensed carrier.", "source": "https://www.dol.nh.gov/resource-center/frequently-asked-questions/workers-compensation-insurance-faqs", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the hire, rehire or contract for services; employers reporting electronically or on magnetic media may instead send two transmissions a month, not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart", "agency": "New Hampshire Employment Security, New Hire Program", "url": "https://www.nhes.nh.gov/employers/business-compliance", "note": "New Hampshire is one of the states that makes you report independent contractors as well as employees, which is the single most missed obligation here. RSA 282-A:117-a, I requires an employing unit to report a new hire, a rehire, and the contracting for services with an individual, other than casual labour, where the payment is expected to exceed $2,500. NHES explains how to apply that to a mixed contract: only the labour or services portion counts, so a $3,000 contract split $1,000 labour and $2,000 materials is not reportable, while one split $2,600 labour and $400 materials is. You are not responsible for the contractor's own subcontractors, because the contractor reports those. The report goes to NHES, not to a separate child support agency, and it uses the same WebTax and New Hire Reporting system as your quarterly tax and wage report, so it is one login rather than two. A copy of the W-4 is an accepted format. Report anyone who quits before the report falls due, and report minors and people with no children, because the point is the state directory rather than any particular case. A multi-state employer that files electronically may designate a single state for all its reports, but if it designates New Hampshire it must then include every independent contractor over $2,500 whether or not the work is done here, which most other states do not ask for. Penalties are modest but real: up to $25 for each new hire not reported, rising to up to $500 each where the employer conspired with the worker not to report.", "source": "https://mm.nh.gov/files/uploads/nhes/documents/nhes0083.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "New Hampshire Department of Administrative Services, with New Hampshire Employment Security administering the individual pool", "url": "https://www.paidfamilymedicalleave.nh.gov/", "note": "New Hampshire has no mandatory state paid family leave programme and no state disability insurance, so there is no payroll tax to withhold for one and no employer contribution you are compelled to make. What it has instead is a state-sponsored voluntary insurance plan, the Granite State Paid Family Leave Plan under RSA 21-I:99 and RSA 282-B, which the state itself calls the first voluntary PFML plan in the nation. The state bought a group policy for its own employees and used that purchasing power to make the same MetLife product available to every other New Hampshire employer and worker at a negotiated price. Buying it is optional. The benefit is 60% of average weekly wage up to the Social Security wage cap for up to six weeks a year. The employer carrot is a Business Enterprise Tax credit worth 50% of the premium the employer pays, under RSA 77-E:3-e, and that credit only applies to the plan bought through MetLife, not to an equivalent policy from another carrier. No contribution rates are published here because none exist as a fixed figure: group premiums are individually underwritten from your census, the plan you pick, how much of the cost you share with workers and any short-term disability policy you already carry. The only number fixed in law is the ceiling on the individual plan, which RSA 21-I:103, III caps at $5 per subscriber per week. There is one duty that is not optional and it is easy to miss. Under RSA 282-B:3, II, a private employer with more than 50 employees whose workers individually opt into the state purchasing pool must run their premiums through payroll deduction and remit them to the department. So an employer that declines to sponsor coverage can still end up with a payroll deduction to administer, purely because an employee bought the individual plan. Employers must have a physical location in New Hampshire to be eligible for the plan at all.", "source": "https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXIII/282-B/282-B-mrg.htm", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": false, "permit": { "agency": null, "url": "https://www.revenue.nh.gov/licenses-certifications/tax-licenses-permits", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": null, "note": "There is no New Hampshire sales tax permit to apply for, because there is no state or local sales or use tax. The legislature said so in its own words in RSA 78-E:1, II, which records that the state imposes no traditional broad-based sales and use tax on purchases made here or on goods bought out of state for use here, and that it does not require New Hampshire businesses to build the administrative systems such a tax needs. The Department of Revenue Administration issues only three licences, and none of them is a sales tax permit: the Meals and Rooms (Rentals) operator's licence, the tobacco tax certificate, and the communications services retailer's licence. What replaces the sales tax for most sellers is the Business Enterprise Tax described below. Two narrower taxes catch specific businesses. If you serve prepared meals, provide sleeping accommodation of any kind including a short-term rental, or rent motor vehicles, RSA 78-A:4 requires an operator's licence before you open, one per location, posted on the premises, and a short-term rental advertisement must show the licence number. That licence expires on 30 June of each odd-numbered year and must be renewed, and DRA will not issue or renew it while you owe it any tax. Neither RSA 78-A:4 nor the DRA licence page states a fee for it, so no amount is recorded here rather than an assumed zero. The Meals and Rooms rate is 8.5%, in force since 1 October 2021. Separately, a communications services retailer needs its own licence from DRA.", "source": "https://www.revenue.nh.gov/licenses-certifications/tax-licenses-permits", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": false, "note": "A marketplace facilitator law exists to make a platform collect a sales tax, and New Hampshire has no sales tax to collect. Selling into New Hampshire through Amazon or Etsy therefore creates no New Hampshire collection duty for the platform and none for you, and there is no economic nexus threshold here to cross. New Hampshire does have facilitator rules inside its Meals and Rooms tax, which are a different thing but worth knowing if you list property or vehicles: RSA 78-A:3 pulls a room facilitator and a rental facilitator into the definition of operator, and RSA 78-A:7 makes the facilitator, rather than the owner, demand, collect and remit the 8.5% tax where it booked the stay or the rental. The state also legislated in the other direction, to protect its own sellers. Under RSA 78-E:4, a taxing authority from another state must give the New Hampshire Department of Justice 45 days of written notice, by physical letter, before it takes any step to impose sales or use tax liability on a New Hampshire remote seller, and it may not demand customer transaction information before that period runs. Do not read that as immunity. It is a notice and privacy requirement on the other state, not a shield against a genuine economic nexus obligation you have incurred there, and a New Hampshire seller that crosses another state's threshold still owes that state's tax.", "source": "https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/V/78-E/78-E-mrg.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "none", "note": "There is no sales tax, no permit and no economic nexus threshold, so nothing trails after you stop selling into New Hampshire. What can continue is the New Hampshire side of your own registrations, and each has to be closed deliberately. A Business Enterprise Tax or Business Profits Tax account stays open until you close it with the Department of Revenue Administration; a Meals and Rooms operator's licence runs to 30 June of the next odd-numbered year unless the business ceases or ownership changes; an unemployment account with NHES stays live until it is terminated under RSA 282-A:99 to 282-A:102; and a foreign registration with the Secretary of State runs until you file a certificate of cancellation or surrender the certificate of authority, with the $100 annual report due every year in the meantime.", "source": "https://www.revenue.nh.gov/licenses-certifications/tax-licenses-permits", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Business Enterprise Tax", "agency": "New Hampshire Department of Revenue Administration", "url": "https://www.revenue.nh.gov/taxes-glance/business-taxes", "rateRange": "0.55% of the taxable enterprise value tax base for taxable periods ending on or after December 31, 2022, down from 0.60% for periods ending on or after December 31, 2019 and 0.72% in 2016 and 2017", "exclusionThreshold": 298000, "note": "This is the tax that stands where a sales tax would be in another state, and for an employer it behaves much more like a payroll