Georgia payroll setup for your first hire

Two portals. GTC is not the GDOL Employer Portal.

Georgia takes state income tax from paychecks. DOR collects that withholding. GDOL collects state unemployment tax. That tax is often called SUTA, state unemployment tax, or SUI, state unemployment insurance. You register those two accounts on different sites.

DOR’s tax-registration page sends withholding to GTC. GDOL’s unemployment FAQ sends the unemployment account to GDOL. New private shops file Online Employer Tax Registration. Later work happens on the GDOL Employer Portal. A GTC login is not a GDOL account. A payroll login is not either account.

When you owe unemployment tax: $1,500 in a quarter, or one person in 20 weeks

GDOL’s FAQ is enough by itself for a regular shop. You are generally liable if you have a quarterly payroll of $1,500, or at least one worker in 20 different calendar weeks during a calendar year. O.C.G.A. § 34-8-33 is the same regular-business test. One of those two tests is enough.

Other tests sit on that FAQ and in the same statute. Agricultural employers use $20,000 in a quarter, or ten workers in 20 weeks. Domestic service uses $1,000 in a quarter. This scorecard is the regular-business path.

This is not Pennsylvania’s one-worker clock. Pennsylvania starts unemployment compensation on the first covered worker. Georgia still uses the $1,500-quarter or 20-week test. Do not copy Pennsylvania onto Georgia. Do not copy a one-portal start-up onto Georgia either. Some states open withholding and unemployment on one file. Georgia uses two portals.

File the Application for GDOL Tax Account or Status Change (DOL-1A) after the first payroll

GDOL decides liability from the facts you send. The form on the FAQ is the Application for GDOL Tax Account or Status Change (DOL-1A). GDOL says all employing units with individuals performing services in Georgia should complete DOL-1A immediately following the payment of the first Georgia payroll. New private, agricultural, and domestic shops can file that application as Online Employer Tax Registration.

Nonprofits, ownership changes, mergers, reactivations, and asset purchases use a different paper. That paper is the Employer Status Report (DOL-1N). GDOL’s unemployment-tax page names those cases. Government shops use a separate form, the Application for Account Registration of Governmental Organizations (DOL-1G).

After GDOL finds you liable, hold the GDOL account number and the total tax rate on the GDOL notice. Use that number on reports and payments. Do not substitute a federal EIN. New or newly covered employers are assigned a total tax rate of 2.70 percent until they are eligible for an experience rate. Taxes are due only on the first $9,500 of wages paid to each worker in the calendar year. That is the taxable wage base on GDOL’s FAQ and the quarterly-report page. Use the rate on that notice, not a number from a software page.

GDOL’s quarterly-report page is the filing clock. Liable employers file tax and wage reports for each quarter they are in business. Reports and any payment are due April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. File on the Employer Portal. The quarterly form is the Employer’s Quarterly Tax and Wage Report (DOL-4N). You report all wages. You pay tax only on that $9,500 wage base. Late reports may bring a penalty of $20 or 0.05 percent of gross payroll, whichever is greater, for each month or fraction of a month the report stays late. That is the FAQ’s figure. A quarterly wage report is not the new-hire report.

Register withholding on the Georgia Tax Center. The number often arrives in about 15 minutes.

Georgia withholds state income tax from paychecks. DOR’s tax-registration page cites O.C.G.A. § 48-7-100(4). Any business that has employees as that section defines them must register for a withholding payroll number. Register on GTC. After an online submission, DOR says you should receive the tax account number by email within 15 minutes. DOR’s new-business page repeats that email clock. DOR’s withholding-number page sends the same job to GTC.

That withholding number stays in effect as long as the business has employees whose wages are subject to Georgia income tax withholding. It does not need a yearly renewal. Collect the Georgia Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate (G-4) from each worker. File the withholding return (G-7) on the schedule DOR assigns. The year-end transmittal is the Income Statement Transmittal (G-1003). A GTC withholding number is not a GDOL unemployment account.

New hire is a 10-day report. A DOL-4N does not satisfy it.

The new-hire report is a list of who you just hired. It is not a box on the quarterly tax and wage report. O.C.G.A. § 19-11-9.2 requires the report within ten days of the hiring, rehiring, or return to work. Georgia New Hire Reporting Center’s FAQ restates that clock. Report newly hired and re-hired employees who reside or work in Georgia. Independent contractors are welcomed. The law does not require those contractor reports.

