Pennsylvania · Payroll closure
Close a Pennsylvania payroll tax account.
Pennsylvania does not close your payroll accounts when you stop paying employees. Until the Department of Revenue and the Department of Labor and Industry each have what they need, both accounts stay open and both keep expecting returns. We close both and send you the confirmations.
Last updated:
Who you are dealing with
Pennsylvania Department of Revenue
- Handles:
- Employer withholding account
- System:
- myPATH
- Form:
- REV-1706, Business/Account Cancellation Form, or the Cancel Account action on the myPATH account panel
- Phone:
- 717-783-8434 (Customer Experience Center)
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Office of UC Tax Services
- Handles:
- Unemployment Compensation employer account
- System:
- UCMS
- Form:
- UC-2B, Employer's Report of Employment and Business Changes
- Phone:
- 866-403-6163, option 2
Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, Office of UC Tax Services, payroll closure
File REV-1706 and UC-2B: close the Pennsylvania payroll accounts
Each one goes to the agency that issues it, named above with the system it is filed through. We prepare them, file them, and send you the written confirmation from each agency.
State fee. $0. Neither agency charges a fee to cancel an employer withholding account or a UC account. Any outstanding tax, interest, or penalty still has to be settled first.
Our fee. $180 per state, flat. State fees are passed through at cost.
When you have to close or cancel
You need to close the withholding account once the business no longer has employees subject to Pennsylvania Personal Income Tax withholding, which includes selling the business, dissolving it, or moving your last Pennsylvania employee out of state. The UC account has to be closed separately once you no longer have covered employment in Pennsylvania. Note that the IRS changing your FEIN is a re-registration, not a closure, and requires a new PA-100.
Final returns come first
Both accounts need their final filings before they will close cleanly. That means the final employer withholding return with the Department of Revenue and the final quarterly UC-2 and UC-2A wage and tax reports with Labor and Industry. The Department of Revenue asks you to confirm all liabilities and filing requirements are met before cancelling, which in practice means the final return goes in first and the cancellation goes in second.
How long it takes
Pennsylvania does not publish a processing time for closing either account. That is exactly why written confirmation matters more than the submission date. We track each account until the agency confirms it is closed, and we send you that confirmation rather than a receipt for a form we mailed.
What we do
We confirm which accounts are open, file any outstanding final returns, submit each cancellation, and follow up until every agency confirms in writing. You keep the client. We never email them.
Opening an account in another state instead? State payroll tax registration covers the withholding and unemployment accounts payroll software will not open.
What makes Pennsylvania harder than average
- Two agencies, and neither one tells the other. Cancelling your withholding account in myPATH does nothing to your UC account. The Department of Revenue's own guidance says to separately notify Labor and Industry about Unemployment Compensation and Workers' Compensation. Businesses close the first account, assume they are finished, and keep getting UC notices for quarters they had no employees.
- Two systems with separate logins. Withholding lives in myPATH, unemployment lives in UCMS. They are not connected and the credentials are not shared.
- Local taxes sit underneath both of them. Pennsylvania employers also deal with local Earned Income Tax and Local Services Tax, collected by local collectors rather than by the state, so a business winding down in Pennsylvania has a third layer that neither state agency closes for you.
- A quarter with no wages still expects a report. Until the UC account is actually closed, the quarterly reporting obligation continues, and a missed report generates a notice even when there was no payroll to report.
Dissolving the company is not the same as closing the tax accounts
Articles of dissolution leave the withholding, unemployment, and sales tax accounts open, and those agencies keep expecting returns until each one is closed with them. That is the separate filing that stops the notices.
How Pennsylvania compares
Every state closes them differently. The table compares Pennsylvania with the other states we have documented, agency by agency.
For CPAs and bookkeepers
Send the state, the last payroll or sale date, and the account numbers. The written confirmations come back to you. We do not dissolve the company and we do not take over payroll.
Questions and answers
I closed my business. Why am I still getting Pennsylvania tax notices?
Almost always because only one of the two accounts was closed. Cancelling the employer withholding account with the Department of Revenue does not close the Unemployment Compensation account with Labor and Industry. The UC account keeps expecting quarterly reports, and a missing report generates a notice whether or not you had any payroll that quarter.
Do I have to file a final return before closing?
Yes, for both accounts. The Department of Revenue asks that all liabilities and filing requirements be satisfied before an account is cancelled, and Labor and Industry expects the final quarterly UC-2 and UC-2A. Cancelling first and filing later is the sequence that generates the most notices.
How long does Pennsylvania take to close a payroll account?
Pennsylvania does not publish a processing time for either closure. We treat the job as unfinished until the agency confirms the account is closed in writing, because a submitted form and a closed account are not the same thing.
What about my local Earned Income Tax and Local Services Tax accounts?
Those are administered by local tax collectors rather than by the state, so closing your state accounts does not close them. Tell us which collector you registered with and we will handle those alongside the state closures.
Can you close only the unemployment account and leave withholding open?
Yes. The two accounts are independent, so we can close either one on its own. That comes up when a business keeps a Pennsylvania presence but no longer has covered employment in the state.
What do you need from me to start?
The legal name and FEIN, both Pennsylvania account numbers if you have them, the date of the last payroll, and whether the final returns have already been filed. If you cannot find the account numbers we can work from the FEIN.
Also in Pennsylvania
Agency details verified 2026-08-03
Sources
About the provider
Regcrest LLC is a document preparation and filing service based in Allentown, Pennsylvania, founded in 2026. It prepares and files state payroll and sales tax registrations, account closures, and resale certificates on behalf of the businesses that instruct it, and works behind accounting firms, bookkeepers, and payroll providers as well as directly with businesses.
Regcrest LLC is not a CPA firm and not a law firm. It gives no tax or legal advice. It files in all 50 states, and publishes a full page for the 29states it has verified against the agency's own material so far, each one showing the date it was checked. For anything that turns on your specific situation, ask a licensed accountant or attorney.