For us to file a client's payroll tax returns, four things have to be in place. None of them are large — most clients have them already — but a return cannot transmit if any of the four is missing or wrong.
The EIN and state tax IDs
The federal Employer Identification Number is the most important data point on every payroll filing. State withholding and state unemployment identifiers are separate, one per state where the client has employees. The onboarding flow captures these up front.
If a client is registering in a new state mid-year, that state's IDs need to be on the record before the first payroll that affects the state. State applications can take days to weeks; do not wait until the filing deadline to discover an ID has not been issued yet.
Deposit schedule
The IRS assigns each employer a federal tax deposit schedule — monthly or semiweekly — based on a lookback period each year. State deposit schedules vary by state and by liability size.
The deposit-schedule designation on the client record has to match the IRS's assignment. If a client crosses a lookback threshold and moves from monthly to semiweekly, the designation in Payrollix needs to be updated for that year, or deposits will under-pay.
SUI rate (per state, per year)
State unemployment insurance rates are assigned to each employer annually by the state. Each state publishes new rates at different times — many in late fall, some in early winter — and the new rate applies to the new calendar year.
When a new rate notice arrives at the client, the rate has to be entered into Payrollix for the correct year. Using the prior year's rate quietly produces wrong SUI liability on every run until it is corrected.
Filing authorization
For federal filings, the client signs Form 8655 (Reporting Agent Authorization). For state filings, each state has its own process — some accept the IRS 8655, others require a state-specific power-of-attorney or agent designation. All required authorizations for a new client are bundled into one e-signing session at onboarding.
Without the authorization on file, we cannot transmit on the client's behalf, no matter how clean the data is. The separate article on filing authorization goes into the specifics for both federal and per-state forms.
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