Pricing
Flat fees. Payroll tax registration is $180 per state.
Payroll tax registration is $180 per state, plus state fees at cost. Every other filing has one flat, all-inclusive price we confirm in writing first. State filing fees are set by the states and passed through at cost, shown as a separate line before you pay.
Sales tax registration is quoted. It is not $180. $180 is payroll tax registration only, per state.
Payroll tax registration is $180 per state, plus any state fee passed through at cost. That covers the payroll agencies in that state, withholding and unemployment where both apply. Several states on one job? Send us the list. Additional bundle discounts apply, and we quote one flat total before you decide.
What “flat” means here
- One flat fee per filing. Preparation, filing, tracking, and delivery included.
- No pre-checked add-ons at checkout. No processing tiers. No "premium" queue.
- Nothing recurs. A filing is a filing, not the start of a subscription.
- State filing fees are set by the states, not by us. We pass them through at cost.
- Several states on one job? Send us the list. Additional bundle discounts apply, and we quote one flat total before you decide.
What the states charge
State fees are separate from our fee, passed through at cost, and shown as their own line before you pay. They are also smaller than most people expect, and in one direction they are consistently zero.
- Closing an account is free in every state we have documented. Not one of the states on this site charges to close a payroll or sales tax account. What can cost money at closing is tax, not fees: use tax on inventory you kept, or a balance the closure does not erase.
- Most registrations are free too. The common exception is a business licence fee, as in Washington, where the licence and the employer accounts come from one application.
- A security deposit is not a fee. California may hold one against a seller's permit, and it comes back when the permit is properly closed out. Texas may ask for a bond. Those are amounts held, not amounts spent.
When we quote instead of listing
Payroll tax registration has a list price, and the price is $180 per state. The number of accounts behind it is our problem, not yours. California is a single account at a single agency. Colorado is three, counting the FAMLI paid leave programme. Washington is three agencies. Pennsylvania is two, plus a local Earned Income Tax and Local Services Tax layer the state registration does not touch. All of those are one state, so all of those are $180.
We quote in two situations. The first is several states on one job, where additional bundle discounts apply and the answer is one flat total for the whole list, sent to you in writing before anything starts. The second is work that is not payroll registration: account closures, sales tax permits, and resale certificates, where what a state asks for varies enough that we confirm the number for your situation first.
You will also hear from us when the answer is that you do not need us. Some multi-state sales tax registrations are better done through the free Streamlined system, and where that is true we say so and quote only the rest.
For accountants, bookkeepers, payroll providers, and other professionals
You keep the client. We never email them. We open and close the state tax accounts under your letterhead, then send you the account numbers and the details to enter so payroll software can be pointed at the new accounts. If you refer clients or want filings fulfilled under your own engagement, we offer partner arrangements with professional pricing. Contact us and tell us about your practice.