Oregon payroll setup for your first hire

Oregon takes state income tax from paychecks. Those amounts sit on Combined Payroll Tax with a Business Identification Number, not a second withholding login.

Oregon takes state income tax from paychecks. This is not Texas, Florida, Washington, or Tennessee. Those states do not take state income tax from paychecks. A federal Employee’s Withholding Certificate (Form W-4) is not the Oregon certificate.

DOR is the Oregon Department of Revenue, the income-tax office. The Withholding and Payroll Tax page says every employer with paid employees working in Oregon must register for a Business Identification Number, called BIN, to report and pay Oregon payroll taxes. Corporations without employees must also register to report compensation paid to corporate officers. Oregon uses a Combined Payroll Tax Reporting System. The BIN is the account number on that file. Register online on Revenue Online, or file Form OR-CER, Combined Employer’s Registration. The Department of Revenue says you must register before issuing any paychecks. Online BIN registrations take 30 business days. A paper Combined Employer’s Registration takes 60 business days. Hold that BIN. A federal Employer Identification Number, called FEIN, is not that number. A payroll login is not that account.

Employees complete Form OR-W-4, Oregon Withholding Statement and Exemption Certificate. The 2026 Oregon Withholding Tax Tables say using federal Form W-4 allowances may not withhold the right Oregon amount. The tables send shops to Form OR-W-4 for Oregon allowances. Submit the completed Form OR-W-4 to the employer. Keep it with the payroll file. The Department of Revenue may require a copy when it reviews an exemption or a high allowance claim. The federal W-4 is not that Oregon certificate.

Combined Payroll Tax is not only withholding. The same BIN later carries unemployment, Paid Leave Oregon, the Statewide Transit Tax, the Workers’ Benefit Fund assessment, and, if the work is in those districts, TriMet or Lane Transit District tax. Statewide Transit Tax is often called STT. The Workers’ Benefit Fund is often called WBF. Those lines still sit on the Combined Payroll Tax report. This is not Maryland’s county or Baltimore City tax. Oregon does not add a county income tax on the same withholding file. Local transit and city payroll taxes are separate lines, not a Maryland-style local income tax.

Pay Combined Payroll Tax on Revenue Online. File the quarterly report on Frances Online. Those are two doors after the BIN exists. The withholding number still sits with the Department of Revenue. The unemployment rate still sits with the Employment Department.

When you owe unemployment: $1,000 in a quarter, or one person in 18 weeks

OED is the Oregon Employment Department. That tax is often called SUTA, state unemployment tax, or SUI, state unemployment insurance. The Payroll Tax Frequently Asked Questions restates the regular-shop test. You become a subject employer if you pay $1,000 or more to employees in a calendar quarter, or you have one or more employees in each of 18 weeks during a calendar year. ORS 657.025 prints the same $1,000-quarter or 18-week test. Agricultural shops use a $20,000-quarter or ten-worker, 20-week test. Domestic shops use a $1,000-quarter test that starts at the beginning of that year. This scorecard is the regular-business path.

This is not California’s $100-in-a-quarter test. There is no 15-day California clock on the Employment Department page. Do not copy that clock onto Oregon. This is not Wisconsin’s $1,500-quarter or 20-week test. Do not copy a 20-week clock onto Oregon. Oregon uses 18 weeks. This is not Indiana’s $1 covered-wage test. Do not copy that $1 test onto Oregon. This is not Maryland’s one-worker clock from the first day of business. Maryland also tells shops to file a Combined Registration Application within 20 days of opening. Oregon’s Combined Employer’s Registration is not that Maryland form. Minnesota tells shops not to register unemployment until covered wages have actually been paid. Oregon tells shops to open the BIN before the first paycheck. Oregon does take state paycheck withholding. Do not treat Oregon like a no-withholding state.

The Employment Department assigns the unemployment tax rate to the BIN. Hold the rate on the annual tax-rate notice and on Frances Online. Do not substitute a federal EIN for the BIN. There is no second unemployment account number.

Register the BIN on Revenue Online or Form OR-CER. File later work on Frances Online.

Those are two doors. Revenue Online opens the BIN. Frances Online is the Employment Department portal after the account exists. Frances Online frequently asked questions say Frances replaced the Oregon Payroll Reporting System, called OPRS, and Employer Account Access, called EAA. Frances files unemployment tax, Paid Leave Oregon, the Workers’ Benefit Fund assessment, state withholding, TriMet transit tax, Lane Transit tax, and Statewide Transit Tax. You will need the FEIN and the BIN to create the Frances login. After the account exists, file Form OQ, the Oregon Quarterly Combined Tax Report, and Form 132, the Oregon Employee Detail Report, on Frances Online. A quarterly Form OQ is not the new-hire report.