tax than like a tax on profit. The base, called the enterprise value tax base and defined at RSA 77-E:1, IX, is the sum of all compensation paid or accrued, all interest paid or accrued, and all dividends paid. Compensation is usually the largest of the three, so the tax lands on you whether or not the business made any money, which is why a loss-making company with staff can owe Business Enterprise Tax and no Business Profits Tax in the same year. It is paid by the business and never collected from a customer. For a multi-state employer the compensation part of the base is apportioned to New Hampshire by the share of total payroll paid for services performed here, under RSA 77-E:4, I(a)(2), so one New Hampshire employee puts that employee's pay into the New Hampshire base. Read the threshold carefully, because it is a filing trigger and not an exclusion. For taxable periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025 you must file if gross receipts from all activities exceed $298,000 or if the enterprise value tax base exceeds $298,000, and once you are over, the tax is computed on the whole apportioned base rather than on the excess. It is a cliff, not a deduction of the first $298,000. The threshold is adjusted every two years by the Northeast urban CPI, so $298,000 covers 2025 and 2026 and a new figure is due for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027; it was $281,000 for 2023 and 2024 and $250,000 before that. Estimated payments in four instalments are required once the estimated liability exceeds $260. Business Enterprise Tax paid is a credit against the Business Profits Tax, which is 7.5% of taxable business profits for periods ending on or after 31 December 2023 with its own separate filing threshold of $109,000 of gross business income for periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025, and unused Business Enterprise Tax credit carries forward ten years. New Hampshire also charges a communications services tax and a 8.5% meals and rooms tax, but neither is a general receipts tax on business.", "source": "https://www.revenue.nh.gov/resource-center/frequently-asked-questions/business-enterprise-tax", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "New Hampshire Secretary of State, Corporation Division", "url": "https://www.sos.nh.gov/corporations-0/forms-and-fees", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": 100, "feeNote": "$100 either way, which is unusually simple. An LLC files Form FLLC-1, Application for Foreign Limited Liability Company, and the $100 is fixed in the statute at RSA 304-C:191, II(h) as well as on the fee page; a professional LLC uses Form FPLLC-1 at the same price. A corporation files Form 40, Application for Certificate of Authority for a Foreign Corporation, or Form 40PC for a professional corporation, also $100. Filing online adds a $2 electronic handling charge under RSA 5:10-a.", "note": "New Hampshire dropped one of the usual irritations here. Since 1 November 2023, both RSA 293-A:15.03 for corporations and RSA 304-C:175 for LLCs ask only for an affirmation that the entity is in good standing in its home jurisdiction, so you no longer have to order a dated certificate of existence from your home state and race its expiry date, as Tennessee and many others still require. You do need a registered agent with a New Hampshire registered office named in the application. Budget for the recurring cost: qualifying puts you in the annual report cycle at $100 a year for both LLCs and corporations, filed between 1 January and 1 April, with a $50 late fee and a $135 reinstatement fee if the entity lapses. A foreign corporation that gets its certificate of authority between 1 December and 1 April skips the report for that year under RSA 293-A:16.22(c). Two things are worth understanding about what registration does and does not do. Registering with the Secretary of State is not a tax registration: the Business Enterprise Tax and Business Profits Tax accounts are separate, at the Department of Revenue Administration through Granite Tax Connect. And qualification and tax nexus are decided independently. RSA 293-A:15.01(b) lists activities that do not amount to transacting business, including selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that are accepted out of state, merely owning property, and an isolated transaction completed within 30 days, but RSA 293-A:15.01(d) and RSA 304-C:174, III both say in terms that nothing in those lists prevents a finding that you are carrying on business activity within the meaning of the Business Profits Tax. In other words, you can be below the line for the Secretary of State and above it for Revenue. Trading here without a certificate of authority does not void your contracts, but it bars you from bringing a case in a New Hampshire court until you register, and you become liable for all the fees and penalties you would have paid had you registered when you should have.", "source": "https://gc.nh.gov/rsa/html/XXVIII/304-C/304-C-mrg.htm", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "new-mexico": { "state": "New Mexico", "abbr": "NM", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "gross receipts tax", "compensating tax", "wage withholding tax" ], "note": "One registration with the Taxation and Revenue Department gives you a New Mexico Business Tax Identification Number, and that single number covers gross receipts tax, compensating tax and wage withholding, so there is no second sign-up for payroll withholding. Two things sit outside it. Unemployment insurance is a separate account with the Department of Workforce Solutions, and the order matters: the Taxation and Revenue Department says an employer covered by the Workers' Compensation Act must get its employer account number from Workforce Solutions before it can open the workers compensation assessment fee account on the Taxation and Revenue side. Workers compensation insurance itself is bought from a private carrier and is not a state account at all." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department", "url": "https://www.tax.newmexico.gov/businesses/withholding-tax-and-workers-compensation/", "registerWhen": "Before your first New Mexico payroll, by applying for a New Mexico Business Tax Identification Number through Taxpayer Access Point at tap.state.nm.us", "note": "The trigger is simple: if you withhold federal income tax from an employee's wages, you withhold New Mexico tax too. Three details catch out-of-state employers. There is no New Mexico W-4, so employees fill in a copy of the federal W-4 marked for New Mexico state withholding only and you keep it on file. You do not have to withhold New Mexico tax from a nonresident employee who works in the state for 15 or fewer days in a calendar year, which matters if you send people in for short stints. And your filing frequency is set by size: a business averaging more than $200 a month of combined gross receipts and withholding tax liability over any twelve month period must file monthly, and only businesses below that may elect quarterly or semiannual. Starting with the quarter beginning 1 January 2026 every employer also has to file Form TRD-41431 electronically each quarter, due the 25th of the month after the quarter closes, reporting each employee's gross wages and the state tax withheld; the same return carries the workers compensation assessment fee that used to be the WC-1. The account does not close itself when you stop paying wages, so cancel the number on Form ACD-31015 rather than going quiet.", "source": "https://realfile.tax.newmexico.gov/FYI-104.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions", "url": "https://www.dws.nm.gov/UI-Tax-Information", "newEmployerRate": 0.01, "wageBase": 34800, "year": "2026", "note": "A new employer pays the greater of 1.0% or its industry's average rate, assigned from the first two digits of its NAICS code, and keeps that rate until it has two years of experience rating. For 2026 most sectors sit exactly at the 1.00% floor, including retail, wholesale, manufacturing, finance, professional and technical services, health care, accommodation and food services. The ones that do not are worth checking before you budget: construction 1.21%, agriculture 1.19%, administrative and waste services 1.19%, transportation and warehousing 1.15% and information 1.08%. Tax is owed on the first $34,800 of each employee's wages in 2026, up from $33,200 in 2025, so the base moves every January. The registration trigger is low: a non-agricultural employer must file once its New Mexico payroll reaches $450 in any calendar quarter, or once it has one or more workers in any part of a week in each of 20 weeks in a calendar year. Agricultural employers use $20,000 a quarter or ten workers in 20 weeks, domestic employers $1,000 a quarter. Quarterly reports are due the last day of the month after each quarter. Once you are experience rated the rate is your benefit ratio multiplied by a reserve factor, 3.6361 for 2026, multiplied by an experience history factor, with a floor of 0.33% and a cap of 5.4%, plus an excess claims premium of up to a further 1% for employers whose calculated rate would have exceeded 5.4%. One practical note: the department's web