File at ga-newhire.com. A quarterly GDOL wage report does not satisfy that clock. The Center says quarterly wages become available two to six months after the hire date.

Workplace injury insurance starts at three regular employees

This is not a first-hire policy. It is also not Florida’s four-employee wait. Georgia treats coverage as due when you regularly employ three or more persons in the same Georgia business.

SBWC’s insurance FAQ is the agency rule. Part-time and seasonal workers count when they are how you regularly do business. If the shop is a corporation or an LLC, officers or members count toward the three. As many as five officers or members may waive coverage on the officer or member waiver (Form WC-10). That waiver does not remove them from the count. Sole proprietors and partners are employers, not employees, unless they elect coverage in writing. O.C.G.A. § 34-9-2 and Title 34, Chapter 9 are the statute. Narrow exclusions, including farm laborers and domestic servants, sit on that section and on SBWC’s coverage-verification page.

SBWC does not sell insurance. Georgia has no state fund. Buy a policy from a licensed private carrier, or use the assigned-risk plan administered by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI). Ordinary first-hire shops do not self-insure. A payroll login is not a policy.

How Gusto and Patriot describe Georgia

Confirm the live withholding number on GTC. Confirm the unemployment account and rate on the GDOL Employer Portal. Confirm workplace injury insurance with a carrier or on SBWC’s verification page.

Gusto’s Georgia help article says Middesk (Gusto’s business-verification company) may register state income-tax withholding and state unemployment insurance (SUI). Confirm the live numbers on GTC and the GDOL Employer Portal. Confirm the rate on the GDOL notice. Gusto also asks you to give it third-party authorization with DOR so it can amend withholding reports. Gusto’s Georgia forms list names the withholding return (G-7), the Income Statement Transmittal (G-1003), the Employer’s Quarterly Tax and Wage Report (DOL-4N), and a Georgia new-hire report. Read Gusto’s Georgia article and Gusto’s forms list. See Gusto on the directory.

Patriot’s tax table says Full Service files Georgia Unemployment Insurance (SUI or SUTA) on Form DOL-4N. It also files the administrative assessment on that same quarterly form. It files Georgia income-tax withholding on Form G-7 and Form G-1003. Patriot’s registration article tells you to open withholding on GTC and unemployment on GDOL, including DOL-1A. It does not claim Patriot opens those accounts. The article prints a 2.7 percent new-employer SUTA rate. Use the rate on your GDOL notice, not a number from a software page. The same article says workplace injury insurance is due at three employees through a private provider or a state-operated fund. SBWC says it does not sell insurance and Georgia has no state fund. Read Patriot’s article. See Patriot on the directory.

What still sits on the employer

• Decide that the $1,500-quarter test, or the 20-week test, has been met. Household and agricultural shops use other tests.
• File DOL-1A, or Online Employer Tax Registration, after the first Georgia payroll so GDOL can determine unemployment liability.
• Hold the GDOL employer account number. Do not substitute a federal EIN.
• Enter the total tax rate from the GDOL notice, not a marketing figure.
• File DOL-4N on the Employer Portal each quarter you are in business.
• Register withholding on GTC for employees under O.C.G.A. § 48-7-100(4). Collect G-4. File G-7. File the annual G-1003.
• File the Georgia new-hire report within 10 days of hire or rehire. A quarterly DOL-4N does not satisfy that clock.
• Buy workplace injury insurance when you regularly employ three or more people. Officers and LLC members count toward the three even if they waive coverage. Payroll software does not issue that policy.
• Do not copy another state’s clock onto Georgia. Georgia uses two portals. Georgia does not use Pennsylvania’s one-worker unemployment clock. Georgia does not wait for Florida’s four-employee workplace-injury rule.

Related guide: Hiring your first employee lists the federal forms that sit next to the 10-day new-hire report.

Related guide: Best payroll software for small business is a checklist for grading a product against the 10-day new-hire report and the two portals.

Related guide: How to run payroll is the federal payday that still needs Form G-4 before Georgia withholding.

Also forming a company in Georgia? Process Score compares registered agents there.