Washington · Payroll closure
Close a Washington payroll tax account.
Washington has no state income tax, so there is no withholding account to close. It also does something no other state we file in does: the Department of Revenue passes your closure on to Employment Security and Labor and Industries for you. That helps, and it does not remove the separate obligations each of those agencies still has.
Last updated:
Who you are dealing with
Washington Employment Security Department
- Handles:
- Unemployment insurance employer account
- System:
- Employer Account Management Services
- Form:
- Business Change Form (5208C-1), which is where the unemployment account is closed. The final quarterly tax and wage report is due within 10 days of closing the account
Washington Department of Revenue
- Handles:
- Business license and excise tax account
- System:
- My DOR
- Form:
- Close my account in My DOR, which is the fastest route, or the paper Business Information Change Form. Revenue shares what you submit with Business Licensing, Employment Security, and Labor and Industries. Corporations also need a Revenue Clearance Certificate and must notify the Secretary of State
Washington Department of Labor and Industries
- Handles:
- Workers' compensation account
- System:
- L&I employer account
- Form:
- Revenue passes your closure information to Labor and Industries, so this is usually not a separate filing
Washington Department of Labor and Industries, payroll closure
File 5208C-1: close the Washington payroll accounts
It goes to the agency named above, through the system listed beside it. We prepare it, file it, and send you the written confirmation.
State fee. $0. None of the three agencies charges to close an account. A Revenue Clearance Certificate is likewise issued without a fee, but only to a business that is current.
Our fee. $180 per state, flat. State fees are passed through at cost.
What Washington actually requires
Washington has no wage-withholding account to close. The Department of Revenue currently states that Washington does not have an individual income tax, so payroll close here is Employment Security unemployment, Revenue's business license and excise account, and Labor & Industries workers' compensation, not a withholding ID.
Employment Security closes the unemployment account on the Business Change Form (5208C-1), not a separate “employer account closure request.” File the final quarterly tax and wage report within 10 days of closing the ESD account, and file it even if that quarter had no employees and no payroll. ESD also tells employers to complete a final Paid Family and Medical Leave quarterly report.
Revenue's My DOR close is the fastest route, and Revenue will share what you submit with Business Licensing, Employment Security, and Labor & Industries. Sharing is not the same as a closed ESD or L&I account: Revenue still tells you to contact the other agencies, and ESD still wants its own form and final reports. A corporation cannot complete a voluntary dissolution at the Secretary of State until Revenue issues a Revenue Clearance Certificate; LLCs, PLLCs, LLPs, and LPs are not required to get one. If the clearance application is accurate and complete, Revenue says the certificate is issued within ten business days. After the DOR close, the final excise return and outstanding tax are due by the 25th of the following month.
Revenue, close my account · Revenue clearance certificate application
When you have to close or cancel
You close when you stop having Washington employees or stop doing business in the state. The deadlines run fast: the final quarterly Unemployment Tax and Wage Report is due within 10 days of closure, and the final excise tax return with payment is due by the 25th of the following month.
Final returns come first
File the final quarterly Unemployment Tax and Wage Report within 10 days of closing the Employment Security account, and file it even if you had no employees and no payroll in that quarter. Employment Security also asks for a final Paid Family and Medical Leave quarterly report. Complete the excise tax return and pay outstanding tax by the 25th of the following month.
How long it takes
Employment Security does not publish a clock for closing an employer account. The Department of Revenue publishes one for the item that gates a corporate dissolution: where the clearance application is accurate and complete, Revenue says a Revenue Clearance Certificate is issued within ten business days. For a corporation, that certificate is the practical timeline. We track each account until the agency confirms it is closed.
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.
Washington has no withholding account to open or close, so a hire in a withholding state is a different leftover: payroll tax registration opens the withholding and unemployment accounts payroll software will not.
What makes Washington harder than average
- Washington is the exception that proves the rule, and it is worth knowing because it works in your favour. Revenue states that the information you provide when closing is shared, where applicable, with Business Licensing, your Unemployment Insurance account at Employment Security, and your Workers Compensation account at Labor and Industries. In almost every other state each agency has to be told separately. Here one closure starts the others.
- A corporation cannot dissolve until Revenue says so. The Secretary of State wants a Revenue Clearance Certificate with the dissolution, which means the tax side has to be clean before the entity side can even start. Businesses that begin with the Secretary of State discover this in the wrong order.
- Ten days for the final quarterly report, and a zero quarter still counts. Submit the final report even if there were no employees and no payroll. Assuming there is nothing to file because there was no payroll is how a closed business keeps hearing from Employment Security.
- Shared information is not the same as satisfied obligations. Revenue passing your closure to Employment Security does not file your final quarterly report or pay your unemployment tax, and Employment Security still wants its own Business Change Form and its own final reports. The notification helps. It does not do the work.
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 Washington compares
Every state closes them differently. The table compares Washington 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
Washington has no income tax. Is there anything to close?
Yes, though Washington makes it easier than most. There is no withholding account because there is no state income tax. Employment Security holds the unemployment account, Revenue holds the business license and excise account, and Labor and Industries holds workers' compensation, but Revenue shares your closure information with the other two rather than leaving you to chase each one.
Why is my dissolution being held up?
Most likely the Revenue Clearance Certificate. Corporations need one from the Department of Revenue to include with the dissolution submitted to the Secretary of State, and Revenue will not issue it to a business that is not current.
Do I have to file a quarterly report with no payroll?
Yes. Washington asks for the final quarterly Unemployment Tax and Wage Report within 10 days of closure, and it wants it submitted even if you had no employees or no payroll in that quarter.
How long do I keep the records?
Washington asks businesses to keep their records for five years after closing. That is longer than people expect and worth knowing before the filing cabinet goes to the tip.
What do you need from me to start?
The legal name and UBI number, the Employment Security account number, whether you are a corporation that needs a clearance certificate, the closure date, and the status of your quarterly reports and excise returns.
Also in Washington
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.