address moved from dws.state.nm.us to dws.nm.gov, so older bookmarks and vendor instructions may point at a dead host.", "source": "https://www.dws.nm.gov/Unemployment/Unemployment-for-a-Business/Unemployment-Insurance-Tax-Information/How-UI-Tax-Rates-Are-Calculated", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 3, "requiredFor": [ "every private employer with three or more workers, counting part-time and seasonal workers and paid family members", "anyone actively engaged in work that has to be licensed under the Construction Industries Licensing Act, from the first worker, with no headcount at all", "agricultural employers with three or more workers, since the New Mexico Supreme Court struck down the farm and ranch laborer exclusion in 2016" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "New Mexico Workers' Compensation Administration", "url": "https://www.workerscomp.nm.gov/bureaus/employer-compliance/", "note": "Three is the number, and the counting rules are what surprise people. Part-time, seasonal and paid family members all count. So do owners: an executive employee of a corporation or an LLC, meaning an officer or member holding 10 percent or more, counts toward the three even if that person is then excluded from the policy, and limited partners count too. Construction is the big exception and it has no threshold at all, so a licensed contractor needs coverage from its first worker. Read one page on the Administration's own site with care: the Employer Compliance Bureau lists any business registered as a Limited Liability Company or incorporated alongside the three worker rule, which reads as if forming an LLC alone triggers coverage. Section 52-1-2 NMSA 1978 and the Administration's own FAQ both put the requirement at three or more workers, with owners counted in that three, so treat three as the number and take the LLC line as shorthand for the executive employee counting rule. Going without coverage when you need it can cost up to $1,000 a day. Separately, every covered employer pays a quarterly assessment fee of $4.80 per covered employee working on the last day of the quarter, made up of $2.55 from the employer and $2.25 withheld from the worker, and that fee goes to the Taxation and Revenue Department on Form TRD-41431. Paying it is not insurance and does not make you covered; you still have to buy a policy.", "source": "https://www.workerscomp.nm.gov/faqs/", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date of hire, rehire or return to work, or in two monthly transmissions no more than 16 days apart if you report electronically", "agency": "New Mexico New Hire Directory", "url": "https://nm-newhire.com/", "note": "This report goes to the New Mexico New Hire Directory, which is neither the Taxation and Revenue Department nor your unemployment insurance account, so it is easy to skip when you set up payroll. You report anyone who lives or works in New Mexico and whom you expect to pay, full-time, part-time or temporary, and you report them even if they work a single day and leave before you got round to filing. A returning worker counts as a new hire again once they have been separated, laid off, furloughed or on unpaid leave for 60 days or more, which sweeps in teachers, substitutes and seasonal staff. Temporary agencies report a worker once rather than at each client assignment. You need your FEIN, your business name and payroll address, and the employee's name, address, Social Security number and hire date.", "source": "https://nm-newhire.com/reporting_fundamentals", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": false, "employeeThreshold": null, "employeeContributionRate": null, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": null, "agency": "New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, Labor Relations Division", "url": "https://www.dws.nm.gov/NMPaidSickLeave", "note": "New Mexico runs no state disability insurance fund and no paid family and medical leave programme, so nothing is deducted from a New Mexico paycheck for one and you owe no employer premium. This is worth checking carefully because a paid family and medical leave bill has been introduced repeatedly and search results quote its text as though it were law. It is not. In the 2025 regular session House Bill 11, titled Paid Family and Medical Leave Act, passed the House 38 to 31 on 28 February 2025, was reported out of a Senate committee on 11 March 2025, and then had action postponed indefinitely, which killed it. The Department of Workforce Solutions, the agency that would administer such a programme, still describes paid family and medical leave only as a task force that reported recommendations to the Governor and the Legislature in October 2022. Any text saying an employer shall allow twelve weeks of leave beginning 1 January 2026 is bill language from a bill that died, not statute. What New Mexico does require is unpaid-to-you but real: the Healthy Workplaces Act took effect on 1 July 2022 and applies to every private employer with no minimum size. Each employee accrues one hour of earned sick leave for every 30 hours worked, may use up to 64 hours in a twelve month period, and carries over up to 64 accrued hours unless you front load the full amount at the start of the year. An existing paid time off policy satisfies the Act if the leave can be used for the same purposes on the same terms. This is a cost you carry on your own payroll, not a premium you remit to the state.", "source": "https://www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?Chamber=H&LegType=B&LegNo=11&year=25", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": false, "permit": { "agency": "New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department", "url": "https://www.tax.newmexico.gov/businesses/who-must-register-a-business/", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before you engage in business in New Mexico. A seller with no physical presence here becomes liable once its taxable gross receipts sourced to New Mexico reached $100,000 in the previous calendar year.", "note": "There is no New Mexico sales tax permit to apply for, because New Mexico has no sales tax. What you register for instead is a New Mexico Business Tax Identification Number, which is the account for the gross receipts tax described below, and the Department states plainly that there is no fee to register or obtain one. You apply through Taxpayer Access Point and the number is generally issued within one business day, or you can file Form ACD-31015 by email or at a district office. One number covers gross receipts tax, compensating tax and wage withholding. Two obligations start the moment you hold it: you file a return for every period even when you had no receipts at all, and a late return carries a $5 civil penalty even when no tax is due. The number does not lapse when you stop trading, so close it on Form ACD-31015 rather than simply stopping.", "source": "https://realfile.tax.newmexico.gov/FYI-102.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "New Mexico does have a marketplace law; it just runs through the gross receipts tax rather than a sales tax. A marketplace provider that facilitated at least $100,000 of taxable gross receipts sourced to New Mexico in the previous calendar year must register and pay gross receipts tax on everything it facilitates, including the money it later passes on to you, plus its own fees. As a marketplace seller you still have gross receipts on the same sale, but Section 7-9-117 NMSA 1978 lets you deduct the receipts the provider paid the tax on, so you report them and then deduct them rather than ignoring them. The catch is that the deduction depends on the provider actually paying: if it does not, and you are engaging in business in New Mexico, the sale is still taxable and the tax falls back on you. Keep the platform's evidence of payment.", "source": "https://realfile.tax.newmexico.gov/FYI-206.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "New Mexico never uses the phrase trailing nexus, but the effect is the same and it runs a full calendar year. Whether a remote seller is engaging in business is decided entirely on the prior year: the Department states that the $100,000 determination is based on the previous calendar year regardless of the taxable gross receipts in the current calendar year. So a year in which you cross $100,000 commits you to registering, collecting and filing for the whole of the next calendar year even if your New Mexico sales collapse to nothing in it, and you only drop out in the year after that. Separately, the account outlives the liability: the New Mexico Business Tax Identification Number stays open and you keep filing zero returns until you close it with the Department on Form ACD-31015.", "source": "https://realfile.tax.newmexico.gov/FYI-206.