The Quarterly Contribution and Wage Report is the form every employer files with its state workforce agency to report each employee’s earnings for a three-month period and pay the state unemployment insurance (UI) tax owed on those wages. States use different names for it — New York’s NYS-45, California’s DE 9, Missouri’s plainly titled Quarterly Contribution and Wage Report — but the structure is the same everywhere: list your workers and their wages, calculate the tax at your assigned rate, and submit both the report and the payment by the end of the month after the quarter closes.
What You Need Before You File
You need a state UI employer account number before your first filing. Most states require registration within 10 to 30 days after you first pay wages, done through the workforce agency’s online employer portal. Have your Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN), business name, entity type, and first-payroll date ready. The state assigns your account number and an initial tax rate once it approves the registration.
For each quarterly filing, gather three things:
- Your FEIN and state employer account number. A wrong digit routes your payment to the wrong account and the state records you as delinquent.
- Each employee’s full legal name and Social Security number. Misspellings and transposed SSN digits are the most common source of correction notices. The Social Security Administration’s free verification service (SSNVS) lets you check names against SSNs before filing.
- Total gross wages paid to each employee during the quarter, plus combined totals across all employees for both gross and taxable wages.
Gross Wages Versus Taxable Wages
Gross wages include almost all compensation: salary, hourly pay, commissions, bonuses, tips, and severance. Taxable wages are the portion subject to state UI tax, capped at your state’s taxable wage base — a per-employee ceiling that resets each January. The federal FUTA base sits at $7,000. State bases are usually higher, and some run above $60,000. Once an employee’s year-to-date wages pass the state base, you stop owing state UI tax on that worker’s additional earnings for the rest of the year, but you still report the gross wages on the quarterly form.
Some payments may be excluded from wages: employer contributions to qualified retirement plans, certain employer-paid group health premiums, and reimbursements under an accountable plan are common examples. The specific list varies by state, so check your state employer handbook. When you can’t tell, report the payment as wages. Overpaying is correctable; underreporting brings penalties and interest.
Who Goes on the Report
Only employees. Payments to independent contractors don’t go on the quarterly wage report and aren’t subject to state UI tax. This is where misclassification becomes expensive: if an audit reclassifies your contractors as employees, you’ll owe back UI taxes plus penalties and interest on every dollar you paid them.
The IRS uses three categories to distinguish employees from contractors: behavioral control (do you direct how the work gets done?), financial control (who provides tools, who handles expenses?), and the type of relationship (written contract, benefits, whether the work is core to your business).1Internal Revenue Service. Independent Contractor (Self-Employed) or Employee No single factor decides it. Document your reasoning for every worker you treat as a contractor, because that file is what an auditor will ask for.
Your Tax Rate
State UI tax rates run from as low as 0.0% to over 12% of taxable wages, depending on the state and the employer’s claims history. New employers get a “new employer rate” assigned by the state. After two or three years of filing, the state recalculates your rate based on your actual experience — mainly how many of your former workers have drawn unemployment benefits. Your current rate is printed on the annual rate notice the state sends before the calendar year begins.
The separate federal unemployment tax (FUTA) is not part of the quarterly state report. FUTA is filed annually on IRS Form 940 at 6.0% on the first $7,000 of each employee’s wages, with a credit of up to 5.4% for employers who pay state UI taxes on time — bringing the effective FUTA rate to 0.6%.2Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 759, Form 940 – Employers Annual Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax Return
Deadlines
The report and payment are both due by the last day of the month after the quarter ends:
- Q1 (January–March): April 30
- Q2 (April–June): July 31
- Q3 (July–September): October 31
- Q4 (October–December): January 31 of the following year
If a due date lands on a weekend or legal holiday, it shifts to the next business day.3Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Due Dates Payment is due with the report. Filing on time and paying later still triggers interest.
Quarters With No Payroll
If you had no payroll during a quarter, most states still require a report showing zero wages. Skipping the filing generates delinquency notices and can push your tax rate up at the next annual computation. If the business has actually closed or you have no employees for the foreseeable future, close the UI tax account with the state instead of leaving it open.
How to Submit and Pay
Nearly every state offers an online employer portal, and most require electronic filing once you cross a threshold — often as few as 10 employees. Log in with your employer account number and the PIN or password you set during registration. Paper filing, where still allowed, is slower and offers no instant confirmation.
Payment usually goes through the same portal as an ACH debit initiated when you submit. Some states accept credit cards (typically with a convenience fee) or scheduled electronic funds transfers. Paper checks are increasingly limited to employers with a hardship waiver. Pay when you file, whatever the method.
Save the confirmation number the portal generates. It’s your proof of timely filing if a dispute comes up later. If you file on paper, use certified mail or a tracked delivery service.
Fixing a Report You’ve Already Filed
Transposed SSNs, misallocated bonuses, wages logged in the wrong quarter — these happen. Most states let you amend through the same portal, either by submitting a corrected version of the standard form or by using a separate amendment form. You’ll identify the original quarter, list the affected employees and wages, and explain the change.
File the correction as soon as you find the error. Waiting until an audit surfaces it turns a routine amendment into a compliance problem. Adjustments that change the tax owed also adjust related penalties and interest, so early correction limits the cost. When the fix involves an SSN, your employee’s future benefit eligibility depends on the corrected record.
Penalties
Every state penalizes late reports and late payments, though the structure differs: flat fees per delinquent quarter, percentage penalties on the unpaid tax, per-employee charges for unreported workers. Interest accrues monthly on the unpaid balance. A pattern of late filing can also raise your assigned tax rate at the next annual computation, which keeps costing you after the original balance is settled.
Worker misclassification carries heavier consequences. An audit that reclassifies contractors as employees produces back taxes on all their wages during the audit period, plus penalties and interest. Intentional evasion can bring fraud charges.
Recordkeeping
Keep employment tax records — filed quarterly reports, payroll registers behind the figures, deposit proof — for at least four years after the fourth-quarter return for that year.4Internal Revenue Service. Employment Tax Recordkeeping Some states set longer retention periods. Five years covers both federal and most state rules.
Include portal confirmation receipts and, for anyone you classified as a contractor, the written agreement plus your analysis of the behavioral, financial, and relationship factors. That file is your first defense in a misclassification audit.
Special Situations
Employees Working in More Than One State
When an employee works in multiple states, you generally report and pay UI tax to only one state for that worker. Most states follow the same four-step sequence, and you stop at the first step that applies: the state where the work is localized (where the employee performs most of their services); then the state of the employee’s base of operations; then the state from which the work is directed and controlled; then the employee’s state of residence.
Closing the Business
A permanent shutdown means a final quarterly report covering wages through your last payroll date. Some states want that final filing sooner than the normal deadline — within 10 days of closing in some cases. Close the UI tax account through the portal or by written notice. Leaving it open produces zero-wage filing obligations and potential penalties indefinitely.
Buying or Selling a Business
In an acquisition, the seller’s UI experience — benefit charges and tax history — can transfer to the buyer. Federal law leaves the details to each state, but the general rule is that a total acquisition transfers the seller’s experience rating, which may be higher or lower than the buyer’s new-employer rate would have been.5Employment & Training Administration. Transfers of Experience – Unemployment Insurance Notify the state promptly. The predecessor’s final quarter report covers wages through the transfer date; the successor reports from there.
Shifting employees to a shell company or buying a small business only to grab its lower rate is called “SUTA dumping.” Federal law requires every state to penalize it, with consequences that include rate reassignment, fines, and fraud charges.6Employment & Training Administration. SUTA Dumping – Amendments to Federal Law Affecting the Federal-State Unemployment Compensation Program