Your first employee, state by state.
Hiring opens a stack of registrations that has nothing to do with forming the company. State unemployment insurance. Withholding, in the states that have it. Workers compensation, on rules that differ sharply from state to state. New hire reporting within 20 days, and the I-9 and W-4 on day one. Pick your state for the agencies you register with and the order to do it in.
Four things that change with your state.
The federal side of hiring is the same everywhere. The state side is where employers get caught, because the agencies, the thresholds and even whether a registration exists at all depend on the map.
State unemployment insurance
Every state runs its own unemployment insurance system, and every employer registers with the agency that administers it before the first payroll run. The agency has a different name in every state, and your state page names the one you deal with.
State income tax withholding
Some states have no personal income tax, so there is nothing to withhold and no account to open. The rest require an employer withholding registration with the state's tax authority. Which of those two lists your state is on changes the setup entirely.
Workers compensation rules
Some states require workers compensation from the first employee. Others set a headcount threshold, or tie the requirement to the industry the work is in. One leaves it largely optional and takes liability protections away from employers who opt out.
Twenty days, every hire
New hire reporting runs within 20 days of the hire, and the I-9 and W-4 are collected on day one rather than at the end of the first month. That deadline does not move with the state. Almost everything around it does.
Payroll software will run the numbers. It will not open the accounts for you.
Pick your state.
Each state page names the agencies you register with in that state, says whether there is withholding to set up at all, sets out the workers compensation rule that applies there, and lists the day-one paperwork that comes with every new hire.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
You decide who you are hiring and when they start. We line the registrations up behind that date, so the first payroll run is not the thing that discovers a missing account.
Confirm your EIN
You already have the federal EIN from forming the company, and payroll taxes run through it. Step one is confirming it is active and matches the legal name your state has on file.
Open the state accounts
Unemployment insurance with your state's workforce agency, and withholding with the state's tax authority where the state has an income tax. Both before the first payroll, not after it.
Arrange workers compensation
Buy or arrange coverage on the rule that applies in your state, which may start at the first employee, at a headcount threshold, or with the industry the work sits in.
Day one, then 20 days
I-9 and W-4 collected on the first day, payroll set up to withhold and remit, and the new hire reported within 20 days. Then it repeats for every hire after this one.
The first hire is the hard one. Everyone after that runs on the same rails.
The rest of Money & operations.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
Business credit
Business credit, state by state
All 51 states → HubLLC Bank Account
LLC bank account, state by state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Money & operations.
The questions employers ask before the first hire.
Do I need a new EIN to hire employees?
No. The federal EIN you got when the company was formed is the number payroll taxes are reported under, and it does not change because you have started hiring. What is worth doing is confirming it is active and that the legal name attached to it matches what your state holds, because a mismatch surfaces at the worst possible point, which is the first filing.
What has to be in place before the first paycheck?
A state unemployment insurance account, a withholding registration if your state has an income tax, workers compensation arranged on your state's rule, a payroll system that can withhold and remit, and I-9 and W-4 forms from the employee. The registrations are the slow part, so they belong ahead of the start date rather than after the first pay run.
Does every state have income tax withholding?
No. Several states have no personal income tax, so there is no employer withholding account to open and that step disappears from the list entirely. In every other state, withholding is registered with the state tax authority and remitted on the schedule that state sets. Your state page says which of the two you are dealing with and who administers it.
Is workers compensation required from the first employee?
It depends on the state. Some require coverage from the first employee, some set a headcount threshold before it applies, and some tie the requirement to the industry, with construction treated more strictly than other work. One state leaves it largely optional, and employers who opt out give up liability protections that come with being covered.
What is new hire reporting?
Every new employee is reported within 20 days of being hired. It is a short report, it is quick to do, and it is the one that gets forgotten because it does not feel like a filing. The deadline is the same wherever you hire. Where the report goes is set by your state, and the state page names it.
Do you run payroll?
No. We do not run your payroll and we have no interest in sitting between you and your employees on pay day. What we do is the layer underneath: every employer registration opened in the right state with the right agency, and every deadline that comes with it tracked, so none of it depends on remembering a year later.
Keep going, in order.
Money & operations
Every hub in money & operations, in one place.
Open the index → IndexAll 51 state guides
Every filing a business does, organised by jurisdiction.
Open the index → ServiceCompliance calendar
Every deadline that touches your entity, watched.
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