The Employer Responsibilities page says payroll-tax payments are due the last day of the month after the quarter. Shops that must deposit state withholding once a month or more may also send unemployment with that deposit. Subject employers must post Form 11, the Unemployment Insurance notice, where workers can read it. The Employment Department mails that notice.

The Employment Department’s 2026 tax-rate page prints Tax Schedule 3. The taxable wage base is the first $56,700 of wages a worker earns from that employer in the calendar year. New shops with less than 12 months of reported payroll pay the 2.4% base tax rate. The special payroll tax offset is 0.135% in each 2026 quarter. Use the rate on your tax-rate notice and on Frances Online, not a number from a software page.

Paid Leave Oregon already withholds on a first hire. Small shops still send the employee share.

Paid Leave Oregon is Oregon’s paid family and medical leave program. Vendor pages also call it Paid Family and Medical Leave, or PFML. What employers need to do says every employer must withhold the employee share and send it on the Combined Payroll Tax report. The 2026 contribution rate is 1% of subject wages up to $184,500. Employees pay 60% of that rate. Shops that average 25 or more employees pay the other 40%. Shops under 25 still withhold the employee share. They do not owe the employer share unless they take an assistance grant. That grant puts the employer share on the shop for eight quarters. Count every employee, including people who work in another state, when you size the shop. Paid Leave still rides Frances Online and Form OQ. This is not Minnesota Paid Leave’s 2026 start. This is not Maryland Family and Medical Leave Insurance. Maryland’s FAMLI deductions start in January 2027. Do not copy a later-year start onto an Oregon first hire.

New hire is a 20-day Oregon Child Support Program report. Independent contractors go on the same clock. Form OQ does not take it.

The new-hire report is a list of who you just hired. It is not a box on Form OQ. The Oregon Child Support Program requires a report of a newly hired or rehired employee within 20 days of the hire date. File on the Oregon Employer Services Portal, or send the Oregon New Hire Reporting Form. ORS 25.790 sets that clock. The same statute also requires a report when you engage or reengage an individual independent contractor who must file a federal Form W-9 and who is expected to work more than 20 days. Include the first day of work. A quarterly Form OQ does not satisfy that clock. This is not Massachusetts’s 14-day Department of Revenue report. This is not Georgia’s 10-day report.

Rehires and returns after an unpaid gap of more than 60 days go back on the 20-day clock. Electronic shops that report twice a month keep those files no fewer than 12 days and no more than 16 days apart. The payroll service can send the file. The clock still sits on you.

Workplace injury insurance is due when the first subject worker starts. The Workers’ Compensation Division does not sell the policy.

This is a first-hire policy for ordinary shops. It is not Florida’s four-employee wait. It is not Tennessee’s five-employee wait. It is not Missouri’s five-employee wait. It is not Wisconsin’s three-employee or $500-quarter path. It is not the three-employee-only test used in Georgia, North Carolina, or Virginia. It is not Texas optional coverage. It is not Washington’s exclusive state fund. It is not Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation monopoly. Oregon calls this workers’ compensation.

ORS 656.023 says every employer that employs one or more subject workers in Oregon is a subject employer. ORS 656.017 requires that shop to keep workplace injury insurance in force. The Small Business Ombudsman coverage page says an employer with one or more subject workers must buy a policy. A subject worker is a person you pay to do the work, unless an exemption in ORS 656.027 applies. One part-time person generally requires a policy. WCD is the Workers’ Compensation Division, the office for that coverage. WCD sits with DCBS, the Department of Consumer and Business Services. WCD does not sell that policy.

Ordinary shops buy a licensed private policy, buy a policy from SAIF Corporation, or qualify as self-insured with the Workers’ Compensation Division. SAIF is a state-owned insurance company. It is not an exclusive state fund. Other licensed carriers can write a policy. If carriers deny the application, the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Insurance Plan can assign a licensed insurer. The Workers’ Compensation Division employer pamphlet says WCD regulates SAIF the same way it regulates other carriers. A payroll login is not a policy.

The Workers’ Benefit Fund assessment is not that policy. DCBS prints the 2026 WBF rate as 1.8 cents per hour worked. Employer and worker each pay half. That assessment rides Form OQ. It does not replace the insurance policy.

How Gusto and Patriot describe Oregon

Confirm the live BIN on Revenue Online. Confirm the unemployment rate on Frances Online and on the tax-rate notice. Confirm Paid Leave on the Paid Leave contribution notice. Confirm workplace injury insurance with a licensed carrier, SAIF, or on the Workers’ Compensation Division coverage pages.

