Maine payroll setup for your first hire

Register paycheck withholding with Maine Revenue Services.

Maine takes state income tax from paychecks. The income-tax office is Maine Revenue Services. This is not Alaska, where there is no state paycheck-withholding account. A federal Employee’s Withholding Certificate (Form W-4) still sits with the IRS. Maine also has Form W-4ME, the Employee’s Maine Withholding Allowance Certificate. The 2026 employment-tax forms page lists Form W-4ME, Form 941ME, and Form 900ME. Withholding tables on that page were revised in August 2026.

The withholding FAQ sends a new business to the Maine Tax Portal. The portal path is Register a New Business, then Start Here. A paper Application for Tax Registration is also a door. The 2025 central registration booklet says you generally withhold Maine income tax if you must withhold federal income tax on payments that are subject to tax in Maine. That covers a Maine resident and a nonresident. The portal home is revenue.maine.gov.

The quarterly return is Form 941ME, the Employer’s Return of Maine Income Tax Withholding. The 2026 Form 941ME instructions, revised December 2025, say file each quarter even if you withheld no tax. The first quarter of 2026, January 1 through March 31, is due April 30, 2026. The second quarter is due July 31, 2026. The third quarter is due November 2, 2026. The fourth quarter is due February 1, 2027. Most employers pay by the return due date. An employer that reported Maine withholding of $18,000 or more for the 12 months ending June 30, 2025 pays semiweekly and pays electronically. That rule is Maine Revenue Services Rule 102. Semiweekly means wages paid Wednesday through Friday are due the following Wednesday. Wages paid Saturday through Tuesday are due the following Friday.

The same 2025 booklet says a quarterly remittance schedule applies to all first-year income-tax withholding. In a later year, semiweekly starts when the July-through-June lookback is $18,000 or more. The lookback for calendar year 2026 is July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. A shop hiring its first employee in 2026 has no such lookback. Both sources put that first year on the quarterly schedule. The 2026 instructions also say the annual reconciliation, Form W-3ME, is no longer required. Rule 104 says electronic filing is generally required. The phone on the instructions is (207) 624-7661.

Interest on withholding, beginning January 1, 2026, is 9 percent per year, compounded monthly. Failure to pay is 1 percent per month, up to 25 percent. Failure to file is 10 percent of the tax or $25, whichever is greater. More than 60 days after a formal demand, the penalty is the greater of $25 or 25 percent of the tax due. Unemployment interest is a different percent. It is in the unemployment section below. Do not use one interest rate for both taxes.

Unemployment starts at $1,500 in a quarter, or one person in 20 weeks.

The unemployment tax is often called SUTA, state unemployment tax, or SUI, state unemployment insurance. Official pages say unemployment contributions, or the unemployment premium. The office is the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation in the Department of Labor. It is not Maine Revenue Services. It is not New Hampshire Employment Security. It is not Alaska Employment Security Tax.

26 M.R.S. § 1043(9) defines a regular employer in two ways. During any calendar quarter in the current or preceding calendar year, the employer paid wages of $1,500 or more. Or, for some portion of a day in each of 20 different weeks in the current or preceding calendar year, the employer had one or more people in employment. The weeks need not be in a row. The same person need not work each day. The unemployment glossary prints the same $1,500-quarter or 20-week test.

The 2023 registration booklet prints other paths. A domestic employer uses $1,000 in a quarter. A nonprofit under section 501(c)(3) uses four people in 20 weeks. An agricultural employer uses $20,000 in a quarter, or ten people in 20 weeks. An out-of-state employer is subject the first day employees work in Maine. Government, a successor, a partial acquisition, an employer already liable for the federal unemployment tax, and a commonly controlled unit can be liable immediately. This scorecard is the regular-business path.

The 2026 ReEmployME employer portal guide says you must register with the Bureau of Unemployment Compensation. It repeats the $1,500 and 20-week tests. It also says a future date cannot be used to set up an account. The guide does not print a 10-day, 15-day, 20-day, or 30-day registration deadline. The online door is ReEmployME, at maine.gov/reemployme. The employer page is the public door to that tax. Hold the account number the office assigns. Do not substitute a federal Employer Identification Number, called an EIN, for that number. The withholding account is a different number.

This is not California’s $100-in-a-quarter test. There is no 15-day California registration clock on these pages. This is not Alaska’s rule that one person working any part of a day starts the tax. This is not Vermont’s Child Care Contribution. That Vermont item sits on a withholding return. Maine’s extra unemployment percents sit on the unemployment rate, and they are a different statute.

In 2026 the wage base is $12,000. The rate array prints a combined 2.54 percent.

