Guide
Hired an employee in a new state?
Payroll already runs where you started. This hire is the leftover job: a withholding account and an unemployment account in the new state, often at two different agencies, before the first pay run. We open those accounts and hand you the numbers. $180 per state, plus state fees at cost. You keep the client. We never email them.
What has to happen, in order
§01
Check whether the entity has to register with the state first.
Several states expect a company to be registered to do business there, often called a foreign qualification, before it employs anyone. Where that applies it comes first, because the tax registrations can depend on it. This is a Secretary of State filing, separate from anything tax related, and it is the step most often discovered last. We do not file it. Your CPA or counsel handles that, and we open the tax accounts once the entity can be registered.
§02
Open a state withholding account.
In most states you withhold state income tax based on where the employee performs the work, not where your office is. That means a withholding account with the employee's state, opened before the first pay run. In states that do not withhold state income tax from wages, this step disappears and the unemployment account is the payroll tax registration.
§03
Open a state unemployment account.
Unemployment insurance is almost always a separate account at a separate agency from withholding, even in states where one application starts both. Colorado is the example: one MyBizColorado application registers you with the Department of Revenue for wage withholding and with the Department of Labor and Employment for unemployment insurance, and the accounts behave independently from that point on. Two accounts at two agencies is the norm, and one convenient application at the start does not change it.
§04
Check for the extra programs that state runs.
Depending on the state and sometimes on your headcount, there may also be state disability insurance, paid family and medical leave, or workers' compensation to register for. These are easy to miss because they are not part of the two accounts everyone expects, and they are not the same list in any two states. We confirm the list from the state's own material before anything is filed. We do not decide whether a program applies to your facts.
§05
File the new hire report.
Federal law requires employers to report new and rehired employees to the state's new hire registry, generally within 20 days of hire, and some states require it sooner. It is separate from payroll tax registration and it has its own clock.
§06
Work out whether reciprocity changes the answer.
Some states have reciprocity agreements letting an employee who lives in one state and works in another pay tax only where they live. Where that applies and the employee provides the right documentation, you may withhold for the home state instead of the work state. Whether it applies to your situation is a question for your CPA, not for us.
What catches people out
The deadline is your first pay date, whatever the statute says.
California requires registration within 15 days of paying more than $100 in wages in a calendar quarter, a threshold most employers cross on their first pay run. Even where the stated window is longer, an unregistered employer cannot remit withholding correctly or file the first quarterly report, so the practical deadline is the first pay date. That is why this work usually arrives urgently.
A remote employee creates the obligation on their own.
An employee working from a state where you have no office can create the registration, withholding, and filing obligations there. There is no office and no deliberate expansion, which is exactly why it surprises people. One person moving house can put you in a new state.
Pennsylvania has a third layer under the two accounts.
Employers with worksites in Pennsylvania also withhold local Earned Income Tax and Local Services Tax, and those are remitted to local collectors, not to the state. Two state accounts are not the whole job there, and the local piece is not something the state registration will prompt you about.
Your account number is not your EIN.
Pennsylvania's employer withholding account identification number is eight digits, and the department lists it separately from the nine digit federal EIN and the 10 digit Revenue ID. Arizona issues an eight digit unemployment insurance employer account number through the Department of Economic Security. Payroll software given the wrong one fails quietly, usually at the worst possible moment.
PA Department of Revenue, employer withholding TeleFile · Arizona Department of Economic Security
Getting the account list right matters more than filing fast.
The number of accounts, the agencies, the thresholds, and the extra programs all vary by state and sometimes by headcount. Working out the correct list before anything is filed is what prevents a second round of registrations three months later, and it is most of the value in having someone else do this.
For CPAs and bookkeepers
You keep the client. We never email them. Send the state and the first pay date, we open the withholding and unemployment accounts the existing payroll setup did not, and we send the account numbers back to you. One flat price per state. State fees passed through at cost. We do not take over payroll, and we do not decide nexus, employee versus contractor, or reciprocity.
What we do and what we do not
Tell us the state and the first pay date and we will work out which accounts you need, open them, and give you the account numbers and deposit schedules your payroll system asks for. One flat price per state, and any state fee passed through at cost.
What we will not do is tell you whether a worker should be an employee or a contractor, whether reciprocity applies to a particular person, or how a hire affects your tax position. Those are questions for a CPA or an attorney. Regcrest LLC is a document preparation and filing service, not a law firm or a CPA firm, and nothing here is legal or tax advice.