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Gross Receipts Tax", "agency": "New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department", "url": "https://www.tax.newmexico.gov/businesses/gross-receipts-overview/", "rateRange": "4.875% state only, and 4.875% to 9.4375% in total by location under the schedule in force from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, because county and municipal increments stack on top of the state rate", "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "This is the single most important thing to understand about New Mexico. The state has no sales tax as such. It levies a gross receipts tax on the seller for the privilege of doing business here, and the Department's own wording is that the tax is imposed on businesses but it is common for a business to pass it on to the purchaser, in which case it has to be stated separately on the invoice. In a shop it looks and behaves like a sales tax, which is why almost every rate table lists New Mexico alongside sales tax states. The legal difference is not cosmetic and shows up in three places. Liability sits with you rather than with the buyer, so anything you failed to add to a customer's bill is still your debt to the state. The base is much broader than a typical sales tax because services are taxable as well as goods, including most professional services billed to a New Mexico client. And there are no deductions for business expenses, so this is charged on revenue and not on margin, with no cost of goods or payroll subtracted. Rates are set by location and sourcing has been destination based since 1 July 2021, so you use the rate for where the goods or the product of your service are delivered; an out-of-state business with no New Mexico location reports under code 88-888 at the 4.875% state rate. Since 1 July 2025 rates change only in July, once a year, unless a natural disaster forces a January change, and the Department publishes one rate schedule a year in the GRT Filer's Kit. There is no small-business exclusion: unlike Delaware or Nevada, once you are engaging in business the first dollar of taxable receipts is taxed. Note that the Department's own overview publication FYI-105, dated 11 August 2025, still gives the range as 4.875% to 10.8125%; the range here is read off the current rate schedule itself, where the highest combined rate is 9.4375% at Taos Ski Valley and the lowest ordinary county remainder is 5.25%. Where an explainer and the current schedule disagree, the schedule governs. Compensating tax, the use-tax counterpart, applies at the same state rate to things you buy without paying gross receipts tax.", "source": "https://www.tax.newmexico.gov/businesses/gross-receipts-overview/ ; current-year GRT Filer's Kit rate schedule (July 2026 to June 2027), published in the Taxation and Revenue Department document library", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "New Mexico Secretary of State, Business Services Division", "url": "https://www.sos.nm.gov/business-services/", "feeLLC": 100, "feeCorp": null, "feeNote": "Foreign LLC: $100 to issue the registration, fixed by Section 53-19-63(K) NMSA 1978. Foreign corporation: no single figure, because Section 53-2-1(A)(13) charges $1.00 for each 1,000 authorized shares represented in New Mexico with a floor of $200 and a ceiling of $1,000, so a small corporation pays exactly $200 and only one representing more than 200,000 shares in the state pays more.", "note": "All New Mexico business filings are now online only: the Secretary of State no longer accepts paper applications, so you file through enterprise.sos.nm.gov. Two things follow. A foreign corporation owes an initial corporate report within 30 days of its certificate of authority being issued and then a report every two years, due the fifteenth day of the fourth month after its taxable year ends, at $25 each under Section 53-2-1(A)(16); the Limited Liability Company Act sets no matching periodic report for a foreign LLC. And qualifying with the Secretary of State does not register you for tax: the Business Tax Identification Number from the Taxation and Revenue Department is a separate step, and so is the unemployment insurance account at Workforce Solutions. Skipping qualification bites in court first. Neither a foreign corporation nor a foreign LLC may bring or maintain an action in a New Mexico court until it registers, though either can still defend one and its contracts stay valid. On top of that a foreign corporation owes every fee it should have paid plus a $200 civil penalty per offence, and an unregistered foreign LLC faces up to $200 for each year or part year plus an injunction against doing further business until it pays. Section 53-17-1 NMSA 1978 lists activities that do not by themselves amount to transacting business, including holding bank accounts, selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that are only binding once accepted outside the state, and a single isolated transaction completed within 30 days.", "source": "https://nmonesource.com/nmos/nmsa/en/item/4400/index.do", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "hawaii": { "state": "Hawaii", "abbr": "HI", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "Department of Taxation (general excise tax and employer's withholding, on one Hawaii Tax ID)", "Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Unemployment Insurance Division", "Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Disability Compensation Division" ], "note": "Hawaii gives you a partial front door, not a single one. Form BB-1, the State of Hawaii Basic Business Application, opens your general excise tax licence and your employer's withholding licence together under one Hawaii Tax ID, and you can add the withholding licence later to an existing ID without getting a second number. Everything on the labour side is separate. Unemployment insurance is its own registration at uiclaims.hawaii.gov with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, and the three Disability Compensation Division mandates, workers compensation, temporary disability insurance and prepaid health care, are not government accounts at all. They are private insurance policies you have to buy from an authorised carrier or get approved to self-insure. An employer new to Hawaii who files the BB-1 and stops there has done maybe a third of the job." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "Hawaii Department of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/get/", "registerWhen": "File Form BB-1 before your first Hawaii payroll; the withholding licence itself carries no fee and can be added to an existing Hawaii Tax ID", "note": "The withholding licence is free. The $20 you pay with Form BB-1 is the general excise tax licence fee, and the BB-1 fee table lists withholding as no fee. Two things catch new employers. First, Hawaii does not allow exempt status on the state withholding certificate the way federal Form W-4 does, so if an employee gives you no Form HW-4 you must withhold as single with zero allowances rather than withholding nothing. Second, your payment frequency is set by size and can be much faster than the return frequency: returns on Form HW-14 are quarterly, but payments are due semi-weekly once your annual withholding liability exceeds $40,000, monthly above $5,000, and quarterly at $5,000 or less. Employers over $40,000 a year must also file electronically or hold a waiver, with a 2 percent penalty for filing on paper without one.", "source": "https://files.hawaii.gov/tax/forms/current/bb1_i_packet.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Unemployment Insurance Division", "url": "https://labor.hawaii.gov/ui/tax-rate-schedule-and-weekly-benefit-amount/", "newEmployerRate": 0.024, "wageBase": 64500, "year": "2026", "note": "For 2026 Hawaii is on contribution rate Schedule C, a new employer pays 2.4 percent, the maximum experience rate is 5.6 percent, and tax is owed on the first $64,500 of each employee's wages. That wage base is among the highest in the country and it moves every year, from $62,000 in 2025 and $59,100 in 2024, because it is set to the state's average annual wage. The whole schedule also shifts with the health of the trust fund, which is why the new employer rate was 4.0 percent as recently as 2023. On top of the contribution there is a separate employment and training assessment of 0.01 percent of taxable wages, and note that two Division pages disagree about it: the tax rate schedule page says 0.01 percent and the contribution rates explained page says 0.1 percent. Section 383-129 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes settles it at .01 per cent, so 0.01 percent is correct and the higher figure is a typo. Employers sitting at a zero rate or at the schedule maximum owe no assessment, and it can never be deducted from wages. Register within 20 days of hiring your first employee by filing a status report online at uiclaims.hawaii.gov; paper Form UC-1 is no longer accepted. Form UC-B6 is then due every quarter even in quarters when you paid nobody, and a late one costs $30.", "source": "https://labor.hawaii.gov/ui/tax-rate-schedule-and-weekly-benefit-amount/", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Disability Compensation Division", "url": "https://labor.hawaii.gov/dcd/home/aboutwc/", "note": "There is no free headcount. Any employer with one or more employees, full time or part time, permanent or temporary, must carry coverage unless the work falls in one of the narrow exclusions in section 386-1 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes, which cover things like unpaid volunteers