The employer page says the unemployment premium is paid on the first $12,000 only of gross wages paid to a person in a calendar year. 26 M.R.S. § 1043(19) says the same thing for the contribution. Wages do not include pay above the first $12,000 in a calendar year, unless a federal tax credit rule pulls that pay back in. Kentucky also uses a $12,000 unemployment wage base. Kentucky’s new-employer rate on that base is 2.7 percent. Do not copy the Kentucky rate onto Maine.

The 2026 rate array prints the new-employer line in one sentence. The new-employer rate is 2.23 percent, plus the Competitive Skills Scholarship Fund, called CSSF, at 0.14 percent, plus the Unemployment Program Administrative Fund, called UPAF, at 0.17 percent, for a combined rate of 2.54 percent. Experienced employers on that array run from a combined 0.31 percent to a combined 6.60 percent. Category 1 is an adjusted unemployment rate of 0.00 percent, plus 0.14 percent, plus 0.17 percent. Category 20 is an adjusted unemployment rate of 6.29 percent, plus the same 0.14 percent and 0.17 percent. Use the rate on your notice and on this array. Do not use a secondary range that says 0.5 percent to 6.4 percent.

A Department of Labor news release says Schedule A is the lowest schedule, the wage base is $12,000, and the average tax is $267.60 for an employee paid at least $12,000. 2.23 percent of $12,000 is $267.60. That dollar amount matches the unemployment piece on the new-employer line. It is not 2.54 percent of the wage base. The news release is an average on the experienced schedule. The new-employer cash rate on the array is the combined 2.54 percent.

The 2026 Form ME UC-1 instructions say the wage base again: the first $12,000 of gross earnings. File the quarterly return even when you paid no wages. That is a no-employment return. Electronic filing on ReEmployME is recommended. Paper is still allowed. The phone numbers on those instructions are (207) 621-5120 and (844) 754-3508. Interest on this unemployment tax, beginning January 1, 2026, is 10 percent per year, compounded monthly. Withholding interest for the same date is 9 percent. Failure to pay this tax is 1 percent per month, up to 25 percent. Failure to file is 10 percent of the tax or $25, whichever is greater. More than 60 days after a demand, the penalty is the greater of $25 or 25 percent of the tax due.

The statutes and the 2026 rate array do not use the same sentence for the two add-on funds.

Read both. Do not collapse them into one rate story.

26 M.R.S. § 1166 is the Competitive Skills Scholarship Fund. The planned yield is 0.034 percent of total wages. The predetermined yield is rounded to the nearest 0.01 percent. Each contributing employer pays it. An employer that pays benefits directly, instead of contributions, does not. Subsection 8 says these contributions are not part of the unemployment contribution rate under section 1221. It also says unemployment contributions are reduced by a percentage equal to the CSSF assessment. That reduction has exceptions for new-employer rates and for category 20, described in section 1221.

26 M.R.S. § 1167 is the Unemployment Program Administrative Fund. The planned yield is 0.04 percent of total wages. It is payable beginning January 1, 2021, in the same manner as contributions. It is not credited to the experience rating.

26 M.R.S. § 1221(4-A) sets a standard rate of 5.4 percent. A new contributing employer pays the greater of the predetermined yield or 1.0 percent until the experience record has been chargeable for 24 consecutive calendar months. Beginning January 1, 2008, that contribution rate is reduced by the CSSF predetermined yield, except not below 1 percent. Beginning January 1, 2021, it is also reduced by the UPAF predetermined yield, except not below 1 percent.

The 2026 rate array does not say “reduced by.” It says the new-employer rate is 2.23 percent plus 0.14 percent plus 0.17 percent, combined 2.54 percent. Section 1166 says the fund is not part of the unemployment rate, with an exception for new employers. Section 1221 still reduces the new-employer rate by those yields, and not below 1 percent. The planned yields in the statutes are percents of total wages. The 0.14 percent and 0.17 percent on the array are the rates in the 2026 contribution table. Use the combined 2.54 percent on the live array as the new-employer cash rate. Keep the statute sentences next to it. They are not the same wording.

Withholding and unemployment do not share one due-date calendar.

The 2026 Form ME UC-1 instructions say the unemployment return is due the last day of the month after the quarter. April 30, July 31, October 31, and January 31. The 2026 Form 941ME instructions use April 30 and July 31 for the first two quarters. They use November 2, 2026 for the third quarter and February 1, 2027 for the fourth quarter. A quarterly unemployment report does not close the withholding return. A withholding return does not close the unemployment report. A payroll login is not either filing.

New hire is a 7-day file with the Department of Health and Human Services.

