New York payroll setup for your first hire

One registration covers three payroll jobs

California opens an EDD payroll-tax account. Texas opens a TWC unemployment-tax account and does not withhold state income tax from wages. New York is a third path. One employer registration covers state unemployment insurance (SUI), income-tax withholding, and wage reporting. The Tax Department hiring page and Publication NYS-50 both describe that shared setup.

The mail form for a general business is NYS-100. That is the New York State Employer Registration for Unemployment Insurance, Withholding, and Wage Reporting. Online, general business, household, and agricultural employers use New York Business Express (NYBE). Nonprofits mail NYS-100N. Government and tribal employers use their own mail forms. This scorecard is the general-business path.

When you become a liable employer: $300 in a calendar quarter

Labor Law § 560(1) is the general-business test. You become liable if you paid remuneration of $300 or more in any calendar quarter. Such liability starts on the first day of the calendar quarter. Household domestic work is a separate $500 cash test in the same section. You also become liable the day you succeed to a liable employer. DOL’s who-is-an-employer page and DOL’s register page restate those tests. Publication NYS-50 prints the same table.

This scorecard is the general-business path. Nonprofits use a different statute.

NYS-50 says an employer who begins hiring in New York must notify DOL promptly so liability can be determined. That is not a day-count filing deadline. The $300 quarter date is when liability starts. It is not a register-by clock.

Get a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) from the IRS before you register. DOL says you must have that number first.

NYBE or NYS-100 opens the shared account

Register online at New York Business Express. Mail NYS-100 if you cannot use NYBE. After you register, DOL assigns an eight-digit employer registration number. Use that number on unemployment-insurance correspondence, quarterly returns, and payments. It is not the same as your FEIN.

If you are liable for unemployment insurance, you must electronically file the Quarterly Combined Withholding, Wage Reporting and Unemployment Insurance Return (Form NYS-45). That one return combines unemployment insurance, withholding, and wage reporting. File it through the Tax Department’s Online Services. DOL’s register page and NYS-50 both name that return.

NYS-50 and DOL’s NYS-45 page say the 2026 UI taxable wage base is $17,600. Use the rate on the DOL notice, not a number from a software page.

NYS-50 says the New York State, New York City, and Yonkers identification number is the same as your federal EIN if the IRS assigned one. A two-digit suffix is assigned when you report as separate entities. Use that NYS-50 format. These pages do not print other format rules.

New employees use the Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate (Form IT-2104). See the Tax Department hiring page.

New hire is a Tax Department report, 20 calendar days

The Tax Department new-hire page requires you to report newly hired and rehired employees. The report is due within 20 calendar days of the hiring date. That date is the first day paid services are performed, or the first day a commission-only worker is eligible to earn commissions. Tax Law § 171-h uses the same twenty-calendar-day clock. Electronic filers send two monthly reports, 12 to 16 days apart, if needed.

You can file at the New York New Hire Online Reporting Center. A copy of IT-2104 may be used. The agency table lists a $20 penalty times the number of employees not reported. Independent contractors with contracts over $2,500 must also be reported. That contractor rule is effective January 1, 2022 on the agency page.

Workplace injury insurance is required for most private employers with employees

This is the opposite of Texas. Most private Texas employers may choose. New York does not treat that coverage as optional once you have employees.

WCB’s coverage page says virtually all employers must provide workers’ compensation for employees. That cites Workers’ Compensation Law (WCL) § 2 and § 3. You must post notice of coverage. That is WCL § 51. A sole proprietor with employees, including part-time workers, family members, and volunteers in a for-profit, must cover them. A sole proprietor with no employees is not required to buy a policy. Voluntary coverage is allowed.

Disability benefits and Paid Family Leave are a different clock. WCB’s disability page says a covered employer is one with one or more employees on each of at least 30 days in a calendar year. Coverage is due after four weeks following the 30th day. That is WCL § 202. Those 30 days need not be consecutive. Do not treat this as a first-day-of-hire policy. A payroll login does not buy workers’ compensation, disability, or Paid Family Leave coverage.

How Gusto and Patriot describe New York

Confirm the live registration number with DOL. Confirm the live withholding account on Tax Department Online Services. Confirm workplace injury insurance on WCB.

Gusto’s New York help article says Middesk (Gusto’s business-verification company) may register state income-tax withholding and state unemployment insurance (SUI). After you register with DOL, the article says you are also registered with the Tax Department. Gusto still asks you to enter the employer registration number and the unemployment-insurance rate from Form IA 97. The same article lists NYS-45, NYS-1, and a new-hire report among filings. It mentions PrompTax and the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax (MCTMT). It also says New York requires disability, family leave, and workers’ compensation. Gusto describes the withholding number as your FEIN plus a suffix. Prefer NYS-50’s language over that format note. Read Gusto’s article. See Gusto on the directory.

Patriot’s registration article says to register online with the Department of Labor for both state income-tax withholding (SIT) and state unemployment insurance (SUI). It names NYS-1 and NYS-45, and it tells you to collect IT-2104. Patriot’s tax table says Full Service files SUI on NYS-45 and files state, New York City, and Yonkers withholding. It calculates Paid Family Leave and disability only. It does not calculate or file MCTMT. Use the unemployment-insurance rate on your DOL notice, not a number from a software page. Read Patriot’s registration article and Patriot’s tax table. See Patriot on the directory.

What still sits on the employer

• Decide that the $300-quarter test, or a successor test, has been met.
• Hold a FEIN before you register.
• File NYBE or NYS-100. Nonprofits mail NYS-100N.
• Hold the eight-digit employer registration number DOL assigns. Do not treat the FEIN as that number.
• Enter the unemployment-insurance rate from the DOL notice, not a marketing figure.
• File NYS-45 electronically on Tax Department Online Services.
• Collect IT-2104. File the Tax Department new-hire report within 20 calendar days.
• Buy workplace injury insurance if you have employees. Payroll software does not issue that policy.

Related guide: Hiring your first employee lists the federal forms that sit next to the one NYS-100 registration.

Related guide: Can I do my own payroll? covers the federal payday and deposit work that sits next to Form NYS-45.

Related guide: Independent contractor vs employee is the federal label check before the one NYS-100 registration.

Related guide: Best payroll software for small business is a checklist for grading a product against the one NYS-100 registration.

Related guide: How to pay employees is the paycheck that sits next to Form IT-2104.

Related guide: How to pay tips to employees is the federal tip report that sits next to Form IT-2104.

Related guide: How to run payroll is the federal payday that sits next to Form IT-2104 and Form NYS-45.

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