for a nonprofit, ordained ministers, and household help paid less than $225 in the quarter. You buy from a private carrier authorised to write workers compensation in Hawaii or get approved to self-insure by proving financial solvency; there is no state fund monopoly. You are forbidden from making employees contribute toward the premium, which is different from temporary disability insurance and prepaid health care where cost sharing is allowed. You must also post a benefit rights notice where employees can read it, hand an injured employee the Highlights brochure within three working days of notice of injury, and file Form WC-1 with the Division within seven working days of the injury.", "source": "https://labor.hawaii.gov/dcd/home/aboutwc/", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days after the date the employee starts work; a returning worker counts as a new hire again if the break in service was at least 60 consecutive days", "agency": "Hawaii Child Support Enforcement Agency, State Directory of New Hires", "url": "https://ag.hawaii.gov/csea/employer-information/", "note": "Section 576D-16 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes requires every employer to report each new hire to the Child Support Enforcement Agency within 20 days, giving the worker's name, address, social security number and first day of paid service plus your own name, federal identification number and address. A copy of the Form W-4, or its equivalent, is an accepted report. If you send reports magnetically or electronically instead, you switch to a twice monthly rhythm, not less than 12 and not more than 16 days apart, which is a stricter cadence than the 20 day rule it replaces. The civil penalty is only $25 per failure, but it rises to $500 where the employer and the worker colluded to skip the report or file a false one. This report goes to the Attorney General's office, not to the tax or labour departments, so it is easy to miss when you set up payroll.", "source": "https://data.capitol.hawaii.gov/sessions/session2017/HRS-Chapter-PDF's/HRS_0576D.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 1, "employeeContributionRate": 0.005, "employerContributionRate": null, "year": "2026", "agency": "Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Disability Compensation Division", "url": "https://labor.hawaii.gov/dcd/home/about-tdi/", "note": "Hawaii has run a real state disability programme since 1969, but it is not a state fund and there is no payroll tax that goes to the government. Temporary disability insurance is coverage you buy from an authorised carrier, self-insure with Division approval, or provide through a collective bargaining agreement with sick leave at least as good as the law requires. The employer may pay the whole premium or split it, and the 0.5 percent recorded here is the statutory ceiling on the employee's half rather than a fixed levy: you may withhold up to half the premium, never more than 0.5 percent of weekly wages, and never more than the maximum weekly deduction, which the Division set at $7.50 for 2026 against a maximum weekly wage base of $1,500.21. The employer contribution rate is null because there is no published rate. Your cost is whatever premium your carrier quotes, so it varies by insurer and workforce. A statutory plan pays 58 percent of average weekly wages from the eighth day of disability for up to 26 weeks, capped at $871 a week in 2026. An employee qualifies after 14 weeks of Hawaii employment, not necessarily consecutive or with one employer, each paid for 20 or more hours and at least $400, in the 52 weeks before the disability. The second Hawaii mandate is the one that genuinely has no equivalent anywhere else: the Prepaid Health Care Act, chapter 393, has required employers to provide health coverage since 1974 and is the only state health insurance mandate to survive federal preemption, by exemption granted in 1983. It bites at 20 hours a week: any employee working 20 or more hours a week who earns at least 86.67 times the state minimum hourly wage in a month, which the Division computes as $1,387.00 a month for 2026, must be enrolled after four consecutive weeks of employment. You must pay at least half the premium, and the employee's share is capped at the lesser of half the premium or 1.5 percent of monthly gross wages, so on a low wage worker the 1.5 percent cap usually leaves you paying far more than half. Plans must be approved by the Department against minimum standards, an out of state nationwide plan has to be submitted for approval before you can use it here, and an employee can only opt out by filing Form HC-5, which must be renewed every 31 December. The penalty for going without is at least $25 or $1 per employee per day, whichever is greater, and after 30 days of default the state can close your business until you comply.", "source": "https://labor.hawaii.gov/dcd/files/2025/12/2026-Maximum-Weekly-Wage-Base.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": false, "permit": { "agency": "Hawaii Department of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/get/", "fee": null, "feeConfirmedFree": false, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before you engage in business in Hawaii, and for a remote seller before you begin the business activity that follows crossing the $100,000 or 200 transaction threshold", "note": "There is no Hawaii sales tax permit, because Hawaii has no sales tax. The Department of Taxation says so in as many words: Hawaii does not have a sales tax, instead there is the general excise tax, which is assessed on all business activities. What you actually register for is a GET licence, applied for on Form BB-1 with a one-time $20 fee, and section 237-9 of the Hawaii Revised Statutes requires you to hold it before engaging in business rather than after your first sale. The fee field is null here because a permit fee only means something in a sales tax state; the real $20 figure is recorded in the gross receipts tax block below, which is where it belongs. A remote seller with no physical presence is treated as engaging in business once it has $100,000 or more of Hawaii sourced gross income, or 200 or more separate Hawaii transactions, in the current or preceding calendar year. Filing online returns your Hawaii Tax ID in about 5 to 7 days, by mail in 4 to 6 weeks, and in person immediately. No security deposit requirement was found on a primary page, so that field is null rather than zero.", "source": "https://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/get/", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "Hawaii has a marketplace facilitator law, Act 2 of 2019, effective 1 January 2020, but it does not do what a sales tax state's version does. In a sales tax state the platform collects and the seller walks away. Here Act 2 deems the marketplace facilitator to be the retail seller and simultaneously deems your sale to the facilitator to be a wholesale sale, which means it is still your gross income and still yours to report. A marketplace seller who is engaging in business in Hawaii still has to hold a GET licence and file returns, paying the 0.5 percent wholesale rate on goods it ships to Hawaii buyers through a facilitator and on services sold through a facilitator that are used or consumed here, while paying the 4 percent retail rate on its own direct sales. The wholesale rate is not available for sales of intangible property, which stay at the retail rate. The threshold test is also combined: if the facilitator you sell through is itself engaging in business in Hawaii, you count your direct Hawaii sales together with the goods you ship into Hawaii through that facilitator and with intangibles and services used here, and test the $100,000 or 200 transaction thresholds against the total. Assuming marketplace sales are somebody else's problem is the single most expensive mistake an out of state seller can make in Hawaii.", "source": "https://files.hawaii.gov/tax/legal/tir/tir19-03_rev2.