The new-hire report is a list of who you just hired. It is not a box on Form ME UC-1. It is not a box on Form 941ME. In Maine that report goes to the Department of Health and Human Services, called DHHS, for child-support enforcement. The unemployment office points you there. It does not take the 7-day file itself.

19-A M.R.S. § 2154 says report to the department within 7 days of the date the person first performs services for pay. A newly hired employee is someone who was separated for at least 60 days in a row, or someone the employer never employed. The report can be a Form W-4, by mail, fax, magnetic media, or another agreed method. The statute lists the employee’s name, address, Social Security number, date of birth, and the most recent date services were first performed. It lists the employer’s name, address, and the employment-security number or unified business identifier. An independent contractor is reported when reimbursement is expected to reach $2,500. That report is due within 7 days of the earlier of two dates: payments that add up to $2,500, or a contract for that amount. The first violation is a written warning. A later violation can be up to $200 per month. All violations in one month count as one violation. The statute does not say a termination is a report.

The DHHS new-hire FAQ says report within 7 days of hire or rehire and cites that statute. An employer with more than 25 new hires must report electronically. The Department of Labor new-hire page says the same 7 days, and it sends the file to DHHS. The portal is me-newhire.com. Mail goes to P.O. Box 463, Norwell, MA 02061. The phone is (888) 641-0037. The fax is (888) 334-3760. The quarterly wage report does not satisfy the 7-day clock.

The 2026 Form ME UC-1 instructions and the 2026 Form 941ME instructions use a wider sentence. They say report to DHHS within 7 days of a person who is newly hired, rehired, or terminated. They also say to report an independent contractor at $2,500. They list extra fields, including a phone number and the federal employer number. That “terminated” line is in the agency instructions. It is not in the statute’s definition of a newly hired employee. Keep both. A hire, and a rehire after 60 days, is the statute. The 2026 booklets also tell you to report a termination.

This is not Vermont’s 10-day report to the Department of Labor. This is not Alaska’s 20-day report to the Child Support Enforcement Division. This is not a 20-day clock. This is not Alabama’s 7-day report to a workforce agency. Maine’s 7-day file goes to DHHS through the new-hire center.

Workplace injury insurance is due from the first employee in a regular shop.

Maine calls this workers’ compensation. It is a policy you buy, or approved self-insurance. It is not North Dakota’s exclusive state fund. It is not Washington’s exclusive state fund. It is not Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation monopoly. It is not Texas optional coverage. It is not Wyoming’s extra-hazardous state fund. The unemployment account does not sell this policy. The Workers’ Compensation Board does not sell it either.

39-A M.R.S. § 401 says every private employer shall secure compensation for employees. That includes an independent contractor who hires and pays employees. The employer buys a workers’ compensation policy or self-insures under section 403. Section 403 allows an approved policy, approved self-insurance, or an approved group. The listed exemptions are narrow. Domestic service is out. Some seasonal or casual agriculture and aquaculture is out when liability insurance and medical payments meet the statute’s dollar floors, and when the headcount or hours stay under the statute’s lines. A regular shop with one employee is in. There is no three-employee or five-employee wait.

The Bureau of Insurance employer guide says almost all public and private employers must have coverage. A sole proprietor with no employees is not required to cover that owner. A sole proprietor who has employees must cover those employees. The board can penalize a failure. 39-A M.R.S. § 324 says a knowing failure can be a Class D crime. The civil penalty is up to $10,000, or 108 percent of the premium, whichever is larger. That premium math uses the Maine Employers’ Mutual Insurance Company standard discounted standard premium. That company, often called MEMIC, is named in the penalty formula. The statute does not say MEMIC is the only carrier. It does not send a regular shop to an exclusive state fund.

Paid family leave is a separate premium. A one-employee shop is on the small-employer path.

Paid Family and Medical Leave, called PFML, is not unemployment tax. It is not earned paid leave. Contributions started in 2025. The July 2026 employer FAQ says benefits are scheduled to begin May 1, 2026. The program home is maine.gov/paidleave. You remit on the Maine Paid Leave portal. The premium uses wages like unemployment wages, then stops at the Social Security wage cap. An employee premium chart prints the 2026 cap as $184,500. That chart is an employee estimate. It is not the employer statute. At 0.5 percent, the chart shows $922.50 for a year at that cap.

26 M.R.S. § 850-F says premiums start January 1, 2025, and are remitted quarterly. The combined premium may not be more than 1.0 percent of wages. An employer with 15 or more employees may deduct up to 50 percent of the premium from the employee and must remit 100 percent of the combined premium. An employer with fewer than 15 may deduct up to 50 percent of the premium required by subsection 3, and must remit 50 percent of the premium required by subsection 3.