Gusto’s Oregon help article says Middesk (Gusto’s business-verification company) may register state income-tax withholding and state unemployment insurance (SUI). It names the Oregon Department of Revenue for withholding and the Oregon Employment Department for unemployment tax. It restates the $1,000-quarter or 18-week unemployment test. It says Middesk’s standard order does not open Paid Leave or local taxes. It then sends shops to Frances Online to track unemployment and Paid Leave. It calls the account number a Business Identification Number and says Gusto uses that one BIN for withholding, unemployment, and Paid Leave. It lists Form OTC, the Combined Payroll Tax Payment Coupon, among Oregon files. The article says a Revenue Online BIN review takes 2 to 10 days. That timeline is what the software page says. The Department of Revenue prints 30 business days for an online BIN and 60 business days for a paper Combined Employer’s Registration. The same article still prints a Paid Leave wage cap of $176,100. That figure is the 2025 Social Security wage index. The Employment Department and Paid Leave Oregon print $184,500 for 2026. Confirm the live numbers on Revenue Online and Frances Online. Confirm the rate on the tax-rate notice. Read Gusto’s Oregon article. See Gusto on the directory.

Patriot’s registration article tells new shops to open Combined Payroll Tax on the state’s one-stop page and hold the BIN for state income tax, state unemployment insurance, the Workers’ Benefit Fund assessment, and TriMet or Lane Transit District tax. The article prints a 2026 new-employer SUTA rate of 2.4%. That same 2.4% sits on the Employment Department tax-rate page. The article also prints a special offset tax of 0.109% for all four quarters. That 0.109% line is what the software page says. The Employment Department’s 2026 rate page prints 0.135% in each quarter. Use the rate on your tax-rate notice, not a number from a software page. The same article tells employees to complete Form OR-W-4 and puts the 20-day new-hire report on the Oregon New Hire Reporting System. The article also says workplace injury insurance is due if you have at least one employee, and that you can sign up through a private provider or a state-operated fund. The first-worker line matches ORS 656.023. The state-operated-fund line is what the software page says. SAIF writes policies. It is not a Washington-style exclusive state fund. The Workers’ Compensation Division does not sell that policy. Read Patriot’s registration article. See Patriot on the directory.

What still sits on the employer

• Decide that you have hit $1,000 in a quarter or one person in 18 weeks. Agricultural, domestic, nonprofit, and sole-officer shops use other tests.
• Complete Revenue Online or Form OR-CER so the Department of Revenue can issue the BIN before the first paycheck. Complete Frances Online so the Employment Department can take Form OQ after the account exists.
• Hold the Business Identification Number. Do not substitute a federal EIN for that number.
• Enter the premium rate from the tax-rate notice, not a marketing figure. The Employment Department prints 2.4% for new shops in 2026. Confirm the live notice and the 0.135% special payroll tax offset.
• File Form OQ and Form 132 on Frances Online after the account exists, even in a zero-wage quarter until the agencies close the file.
• Register Combined Payroll Tax on Revenue Online or Form OR-CER before the first paycheck. Collect Form W-4 and Form OR-W-4. A federal W-4 is not the Oregon certificate.
• Withhold Paid Leave Oregon on the first covered paycheck. Shops under 25 still send the employee share. Do not copy Minnesota’s 2026 start or Maryland’s 2027 start onto Oregon.
• File the 20-day new-hire report with the Oregon Child Support Program. Independent contractors who must file Form W-9 and who will work more than 20 days go on that same clock. Form OQ does not satisfy that clock.
• Buy workplace injury insurance when the first subject worker starts, even part-time. The Workers’ Compensation Division does not sell that policy. Payroll software does not issue that policy.
• Do not copy another state’s clock onto Oregon. Oregon does not use California’s $100-quarter test. Oregon does not use Wisconsin’s $1,500-quarter or 20-week unemployment test. Oregon does not use Indiana’s $1 unemployment test. Oregon does not use Maryland’s one-worker Combined Registration Application clock. Oregon does not wait to register unemployment the way Minnesota waits for covered wages. Oregon does not skip state paycheck withholding the way Texas, Florida, Washington, or Tennessee do. Oregon does not add county income tax the way Maryland does. Oregon does not use Florida’s four-employee workplace-injury wait. Oregon does not use Missouri’s or Tennessee’s five-employee wait. Oregon does not use Wisconsin’s three-employee or $500-quarter path. Oregon does not use the three-employee-only wait used in Georgia, North Carolina, or Virginia. Oregon does not use Washington’s exclusive state fund. Oregon does not use Ohio’s Bureau of Workers’ Compensation monopoly.

Related guide: Employer payroll taxes percentage is the federal share on top of wages. Oregon’s 2026 unemployment wage base is $56,700. Paid Leave Oregon is a separate 1 percent contribution.

Related guide: How to pay tips to employees is the federal tip report. Oregon still withholds state income tax on the paycheck.

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