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "Act 41 of 2018 makes you engaged in business in Hawaii if you cross $100,000 of gross income or 200 transactions in the current or preceding calendar year, so a single strong year drags the whole of the following calendar year behind it whether or not you sell anything more. Plan on staying licensed and filing, including zero returns, through that trailing year. The account does not lapse on its own either: the GET licence stays open until you cancel it on Form GEW-TA-RV-1, and Hawaii adds a sting most states do not. Once a GET licence has been closed it cannot be reactivated. Coming back means a fresh application and another $20, so do not close the account during a quiet year you expect to trade out of.", "source": "https://files.hawaii.gov/tax/news/announce/ann18-10_amended.pdf", "confidence": "P" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "General Excise Tax (GET)", "agency": "Hawaii Department of Taxation", "url": "https://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/get/", "rateRange": "4% on retail sales, services, rents, commissions and most other business activity; 0.5% on wholesaling, manufacturing, producing, wholesale services and use tax on imports for resale; 0.15% on insurance commissions. A county surcharge of 0.5% applies on top of the 4% rate in all four counties, Honolulu, Hawaii, Kauai and Maui, and is scheduled to run through 31 December 2030. The surcharge never applies to the 0.5% or 0.15% rates.", "exclusionThreshold": null, "note": "This is the single most misunderstood thing about doing business in Hawaii, and getting it wrong costs money. The GET is not a sales tax with a different name. It is a privilege tax on the seller, measured by gross income, with no deduction for cost of goods, payroll, rent or any other expense, so a business can owe it in a year it loses money. It reaches far more than a sales tax does: services, professional fees, commissions and rental income are all taxable, which is why a consultant or landlord with no physical product still owes it. Because the tax is legally yours rather than the customer's, you are allowed to pass it on visibly but you are not required to, and if you do the pass-on is capped. With the county surcharge the maximum pass-on rate is 4.7120 percent in Honolulu, Hawaii, Kauai and Maui counties. That 4.712 percent is arithmetic on a tax-on-tax, not a rate, which is why it does not equal 4.5 percent. You register with a one-time $20 fee on Form BB-1, and a duplicate licence costs nothing. Periodic returns are due on the 20th of the month after the period closes, monthly, quarterly or semiannually depending on your annual liability, plus an annual return due on the 20th day of the fourth month after your tax year ends. Late filing costs 5 percent a month up to 25 percent, and interest runs at two thirds of one percent a month. We found no general small business exclusion threshold on a primary page; Hawaii's relief comes through activity specific exemptions and deductions rather than a revenue floor.", "source": "https://tax.hawaii.gov/geninfo/get/", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "Hawaii Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Business Registration Division", "url": "https://cca.hawaii.gov/breg/registration/", "feeLLC": 50, "feeCorp": 50, "feeNote": "$50 for a foreign limited liability company's Application for Certificate of Authority under chapter 428, and $50 for a foreign profit corporation's Application for a Certificate of Authority under chapter 414. A foreign limited partnership is also $50 and a foreign limited liability partnership's Statement of Foreign Qualification is $50. Add $1 for the State Archives preservation fee on permanent records. Expedited review is an optional $25.", "note": "Hawaii is one of the cheaper states to qualify into and it charges the same $50 whichever entity type you are, which is unusual. Sole proprietorships do not register with the Business Registration Division at all. Registering here does not license you to operate or open any tax account: you still file Form BB-1 with the Department of Taxation for your Hawaii Tax ID and GET licence, and you still register separately for unemployment insurance with the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Budget for the annual report as well, $15 for a foreign corporation or foreign LLC, and note that the way out costs money too, $25 to withdraw a foreign corporation and $25 to cancel a foreign LLC. The published fee schedule is dated December 2022 and the underlying amounts have been in place since 2005, so these figures are stable rather than annual.", "source": "https://cca.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Form-Fee-Schedule-12-2022.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" }, "district-of-columbia": { "state": "District of Columbia", "abbr": "DC", "employer": { "combinedAccount": { "applies": true, "agencies": [ "income tax withholding", "sales and use tax", "corporate and unincorporated business franchise tax, and the ballpark fee" ], "note": "The District has two payroll registrations, not one, and a licence on top of both. The FR-500 Combined Registration Application, filed free on MyTax.DC.gov, opens all your Office of Tax and Revenue accounts at once: withholding, sales and use tax, corporate or unincorporated business franchise tax and the ballpark fee. It does not touch the Department of Employment Services. Unemployment insurance is a separate registration at essp.does.dc.gov, and that one account covers both unemployment insurance and Paid Family Leave, which share a single account number and a single quarterly wage report. Workers compensation is not a District account at all, it is a policy you buy from a private insurer. The step out-of-town employers miss is the third one: the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection wants both a foreign registration for your entity and a Basic Business License, and the licence has prerequisites that take time. DLCP lists five: a federal employer identification number, tax registration with the Office of Tax and Revenue, a Certificate of Occupancy for a commercial address or a Home Occupation Permit if you work from home, a Certificate of Clean Hands showing you do not owe the District more than $1,000, and corporate registration in good standing with a registered agent. A General Business License is $99 for two years, $49 for six months or $198 for four years, applied for at boss.dc.gov. DLCP's own answer for an out-of-District business is deliberately soft, that a licence may be required depending on the business activity, so if you have no District premises and only a remote worker, ask DLCP rather than assuming either way. A business expecting $2,000 or less of gross annual revenue is exempt from the licence altogether, and one between $2,000 and $10,000 is exempt from the fee. Budget for four errands: Office of Tax and Revenue, Department of Employment Services, Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, and an insurance broker." }, "withholding": { "required": true, "agency": "District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue", "url": "https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/page/new-business-registration", "registerWhen": "Before your first District payroll, by completing the FR-500 combined registration on MyTax.DC.gov; there is no charge for registering, and an account is never created just by filing a return or making a payment", "note": "District withholding follows where the worker LIVES, and nothing else, which is the reverse of almost every state. The Home Rule Act forbids the Council to impose any tax on the personal income, directly or at the source, of any individual who is not a District resident, so the District has no nonresident wage tax to withhold. The practical result surprises people in both directions. Someone who lives in Virginia or Maryland and commutes into your Washington office generates zero District withholding: they hand you Form D-4A, Certificate of Nonresidence, you keep it on file, and they settle up with their home state. Someone who lives in the District and works remotely for your out-of-state company does generate District withholding, and you must withhold from a District resident even where you are not required to withhold federal income tax because the employee has certified minimal liability. Collect Form D-4 from every District resident at hire and re-request it before 1 December each year; if a resident fails to file one, withhold as though they claimed no allowances. Reporting is quarterly on Form FR-900Q, due the last day of the month after the quarter, filed electronically on MyTax.DC.gov, and you must file even in a quarter with nothing withheld unless you have filed a final return. Deposits run on a separate clock, due by the 20th of the month following the month withheld, and payments over $5,000 must be electronic. You need a federal employer identification number to file; a social security number is not accepted, which catches household employers. A dishonoured payment costs $65.", "source": "https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/otr/publication/attachments/2025_FR900Q_Instructions_121824.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "unemploymentInsurance": { "agency": "District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, Office of Unemployment Compensation, Tax Division", "url": "https://does.dc.gov/service/tax-rate-questions", "newEmployerRate": 0.027, "wageBase": 9000, "year": "2026", "note": "Read 2.7% as the floor, not the bill. The statute sets a newly liable employer's rate at the average rate paid by all employers in the year to 30 June, rounded up to the next tenth of a percent, or 2.7%, whichever is higher, and the Department's employer portal confirms that for 2026 the new employer rate stays at 2.7%, the taxable wage base stays at $9,000, and Tax Table VI stays in effect for everyone else. On top of the contribution sits a separate administrative funding assessment of 0.2% of taxable wages, paid by rated and reimbursable employers alike on the same first $9,000, capped at $18 per employee per year. So a new employer's real cost is 2.9% of the first $9,000, about $261 per employee for the year, which is one of the cheapest unemployment bills in the country because the wage base is so low. Liability starts immediately: you become liable the first day you pay wages for services performed in the District, with no dollar or twenty-week threshold, and register at essp.does.dc.gov. Household employers are the one exception, becoming liable from the start of the first quarter in which they pay $500 or more in aggregate wages. You stay on the new employer rate until you have completed 36 months of liability as of the 30 June rate computation date, then you are rated on your own experience. Terminating liability is a positive act: email the Tax Division in writing once you have no employees and do not expect to hire. Both the rate and the wage base are reset every January.", "source": "https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/51-103", "confidence": "P" }, "workersComp": { "optional": false, "employeeThreshold": 1, "requiredFor": [ "every private employer with one or more employees in the District" ], "optOutFilings": null, "agency": "District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, Labor Standards Bureau, Office of Workers' Compensation", "url": "https://does.