Tennessee · Payroll closure
Close a Tennessee payroll tax account.
Tennessee has no state income tax on wages, so there is no withholding account to close. Payroll here means one thing, the unemployment insurance account, and it is made inactive with a form called the Employer's Report of Change. The system it is filed in changed in 2025, and a lot of guidance still points at the old one.
Last updated:
Who you are dealing with
Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development
- Handles:
- Unemployment insurance employer account. There is no state wage withholding account in Tennessee
- System:
- Employer e-Services on jobs4TN.gov
- Form:
- LB-0792, Employer's Report of Change. Submitted online, or mailed with the final Wage and Premium Reports
Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, payroll closure
State fee. $0. Tennessee does not charge to make an unemployment account inactive. Outstanding premiums still have to be paid.
Our fee. $180 per state, flat. State fees are passed through at cost.
When you have to close or cancel
You file when the business ceases operations or you no longer have covered employment in Tennessee. Because there is no withholding account, this is the only state payroll closure to make, which is genuinely simpler than most states.
Final returns come first
LB-0792 can be mailed with the final Wage and Premium Reports, which is the state telling you those reports are expected alongside it. Bring premium and wage reporting current, then file the change.
How long it takes
Tennessee does not publish a processing time. Filing LB-0792 online through Employer e-Services gives you a record where posting it with the final reports does not, which is the practical difference between the two routes.
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 Tennessee harder than average
- The system changed and most guidance did not. As of 2 May 2025 the TNPAWS and Third Party Upload systems are no longer operational. Premium and Wage Reports and payments now go through Employer e-Services on jobs4TN.gov. Anything telling you to use TNPAWS is out of date, and a good deal of it still does.
- Inactive, not closed. LB-0792 is the Employer's Report of Change, and a request to make an account inactive is filed on it. The form also handles reactivation, so the vocabulary is deliberately reversible.
- One form, several jobs. LB-0792 covers name and address changes, mandatory transfers of benefit experience between related employers, and account closure or reactivation. In a sale, the experience transfer section is doing something significant and it is easy to complete carelessly.
- No withholding account cuts both ways. There is less to close in Tennessee, and there is also no second agency prompting you, so a dormant unemployment account can sit unnoticed for a long time.
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 Tennessee compares
Every state closes them differently. The table compares Tennessee 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
Do I have a Tennessee withholding account to close?
No. Tennessee does not tax wages, so there is no state wage withholding account. Payroll here means the unemployment insurance account with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and that is the only one to close.
I was told to use TNPAWS and cannot log in.
TNPAWS and the Third Party Upload system stopped operating on 2 May 2025. Premium and Wage Reports and payments are now filed through the Employer e-Services portal on jobs4TN.gov. A lot of published guidance has not caught up.
What form closes the account?
LB-0792, the Employer's Report of Change. A request to make the account inactive is made on it. It can be submitted online or mailed with your final Wage and Premium Reports.
I sold the business rather than closing it.
The same form handles that, and it covers mandatory transfers of benefit experience between related employers. That section changes what happens to your experience rating, so it is worth getting right rather than guessing.
What do you need from me to start?
The legal name, the State Account Number, the Federal ID Number, the date covered employment ended, and whether this is a closure or a sale to a related employer.
Agency details verified 2026-08-03
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.