Withholding and unemployment insurance accounts live.
Payroll & taxes · For hiring teams
Payroll that works in every state you hire in
Hire one remote engineer in Ohio and you have acquired a withholding obligation, a school-district levy, an unemployment insurance account and a year-end filing. We carry that for contract and placed workers across 31 states.
- 31
- States we run payroll in
- Biweekly
- Or semi-monthly cycles
The cost of one remote hire
Employment tax follows where the work happens, not where your office is. A single out-of-state hire typically means registering with that state’s revenue department, opening an unemployment insurance account at a rate you do not control, withholding at state and sometimes local level, and filing quarterly from then on. Pennsylvania and Ohio add municipal and school-district taxes; New York and New Jersey have reciprocity rules that change which state gets withheld.
The other trap is classification. Paying someone as a 1099 contractor when the working relationship looks like employment is the most expensive mistake in this area, and the tests differ between the IRS and individual states — California’s ABC test being materially stricter than the federal common-law test.
Typical registration time in a state we are new to.
Quarterly returns, plus year-end reconciliation.
What we run
For contract workers on our payroll this is included in the bill rate. For your own employees it is available as a standalone service.
Biweekly or semi-monthly, direct deposit, itemised pay statements meeting each state’s content requirements — which differ more than most people expect.
Withholding and unemployment insurance accounts opened in each working state, quarterly returns filed, and notices answered rather than forwarded to you.
W-2 or 1099 assessed against the federal common-law factors and the working state’s own test. We will tell you when a 1099 arrangement will not survive scrutiny.
Health coverage offers for eligible contract staff, ACA tracking and reporting, and workers’ compensation policies rated for the actual work in the actual state.
Approval workflow for hours, overtime handled to the working state’s rules — daily overtime in California, weekly elsewhere — and one consolidated invoice.
W-2 and 1099-NEC issuance, state reconciliations, and corrected forms when something needs amending. Year-end is a deadline, not a scramble.
Getting set up, then the cadence
Setup is measured in days and only happens once per state. After that it is a repeating cycle.
1Days 1–2
OnboardingWorker details, work location, pay rate and schedule, I-9 and W-4 collected. Work location, not home address, is what drives the tax treatment.
2Days 3–10
State registrationWithholding and unemployment insurance accounts where we are not already registered. Ten business days is typical; a handful of states are slower and we will tell you which.
3Each cycle
Run payrollTimesheets approved, gross-to-net calculated with all applicable state and local taxes, deposits made and payments transmitted on the statutory schedule.
4Quarterly
Returns and reconciliationFederal 941, state withholding returns and unemployment insurance filings, reconciled against the ledger so year-end has nothing left to discover.
Where multi-state gets specific
A representative sample, not the whole picture. These are the ones that most often surprise a first-time multi-state employer.
Live in New Jersey, work in Pennsylvania and reciprocity decides which state you withhold for — but only if the employee files the right certificate. Without it, you withhold for both and they chase a refund.
Ohio has municipal and school-district income taxes; Pennsylvania has local earned income tax with its own remittance channels. Neither shows up if you only think at state level.
Each state assigns your rate and it changes annually with your claims experience. A new employer rate is not the rate you keep, and the annual notice needs acting on.
California pays daily overtime over eight hours; most states are weekly over forty. Several states also mandate minimum pay frequency, so a monthly cycle is unlawful in some of them.
We run registrations, calculations and filings. Entity structure, nexus strategy and tax positions are questions for your CPA or counsel, and we will say so rather than guess.
Frequently asked questions
Questions we get about accounting & taxes. Anything else, just ask.
Are you a PEO?
No. For contract workers we are the employer of record on our own payroll, which is a narrower arrangement than a PEO co-employment relationship. For your own employees we act as a payroll and filing provider, and you remain the employer.
Can you take over payroll for staff we hired directly?
Yes, as a standalone engagement. Mid-year transitions need care around year-to-date wage bases so unemployment insurance and Social Security caps are not double-counted, and that is the part we plan first.
What happens if a state sends a notice?
It comes to us and we answer it. Notices are mostly rate changes, filing frequency changes and reconciliation queries. You hear from us when a notice needs a decision, not for every letter.
How is a contract bill rate built up?
Pay rate, employer taxes, unemployment insurance, workers’ compensation, any benefits, and our margin. We will show you the components if you ask — a bill rate quoted as one number with no breakdown is a reasonable thing to be suspicious about.
Do you file in every state?
We are registered in 31 today and will register in a new one for a placement, which typically adds about ten business days. If you need someone starting next week in a state we are new to, say so at intake so we can start the registration in parallel.
The rest of what we do
Most engagements touch more than one of these — a placement usually needs verification, and contract staff need payroll.
Job placementHelping professionals land meaningful full-time roles that turn jobs into long-term careers.
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Recruitment & staffingConnecting businesses with skilled professionals who actually fit the role and the team.
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Talent acquisitionStrategic hiring support to build long-term, high-performing teams.
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Background verificationComprehensive checks that ensure trust, compliance, and reliability.
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IT trainingTraining that prepares candidates for real-world tech careers.
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Tell us which states you are hiring into
We will tell you what each one obliges you to do, and what it costs to have us carry it.