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/does/page_content/attachments/OWC_FAQs.pdf", "note": "There is no free headcount. Both the Office of Workers' Compensation FAQ and the Notice of Compliance poster say it in the same words: you are required to have workers compensation insurance coverage if you have one or more employees. Homeowners are caught too, once a domestic worker is employed for 240 hours or more in any calendar quarter in the current or previous year. Self insurance is possible but must be approved by the office in advance. The reach of the Act is worth checking before you assume a remote worker is someone else's problem: it covers an injury that happens in the District, and also an injury outside the District where the employment is principally localized in the District, and an employee can claim here even after being paid under another state's system, with the District award reduced by what the other state paid. Two paperwork duties come with the policy. You must display the Notice of Compliance poster, naming your insurer, at each worksite. And you must file Form 8 DCWC, the Employer's First Report of Injury, with the office and your insurer as soon as possible and no later than ten working days after you learn of an injury, with a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for missing it. Going uninsured is the expensive one: a civil fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $10,000, and in a corporation the president, secretary and treasurer are each liable for that fine and are also severally and personally liable, jointly with the company, for the compensation the injured worker is owed. Concealing assets to dodge payment is criminal, up to $10,000 or a year in prison.", "source": "https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/32-1539", "confidence": "P" }, "newHireReporting": { "days": 20, "deadline": "within 20 days of the date an employee begins employment in the District or is rehired; an employer transmitting magnetically or electronically may instead send up to 2 transmissions a month, not less than 12 nor more than 16 days apart", "agency": "District of Columbia Directory of New Hires, run for the Office of the Attorney General Child Support Services Division", "url": "https://oag.dc.gov/child-support-services/employers/new-hire-reporting", "note": "The District's definition of who you report is keyed to a form rather than to a job title: a newly hired employee is an employee for whom you are required to complete a new IRS Form W-4. Rehires count on the same 20 day clock. That W-4 hinge is the practical difference from Connecticut and New Jersey, which expressly sweep in 1099 contractors above a dollar threshold; no primary District page or code section extends the duty to independent contractors, so we do not read it as covering them, and if you rely on that, keep the reasoning with your records. Reports go to the District of Columbia Directory of New Hires at dc-newhire.com or by mail to its processing address in Norwell, Massachusetts, which looks wrong but is the address the Attorney General publishes. Penalties are modest and recurring rather than one-off: a civil penalty of $25 for each employee you failed to report, assessed for each calendar month until you comply, rising to $500 per employee where the employer and the employee conspired to withhold or falsify the report. The Attorney General enforces it.", "source": "https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/46-226.06", "confidence": "P" }, "paidLeaveDisability": { "hasProgram": true, "employeeThreshold": 1, "employeeContributionRate": 0, "employerContributionRate": 0.0075, "year": "2026", "agency": "District of Columbia Department of Employment Services, Office of Paid Family Leave", "url": "https://dcpaidfamilyleave.dc.gov/employer-information/", "note": "This is the mirror image of Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey, and getting it backwards would be an expensive error. District Paid Family Leave is funded entirely by employers. The statute says a covered employer shall contribute an amount equal to 0.75% of the wages of each of its covered employees, and the Department states plainly that the tax is 100% employer funded and may not be deducted from a worker's paycheck. The employee rate is a confirmed zero, not a missing number. There is no wage cap on the 0.75%, which is the detail that makes it bite: unlike unemployment insurance, which stops at $9,000 of wages, this runs on every dollar, so a single $150,000 employee costs $1,125 a year. The rate rose from 0.26% to 0.75% on 1 July 2024 and the Office of Paid Family Leave has published a quarter-by-quarter table holding it at 0.75% through all four quarters of 2026. Be careful which District page you read: the Department's own About the Office of Paid Family Leave page and its Employer FAQ PDF both still print the old 0.62% figure, and the current-year quarter table and the code are the ones to believe. Coverage turns on where the person works, not where you are: a covered employee is one who spends more than half their working time for you in the District, telework included, so a company with no District premises and one District-based remote worker owes this. There is no small-employer exemption and no minimum headcount. Excluded are the District government, the federal government, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and religious institutions. You pay it on the same Department of Employment Services account and the same quarterly wage report as unemployment insurance, due the last day of the month after the quarter, or by 15 April for annual filers; employers with fewer than six employees may use the paper PFL-30 worksheet. Self-employed people opt in during a November to December open enrolment window and cannot opt back out for three years if they did not join when first eligible. Benefits are up to 12 weeks each of parental, family and medical leave plus two weeks of prenatal leave. Note that the District has no separate temporary disability insurance scheme of the New York or New Jersey kind: this one programme is the whole of the state paid leave cost.", "source": "https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/32-541.03", "confidence": "P" } }, "salesTax": { "hasSalesTax": true, "permit": { "agency": "District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue", "url": "https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/page/new-business-registration", "fee": 0, "feeConfirmedFree": true, "securityDeposit": null, "registerBy": "Before making any taxable sale in the District; list every District location on the FR-500, because the Office of Tax and Revenue issues a separate Certificate of Registration for each one and each location must display its own", "note": "This is a confirmed free permit, stated twice and affirmatively. The statute directs that the Mayor shall issue to the applicant, without charge, a certificate of registration for each retail establishment named in the application, and the current FR-800 instructions say there is no charge for registering. No bond or security deposit is published for a sales tax registrant, so none is recorded. Free does not mean cheap overall, and this is where District newcomers get caught: a retailer doing business in the District also needs a Basic Business License from the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, which is $99 for two years, and that licence in turn requires a Certificate of Clean Hands and a Certificate of Occupancy or Home Occupation Permit. Selling without the certificate of registration can be fined up to $50 for each day you do business without one. Filing frequency follows your liability rather than your size: monthly Form FR-800M if your liability is $1,201 or more per period, and monthly is mandatory for every marketplace facilitator and every remote seller regardless of size; quarterly FR-800Q from $201 to $1,200; annual FR-800A at $200 or less. All are due the 20th of the month following the period, and you file even in a period with no sales. One trap sits outside the sales tax entirely: under the Employer Use Tax Return Act any employer