The July 2026 FAQ uses different words for 2025, 2026, and 2027. It says the joint rate is 0.5 percent or 1 percent, based on size. No more than 0.5 percent may come from the employee. An employer with 15 or more contributes 1 percent and may deduct up to half. An employer with fewer than 15 contributes 0.5 percent and may deduct the entire amount. Those two small-employer sentences are not the same. The statute talks about 50 percent of a premium that subsection 3 caps at 1.0 percent, and about remitting 50 percent. The FAQ talks about a 0.5 percent contribution and a full deduction of that 0.5 percent. Keep both.

Size is counted on the FAQ’s clock. An employer has 15 or more covered employees when 15 or more covered employees are on the payroll, per federal employer number, in 20 or more calendar workweeks in the 12 months before September 30. Count the size on October 1 for the next calendar year. Report the count at the first registration on the Maine Paid Leave portal, and again on the third-quarter wage report. Count full-time, part-time, temporary, and intermittent workers, and workers on paid sick or paid holiday time. A shop hiring its first employee in 2026, with fewer than 15 on the lookback that ended September 30, 2025, is on the small-employer path for calendar year 2026. Do not put that shop on the 1 percent line.

Earned paid leave waits for more than 10 employees. A retirement program waits for five employees and two years.

Earned paid leave is time off. It is not a payroll tax. It is not PFML. 26 M.R.S. § 637 says an employer that employs more than 10 employees, in the usual and regular course of business, for more than 120 days in any calendar year, must allow earned paid leave. Employees earn 1 hour per 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours in one year of employment. Accrual starts at hire. Use is not required before the employee has been employed 120 days during a one-year period. Unused hours carry over, and that carryover cannot cut the next year’s chance to earn up to 40 hours. A seasonal industry under the unemployment seasonal rule is excluded. The Department of Labor earned-paid-leave page says the law took effect January 1, 2021, and that leave can be used for any reason. A shop with one employee is under the “more than 10” line.

The Maine Retirement Investment Trust, called MERIT, is a retirement program. It is not a payroll tax. The Treasurer’s page says an employer with five or more Maine employees, that has been in business for two years, must register at meritsaves.com if it does not offer a workplace retirement plan. The page also says employers who met the rule and did not register in 2024 face fines in 2025, and that an employer newly meeting the rule in 2025 had to register by June 30, 2025. 5 M.R.S. § 173 says a covered employer offers the program no later than December 31, 2024. An employer with fewer than five employees is not required to offer it, and may still offer it. A first hire is not that group. The Treasurer’s page does not print a separate 2026 registration deadline for a brand-new one-employee shop.

How Gusto and Patriot describe Maine

Confirm the withholding account on the Maine Tax Portal and the rate on Form 941ME. Confirm the unemployment account, the $12,000 wage base, and the combined rate on the 2026 rate array and on your notice. Confirm workplace injury insurance with a policy or approved self-insurance. Confirm the 7-day new-hire file with the Department of Health and Human Services. That file does not go on Form ME UC-1.

Gusto’s Maine help article is the registration page. Gusto’s forms list says Gusto files Form ME UC-1, a form it calls 941/C1-ME for a combined filing of income-tax withholding and unemployment contributions, Form ME PFML-1, Form W-3ME, a state Form W-2, a Maine new-hire report, and Form 900ME. The 2026 Form 941ME instructions use Form 941ME for withholding. Unemployment is Form ME UC-1. Those are separate returns. The same instructions say Form W-3ME is no longer required. The forms list does not print the 7-day DHHS clock. Gusto’s withholding-forms article says Maine Form W-4ME must be signed outside Gusto. Read Gusto’s Maine help article, Gusto’s forms list, and Gusto’s withholding-forms article. See Gusto on the directory.

Patriot’s registration article says one Maine Employer Registration Internet System returns both the unemployment number and the withholding number by mail. The 2026 agency doors are two portals. Withholding is the Maine Tax Portal. Unemployment is ReEmployME. Paid family leave is a third registration, on the state paid-leave portal. The article prints the 2026 new-employer combined rate of 2.54 percent as 2.23 percent plus 0.14 percent CSSF plus 0.17 percent UPAF. Those three percents match the 2026 rate array. The article says to enter only 2.23 percent, because the software calculates CSSF and UPAF. The article says employees complete Form W-4ME and a federal Form W-4. That form pair matches the withholding forms page. The article puts the new-hire report with the Maine Division of Support Enforcement and Recovery within 7 days of hire or rehire. The 7-day clock matches the statute. The live office name on the state pages is the Department of Health and Human Services and the Maine New Hire Reporting Center. The article does not print the 60-day separation or the $2,500 contractor line. The article says workplace injury insurance is due with at least one employee, through a private provider or a state-operated fund. The one-employee line matches section 401 for a regular shop. The state-operated-fund line does not. Section 401 says buy a policy or qualify to self-insure. The article also prints a 2027 minimum-wage dollar amount. Use the Department of Labor wage page for the minimum wage. This tax file uses the rate array and the withholding instructions, not that wage figure. Read Patriot’s registration article. See Patriot on the directory.