that files a District withholding return and is not otherwise registered to collect sales tax must still file an annual use tax return by 20 October, so registering for payroll can create a filing duty you did not ask for.", "source": "https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/47-2026", "confidence": "P" }, "marketplaceFacilitator": { "hasLaw": true, "note": "The District puts the duty squarely on the platform and leaves the seller no wriggle room to argue about it. The statute says marketplace facilitators shall collect and remit sales tax on all sales they make on their own behalf and all sales they facilitate for marketplace sellers to customers in the District, regardless of whether the seller would have had to collect had the sale not been facilitated. It applies as of 1 January 2019. A facilitator is any person providing a marketplace that lists, advertises, stores or processes orders for a seller and directly or indirectly collects payment from the buyer and remits to the seller, whether or not it is paid for the service, which is broad enough to cover platforms that do not think of themselves as marketplaces. Facilitators must register with the Office of Tax and Revenue and file monthly. For the seller the important consequences are on the return rather than in the law: the FR-800 has a Less Marketplace Sales line, so you report the facilitated sales in gross sales and then back them out, and the form validates that marketplace sales never exceed gross sales. And the threshold that decides whether you must register at all is measured on all your retail sales delivered into the District, so sales that Amazon or Etsy already collected on still push you over the line and drag your direct sales into the net.", "source": "https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/47-2002.01a", "confidence": "P" }, "trailingNexus": { "type": "fixed-period", "note": "The District publishes nothing called a trailing nexus policy, but the economic nexus test builds one in by looking backwards at a closed year. A vendor with no physical presence in the District is engaging in business here if, in the previous calendar year or the current calendar year, it had gross receipts from all retail sales delivered into the District exceeding $100,000, or 200 or more separate retail sales delivered into the District. Because the previous-calendar-year limb stands on its own, crossing the line in one year obliges you to collect for the whole of the next year no matter what your sales do, and you only fall out at the following January's measurement. Dropping below the threshold does nothing to the registration itself. The Certificate of Registration stays live and returns stay due until you tick the final return option on an FR-800, which the Office of Tax and Revenue cancels your filing requirement on, and its instructions say to use that option only if you are actually going out of business. So treat deregistration as a separate decision from the threshold test, and expect delinquency notices if you simply stop filing.", "source": "https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/otr/page_content/attachments/2025%20FR800MQA%20instructions%20v1.0%20_Final_08232024.pdf", "confidence": "S" } }, "grossReceiptsTax": { "hasTax": true, "name": "Ballpark fee (sports facilities fee)", "agency": "District of Columbia Office of Tax and Revenue", "url": "https://otr.cfo.dc.gov/page/ballpark-fee", "rateRange": "Not a rate. Four flat annual amounts set by District gross receipts: $5,500 from $5,000,000 to $8,000,000; $10,800 from $8,000,001 to $12,000,000; $14,000 from $12,000,001 to $16,000,000; $16,500 above $16,000,001.", "exclusionThreshold": 5000000, "note": "The ballpark fee, formally the sports facilities fee, is the only District charge measured on gross receipts rather than profit, which is why it sits here rather than either franchise tax. It was created to pay for the Nationals stadium and it is still being collected. It reaches any business that files a District franchise tax return or pays unemployment insurance contributions and has $5 million or more of annual District gross receipts, and it is a flat bracket amount rather than a percentage, remitted on Form FR-1500 through MyTax.DC.gov on or before 15 June each year against a tax year running June to May. Each member of a combined group files and pays its own. Below $5 million you owe nothing, so most readers of this page never touch it, and it is nothing like Washington's business and occupation tax or Ohio's commercial activity tax in shape. What deliberately does NOT sit here is either franchise tax, because both are taxes on net income: the corporate franchise tax and the unincorporated business franchise tax are each 8.25% of District taxable income. Gross receipts still reach into them through the minimum tax, which is $250 if your District gross receipts are $1 million or less and $1,000 if they are more, and is payable even in a loss year. The bigger surprise for anyone expanding into the District is the unincorporated business franchise tax, because it taxes pass-throughs as entities. Any person or entity carrying on a trade or business in the District, or receiving income from District sources, is an unincorporated business and files Form D-30 if gross income exceeds $12,000, and that catches partnerships, limited partnerships, LLCs, sole proprietors, trusts and estates, and an individual whether or not they are a District resident. So a Virginia LLC with District clients can owe an 8.25% entity-level tax it pays nowhere else. Two escapes matter. The D-30 allows a deduction for salaries for the owners' or members' own services, capped at 30% of District net income, plus an exemption of up to $5,000. And a business is outside the tax entirely where more than 80% of gross income comes from personal services actually rendered by the owners or members and capital is not a material income-producing factor, which exempts a lot of consultancies and professional practices. Under $12,000 of gross income you file Form D-30N, an affidavit of gross income, mainly so you can obtain a Certificate of Clean Hands.", "source": "https://code.dccouncil.gov/us/dc/council/code/sections/47-2762", "confidence": "P" }, "foreignQualification": { "agency": "District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division", "url": "https://dlcp.dc.gov/node/1619996", "feeLLC": 220, "feeCorp": 220, "feeNote": "$220 for the Foreign Registration Statement, Form FN-1, and the price is the same for a foreign LLC and a foreign for-profit corporation. The District uses one form and one fee for every for-profit foreign filing entity, including limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, general and limited cooperative associations and statutory trusts, which is unusually simple. A foreign nonprofit pays $80. Amending or withdrawing the registration is another $220, or $80 for a nonprofit. Filing online through CorpOnline is paid by card.", "note": "The District is not a state, so there is no Secretary of State here: you register with the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, the agency formerly called DCRA, and the statutory authority is the Business Organizations Act in Title 29 of the DC Code. There is no deadline in days, only the rule that a foreign filing entity shall not do business in the District until it registers. The safe harbour list is the usual one, and it does cover selling through independent contractors, soliciting orders that require acceptance outside the District, isolated transactions and doing business in interstate commerce. Two things on the FN-1 cost people money. Item 6 asks the date you started or will start transacting business in the District, and the instructions warn that an entity which commenced business previously may be liable for back reports and back fees, and tell you to call the division for exact figures before filing so the application is not rejected for deficiency. And item 11 requires an original certificate of good standing from your home jurisdiction no more than 90 days old, so order it early but not too early. Failing to register is a procedural sanction rather than a fine: your contracts stay valid and you can still defend a suit, but you may not maintain an action or proceeding in a District court until you register, and the Attorney General can sue to enjoin you from doing business. The recurring cost is where the District is expensive: a registered foreign for-profit entity files a biennial report costing $300, plus a $100 late fee, due by 1 April of the year after registration and every second 1 April after that, and omitting the required ownership information can get your registration terminated. Read the FN-1's own warning before you assume you are done, because it says this filing does not license the entity's activity, issue the permit or register it for taxation purposes. A Basic Business License from the same department and an FR-500 with the Office of Tax and Revenue are both still ahead of you.", "source": "https://dlcp.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/DLCP/publication/attachments/FN-1%20Foreign%20Registration%20Statement.pdf", "confidence": "P" }, "reviewed": "2026-09-08" } } }