Patriot’s taxes article says full service files Form ME UC-1 for unemployment, CSSF, and UPAF, and files paid-leave premiums quarterly. It also says withholding is “Form ME 941,” monthly or quarterly, plus Form W-3ME as an annual reconciliation. The 2026 Form 941ME instructions are a quarterly return, with semiweekly payments only after the $18,000 lookback. They say Form W-3ME is no longer required. “Monthly” is not the 2026 Form 941ME schedule. Read Patriot’s Maine taxes article. Patriot’s paid-leave article says contributions began January 1, 2025, benefits begin May 1, 2026, and a shop with at least one Maine employee registers on the state site. The May 1, 2026 date matches the July 2026 FAQ. Use the statute and that FAQ for the small-employer percent. They do not use the same sentence. Read Patriot’s paid-leave article.

What still sits on the employer

• Register withholding with Maine Revenue Services on the Maine Tax Portal, or on the paper Application for Tax Registration. Have each employee complete Form W-4ME and a federal Form W-4. A first-year account remits quarterly on Form 941ME. In 2026 the third quarter is due November 2 and the fourth quarter is due February 1. Semiweekly payments start after an $18,000 lookback. A new shop does not have that lookback. Form W-3ME is no longer required.
• Register unemployment with the Department of Labor on ReEmployME when you hit $1,500 in a quarter or one person in 20 weeks. A future date cannot open the account. The pages do not print a 10-day, 15-day, 20-day, or 30-day registration deadline. Hold the account number the office assigns. Do not substitute a federal EIN, or the withholding number, for that account.
• For 2026, the taxable wage base is $12,000. The rate array prints a new-employer combined rate of 2.54 percent: 2.23 percent plus 0.14 percent CSSF plus 0.17 percent UPAF. The statutes also say those assessments reduce the unemployment rate, and not below 1 percent for a new employer. Enter the rate on your notice. File Form ME UC-1 each quarter, including a no-employment quarter. Unemployment due dates are the last day of the next month, including October 31 and January 31. Unemployment interest for 2026 is 10 percent. Withholding interest for 2026 is 9 percent.
• File the new-hire report with the Department of Health and Human Services within 7 days. The statute covers a hire and a rehire after 60 days. The 2026 unemployment and withholding instructions also say to report a termination. Report an independent contractor when pay is expected to reach $2,500. More than 25 new hires go by electronic file. Form ME UC-1 does not satisfy that clock.
• Buy workplace injury insurance before employees work, from an insurer, or qualify to self-insure. A regular shop does not wait for a headcount. The statute does not send that shop to an exclusive state fund. MEMIC is a name in the penalty formula. It is not the only carrier.
• Register Paid Family and Medical Leave on the Maine Paid Leave portal. A shop under 15 employees is on the small-employer path for 2026. The July 2026 FAQ prints 0.5 percent for 2025 through 2027 and says the employer may deduct that whole amount. The statute’s small-employer sentence is 50 percent of the subsection 3 premium, remitted at 50 percent. Benefits are scheduled to begin May 1, 2026. Do not treat this premium as unemployment tax.
• Earned paid leave applies after more than 10 employees for more than 120 days in a year. Accrual is 1 hour per 40 hours worked, up to 40 hours. A one-employee shop is not in that group. MERIT applies at five or more Maine employees after two years in business, if you do not already offer a workplace retirement plan. A first hire is not that group.
• Do not copy another state’s clock onto Maine. Maine does not use California’s $100-quarter test. Maine does not use a 15-day California registration clock. Maine does not use Alaska’s rule of no paycheck withholding. Maine does not use Alaska’s 0.50 percent employee unemployment share. Maine does not use Vermont’s Child Care Contribution. Maine does not use Vermont’s 10-day new-hire report. Maine does not use a 20-day new-hire clock. Maine does not use Kentucky’s 2.7 percent new-employer rate, even though both states use a $12,000 wage base. Maine does not use North Dakota’s exclusive state fund. Maine does not use Washington’s exclusive state fund. Maine does not use Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation monopoly. Maine does not use Texas optional coverage. Maine does not use Wyoming’s extra-hazardous state fund.

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